January 2022
•NEW YEAR 2022 EDITION•
The President’s Corner By Michael Current
Happy New Year! After a very rare one-month pause for multiple unique circumstances, SPACE is back to meeting as usual this month. Not only that, we are planning an auction this month! You won’t want to miss it! In recent days I have been revisiting the many Atari PC-compatibles they released from 19871990, including the Atari PC (“PC1”), PC2, PC3, PC4 (286), PC5 (386), ABC 286/30, ABC 286/60, and ABC 386SX/40. What, you don’t remember these? Several were promised for U.S. release (PC1, PC2, PC4, ABC 286/30), but they never made it here, they were mostly only released in the UK and Europe. As a group they were modestly successful for Atari. I believe the PC3 (XT compatible) ended up the biggest seller of the lot, making the top of the list of best selling computers from all manufacturers in West Germany for a time. Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting (and auction!): Friday, January 14, 2022.
The Secretary’s Report
The Treasurer’s Report
By Steven Peck
By Gregory Leitner
HELLO WORLD! Greetings and felicitations, and Happy Holidays! I am back with another Secretary’s Report! It’s the end of the year, and COVID got us. My sympathies to anyone who was affected by COVID-19 from the Club. I hope everyone is safe and healthy. I would not wish this illness on my worst enemy. We had a short Discord meeting with myself and three other people. We didn’t have a regular meeting, but we did chat about a few things. It was still a good time anyway. President Michael Current was there, our venerable DOM Librarian, Glen, was there, and so was Roger, one of the SPACE Club members. Kudos to Roger for opening up the SPACE Discord meetings online. By the way, Discord (for those of you who do not know) is a chat site where people can sign up and discuss things online. You can either chat with text, or with video and voice. It really saved the day on Friday December 10, 2021. Thanks again, Roger! It was a pleasure. We will be back at the Falcon Heights City Hall on Friday, January 14, 2022. So, I hope you had a Merry Christmas, and will have a Happy New Year in 2022 as well. I hope to see people at the Club in January, providing all goes well in getting there. There will be an Auction, as you know. But what most of you don’t know is there will be a 1200XL and 130XE computer in the Auction as well. So, get ready for a great time bidding! Good luck to everybody there! With that, I will now close. Sorry for the short Report, but this was all really we had, besides talking about Atari ST upgrades. We also talked about FujiNet and stuff coming for the Atari 8-bit as well. However, the chat was still quite general. In the words of the late, great Stan Lee.
Message from Captain Irata: “Happy Atari New Year! Now, break out ‘Breakout!’”
EXCELSIOR!
NOTE: Due to the sudden one-month closing of SPACE in December, we will not have the Treasurer’s Report until February of 2022. We apologize for the inconvenience and, due to COVID, wish Mr. Leitner and his wife a healthy and safe 2022. Thanks. TRIVIA TIME! Disney-owned Pixar was once owned by Lucasfilm, Limited, of “Star Wars” fame. It is one of the premier computer graphics studios in the world today. Late Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs was an major shareholder of Pixar and a former employee of Atari, Inc., as well. He passed away in 2011. At the same time, Apple Computer co-founder Stephen G. Wozniak also worked at Atari. Dr. Alvy Ray Smith III is one of the creators of the world’s first raster picture editing programs. He was instrumental in forming Pixar along with Ed Catmull and John Lassiter, becoming Vice President of Pixar in 1986. Fergus Falls, MN, native David Theurer is famous for creating the Atari arcade titles “Tempest”, “Missile Command,” and “I, Robot.” He was also part of the team who created the Atari arcade classic “Pit-Fighter.” The Atari 2600 has only 128 bytes of RAM. You would be lucky to utilize a computer nowadays with less than 4 gigabytes of RAM. A stark contrast, if you will. Brothers John and Thomas Knoll, creators of the landwark application Adobe Photoshop, developed this program as a tool in 1987. John Knoll worked for special effects firm ILM at the time. Version 1.0 was released to the public in 1990 by Adobe Systems, after being sold to Adobe in 1988. Atari alumnus Ed Logg was instrumental in creating the Atari arcade classics “Asteroids” amd Centipede.” Those titles are still being released in the Recharged series for the new Atari VCS and more modern game systems.
HOO-RAH!
