January 2024
•HAPPY NEW YEAR 2024 EDITION•
Happy New Year! I hope you had a great holiday season. What new Atari goodies did Santa bring to your world this year? I finally took a bit of time to try out my FujiNet cartridge. I had partial success - I am able to get onto my home WiFi just fine, and I successfully got the “news” app and the weather app going. Very cool! But in doing all this, so far I have been unable to get it to remember my WiFi network as I think it’s supposed to. It is supposed to, isn’t it? I suppose I could be wrong about that. My next step will be to go get myself a microSD card reader for my PC so that I can look at and maybe edit the fnconfig.ini file directly that way. I don’t know if I’m even on the right track or not, that’s just what I plan to try next. In recently catching up on SPACE DOMs, I must say, the homebrew port of Enduro, originally by Activision for the 2600, is awesome! That’s my highlight from the last several DOMs for sure. After many years of maintaining the Atari FAQ and Vendors lists using NoteTab Pro, I have finally made the jump to a similar text editor that is still actively developed and I think much more popular, Notepad++. So, I have had to spend a lot of time searching for ways to do the things I’m used to doing, but at this point I think Notepad++ really does do everything, and if anything maybe has a variety of subtle advantages. What is your favorite text editor on modern computers? Who uses my old favorite, BBEdit for Macintosh? I see that is still developed to this day as well. Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting: Friday, January 12, 2024.
Another great year has ended, and it looks like 2024 could be another one! We are going to start the new year with a healthy bank balance. But, more of that later. We had six members and two guests that attended our SPACE Christmas Party. Plenty of food for all, thanks to our members who contributed along with the subs. Roger brought chili with all the fixings, and even though he said he made it about as mild as he could, I was thankful for Glen bringing his root beer floats to cool the burning in my stomach. Also, I want to thank Brian for playing Christmas music during the meal, as it was the perfect background for the Christmas event. Now for our treasury. We started the last month of the year with a bank balance of $1,748.45, and after paying $100.00 for the subs plus the tip we had a balance of $1,648.45. We added $27.00 for the month on one membership renewal for $15.00, and another $12.00 for four DOM sales. So we ended up the year of 2023 with a bank balance of $1,675.45. A great start for 2024! I know you all be very busy the rest of this year getting ready for Christmas then the New Year meals. Jackie and I have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals to prepare and then a New Year’s Day meal to prepare. A lot of work, but well worth it. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year’s! See you all next year on January 12th.
–TABLE OF CONTENTS– PAGE ONE: The President’s Corner Treasurer’s Report Secretary’s Report PAGE TWO: PAGE FIVE: SPACE Comics Section
Message from Captain Irata: “Season’s Beatings, SPACE Cadets, as I beat you at some great Atari game titles!” HOO-RAH!
TRIVIA TIME! The letters LED are an acronym that stand for Light Emitting Diode. LEDs are used in everything from power lights on computers, as well as in television displays and light bulbs that save on energy in the long run, saving money and the environment.
HELLO WORLD! Welcome to the first Secretary’s Report of 2024! Happy New Year, Atari Folks! I will start with the Report! The meeting commenced on Friday, December 8, 2023, with six members present and two guests. Plus, it was the SPACE Christmas Party! Special thanks to Greg L. and his wife, one of the Party guests, who prepared the food by purchasing it from Jersey Mike’s Subs. It was good food and a great time. Also thanks to Glen K. for the root beer floats, delicious as always. Finally, thanks to Roger M. for the homemade eggnog, and to everybody who contributed to the wonderful Christmas Party dinner! DOM REPORT: Thanks to Glen K. for the December 2023 DOM. It has three games and lots of demos. One of the games is Inertia, where you play as a top in an isometric play field. It reminds me of Marble Madness in the way the game is set up. Very challenging game! MEMBERSHIP COUNT: As of December 2023, there are ten memberships paid up. WEBSITE REPORT: It is assumed that the SPACE website is functioning well, as no Website Report was discussed during the December 2023 Meeting. OLD BUSINESS: No old business was discussed during the December 2023 Meeting. NEW BUSINESS: The AARP Magazine has an article about the new Atari 2600+ game console. The Atari 2600+ plays games for both the Atari 2600 and 7800. It caters to older gamers and promises to introduce new gamers to retro gaming. Also, it has been announced that the Antic chip has been recreated in an FPGA. There are also emulators for the POKEY and GTIA as well. Also, the MIO board has been developed for the Atari 8-bit computers for expansion and compatibility for these machines. I think it has more SIO and RAMDisk capabilities. Also, there is talk of people using the 7800’s MARIA chip for graphics in the A8 as an expansion unit. Interesting. I hope it works out. It could be a quantum leap! Furthermore, replica motherboards have been created for the Atari 800 and 130XE computers. This could prove useful for retro computer buffs who want to refurbish their Atari machines and can’t repair their original motherboards. It’s welcome news for sure. Also, Novawolf has been released by Video 61 (www.atarisales.com) for the Atari 7800, tailored for and aimed at gamers, fans and collector buffs who wish to extend their game libraries. Also, thanks to Tom L. for demonstrating his Orange Pi computer by emulating an Atari 8-bit computer on it. Jr. Pac-Man was a blast! The Meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM, then there was the SPACE Christmas Party Dinner, which was a blast. Thanks again to all who attended! This concludes the Secretary’s Report for December 2023. Thanks for reading, and have a happy and safe 2024! In the words of the late, great artist and comic book maestro, Stan Lee… EXCELSIOR!
TECH TALK By Steve Peck You know, I am fascinated by 21st Centurty technology. It’s a good thing to work with. People have to learn to make things work better and more efficiently. That is how human beings learn, through trial and error. Technology has a good side and a bad side, as everything does.
Yesterday is History…
I favor the good use of technology. It has excellent potential and far-reaching possibilities. For instance, regenerative healing. I would love to see how that goes in the future. I would like to see how medical technology advances because of it. That would be thrilling. For exanple, I want to see if there can be an effective stem cell therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. I am facinated with studies about how to treat this disease, since it affected my grandfather for instance. He lived a long life with it, but he still died from it. It was unfortunate. I would love to see how regenerative therapy can rewire peoples’ brains affected by Alzheimer’s and how there can be an effective strategy to conquer the disease. I would wonder how the human life span could be extended because of science. However, there are negative consequences in using technology. It could be used to enhance weapons, to make war more deadly, or create things we wish we wouldn’t have created. Technology can clean up the enviroment or pollute it, for example. Some day, we could perfect space travel and colonize other planets. Science fiction right now could become science fact. Maybe I am rambling, but I say this. I think and hope that technology will be used wisely in the net few years. It could create great things or great sorrows. Let’s just hope it creates great things. I love great things, especially advanced stuff to enhance my life and others’ lives. Let’s strive for great things, especially in 2024. Here’s to hoping for technological advances that enhance and not hamper human society. I am for enhancement. How about you? It would be a good thing for everybody. Come to think of it, I would love to se some advanced Atari stuff in the future. That would be fun. Thanks for reading. Happy New Year, and Carpe Diem, fellow Atarians! See you soon. FINAL THOUGHTS By Steve Peck Well, it’s 2024. The New Year is here, and it’s twelve more months to get things right. My resolution is to get things better, of course. i also want to enhance my Atari collections. How’s about you? There’s the RM 800XL coming out soon. The 21st Century design of this new computer is going to be interesting to see. I want to see what comes of it when it is released. It’s supposed to play all the Atari 8-bit games and programs. We shall see what comes of it. I would love to see something amazing from the new Atari. Something special and something great. I would love to see more enhancements with the FujiNet and upgrades for the ST/TT/Falcon computers as well. I would like to see something new for the Atari game systrems as well, like the recently developed 7800 GameDrive SD cartridge. Maybe someone will work on enhancements for game systems like the 2600, 5200, and Lynx. I also would like to see more with the GameStation Pro and the 2600+ comsole. There have been recent firmware updates for the 2600+ to play homebrews. I think the 2600+ comsole couldcreate a new market for retro games, as more 2600+ consoles are being marketed. I hope it all works out for Atari in that sense. It would be great for the retro community. Thanks for reading my thoughts. I hope you have agreat and safe year in 2024. Have a good time and see you next SPACE Meeting.
Tomorrow is HAVE A Mystery… HAPPY NEW YEAR Today is a IN 2024! Gift…
MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH!
That’s Why They Call It the PRESENT! Thanks for Reading!
Yup! We need articles! If you wish to channel your inner F. Scott Fitzgerald and want to send in an article, please feel free to send them to the SPACE Newsletter Editor! Please try to send your articles within two weeks of the Club’s occurence every month. They then will be posted. The SPACE Newsletter Editor’s contact information is, of course, on the back of every SPACE Newsletter! Thanks for posting and for supporting your SPACE Club! We hope to see more articles soon!
WANTED! Ideas (from SPACE Members) Suggested for Future Comics! Please feel free to email The Newsletter Editor! The Email Address is on the Last Page of the Newsletter! Thanks!
SPACE COMICS SECTION! The Misadventures of A-Man and C.D.
Vice President: Brian Little E-Mail: demomantna@gmail.com The next SPACE meeting will commence on Friday, January 12, 2023, at 7:30 PM, local time! We hope to see you there! Thanks for coming!
Another Message from Captain Irata: “That’s all she wrote, SPACE Cadets!” HOO-RAH!