Table of Contents: Page 1: President’s Corner/Treasurer’s Report/ Secretary’s Report Page 2: A8 DOM Review
the joystick. It has hills in the game and it shows what part of the green you are on. Then, once you putt, it will show where you are at and if you are near the hole. Hello again! I am back with another Atari 8-bit DOM Review! We will be reviewing only one DOM this month. It will be for January 2020. This is because I do not have the December 2021 DOM yet, due to COVID. Plus, I also need the January 2022 DOM.
Awesome looking game, by the way. I still need to try to find out where the hole is. It seems a little limited in that respect, but I understand this. It’s all in the challenge. I like the game, and although it needs more to it, it is decent the way it is anyway. I need practice at this. Here are pictures of the game.
The final file on Side A of this DOM is called “Captain Pork,” by Piesiu and Agenda. It show a one-eyed pig with a patch one his right eye. He’s having a good old time, just sailing paper boats. The detail is amazing and it is a great illustration. Here’s a screenshot of it, by the way.
January 2020 DOM, Side A:
Then, it shows the Autari logo and the coders responsible for making it. I like the graphics and the music. It’s actually a pleasant intro. Very well done. Here are pictures of the file in action for the readers to see:
Here’s my score. TOTAL SCORE: 7/10
However, I will be getting both the December and January DOMs on January 14, 2021, the date of our next meeting. Anyway, without further adieu, let’s get started with the latest DOM Review! There are a lot of files and I want to get on it. Here we go! The first file on the January 2020 DOM is called “Autari,” by coders Bocianu, Miker, and K3D. It shows a mockup of a European Union license plate, honoring coders it the credits, on the bottom-right corner of the plate, from Lost Party 2019.
less pixellated, but it is cute, enjoyable, and colorful. There’s lots of green in it. Here’s a screenshot of it, by the way.
Here is my score for this game. SCORE: Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Music:
9 10 10 10
TOTAL SCORE: 39/40 The next file is another game, called “Train 3,” by Petr Postava of Baha Software. You are in control of a train that picks up railcars and gets longer over time. It’s like “Surround,” for the Atari 2600. If you crash into a wall or yourself, you lose a train engine. Simple and elegant, the game can get challenging. The graphics could be a little better as well as the music, but simplicity rules here. I like these type of games. They’re pretty fun. Anyway, here’s a picture of it:
Cute and funny, it would captivate the kids. I love it. Here’s my score; TOTAL SCORE: 10/10 (perfect score) Now onto Side B! Side B: The final file on this DOM encompasses all of Side B. It is a side-scrolling adventure puzzle game called “Imogen,” by Acornsoft. You play a wizard trying to get though all the rooms in a castle. You can jump and climb, and thee is a menu to look at on the top of the screen with certain commands to use during the game. It is challenging and fun, but I need to look at the instructions on the game. Fortunately, it has the instructions. Just press “C” to access them. It is good-looking and challenging. It looks like a conversion from another computer format, due to the monochrome look of the game. But, the game doesn’t disappoint. It can be difficult and it looks amazing. Here are pics of the game in action. Fun and challenging, I think you will like it if you like to solve problems.
Here is my score: Graphics: Animation: Gameplay: Sound: Awesome demo. Just awesome. Here’s my score: SCORE: Graphics: Music:
10 10
TOTAL SCORE: 20/20 (perfect score) The next file is called “601F,” by Agenda from the ABBUC Software Contest in 2019. It is like a pseudo-3D golf game. It shows a small patch of green where you putt, and you can determine how far you can put by using
8 7 9 7
TOTAL SCORE: 31/40 The next file is a music track by LiSU, called “I Forgot the Melody Again.” It’s a fast, pulse-pounding track reminiscent of the song “Popcorn.” At least, it is to me. It has a nice beat to it to boot. It’s actually quite pleasant. I will score this tune. TOTAL SCORE: 8/10 The next file is a pic, called “Lis (or ‘Fox’ in Polish),” created by PG. It shows a fox running through a forest. It could be a little
I will score this game. SCORE: Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Music:
9 10 8 8
TOTAL SCORE: 35/40 Well, this concludes the Atari 8-bit DOM Review for now. I will be back with another Review next time. Until then, Carpe Diem, fellow SPACE Cadets and Atarians! I will see you later. Happy New Year, and thanks for reading!
The SPACE Meeting and Auction will commence on Friday, January 14, 2022, at 7:30 PM! We hope to see you there! Thanks!
President and Web Page Manager: