SPACE Newsletter

1982•SPACE 44TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION•2026

Party this month!! Please do your best to make it! Even as we party, I hope we can also take another shot at considering and voting on the small package of bylaws updates I put forward last December. Maybe we can get that taken care of finally. I have submitted the same proposal for this month’s Newsletter that you saw last December. The idea is to just catch the bylaws up to today’s realities, and formally give us a bit more flexibility going forward. I hope we can get a quick discussion and vote in this month. I went to start looking through the SPACE DOMs I picked up last month the other day, but I ran into an issue. No color! Was it my Atari? I swapped in a different 130XE. Same issue exactly. Okay, what else could it be? Did I change my TV settings? My AVR settings? Possibly, but I don’t think so. I decided the most likely source of the problem is perhaps the A8 A/V BOB from More Than Games that I have used for many years to interface the Atari’s S-video output on the monitor port to an s-video input on my Yamaha AVR. Rather than continue troubleshooting I decided I might as well order replacement device, so I ordered the “Atari XL/XE 5-Pin DIN S-Video & Composite AV Cable” from 8-Bit Classics. It is on way! Meanwhile, I have my Atari connected to the AVR using composite video instead. Definitely a step down in clarity, but it works well enough to check out DOMs. I’ll let you know if the replacement cable does the trick! Thanks, keep using that Atari, and come to your next SPACE meeting and PARTY: Friday, July 10, 2026.

The best SPACE meeting of this year happened last month due to the fact that seven members participated. Six members were present and one joined in on Discord. We started off with another great DOM to review and it included our second AI game file. So far, I haven’t been too impressed with either game, but it will be fun to see what can be produced in the coming months. The only downside to the June meeting was leaving to go home. The weather wasn’t too bad when we left, just a few drops, but by the time I reached Highway 94 the sky opened up with a downpour that already had drivers stopped on the side of the road. I imagine Tom had the same problem as he would be driving in the same direction. I guess that is what we get when we say we really need the rain! As for our treasury we started the month of June with a SPACE balance of $695.06, and with the sale of twenty DOMs for $60.00 and one membership renewal for $15.00, we added $75.00 total to our treasury and now our SPACE balance sits at $770.06. With our Birthday month coming up don’t forget the date on July 10th. I will be bringing Jersey Mike’s subs, potato salad, Cole slaw, beverages and table fixings. My wife will bake cookies, and any thing else you can think of would be appreciated. It would be nice to get the same turnout for our party as we had in June. I hope our guest, Bob, a former SPACE president back in 1985 will be able to make it. He wanted to come for our June meeting, but he was worn out from traveling. So, I hope he can make it for the party. See you all July 10th.

HELLO WORLD! Welcome back to the Sectary’s Report for June of 2026. We had covered a lot of interesting stuff including the June 2026 DOM, which has a lot of cool stuff that you have to experience. So, let’s start reporting on last month’s SPACE Meeting! MEETING COMMENCES: The main June SPACE Meeting commenced at about 7:20 PM on Friday, June 12, 2026. Six members were physically present, with one other member (namely myself) virtually on Discord. MEMBERSHIP COUNT: At last count, there were nine paid-up members. One membership renewal will be processed over the mail soon, bringing total to ten. DOM REPORT: Glen came through with yet another great DOM with great pictures, cool music, an AI-generated version of the game “Sokoban” and a lot of clever files made with minimal tight code. More will be posted about this in the Atari 8-bit DOM Review later in this Newsletter, so keep reading. WEBSITE REPORT: The SPACE Website seems to be working within normal parameters, and no concerns about it were discussed during the last meeting. OLD BUSINESS: No real old business was discussed. NEW BUSINESS: There was discussion about the RM 800XL computer, which seems to be in limbo because of legal issues surrounding it. Whether or not it will be released because of these issues, we don’t know at present. Also, the classic shooter Wolfenstein 3D has been ported to the Atari 8-bit for the VBXE upgrade, and it looks spectacular with the updated graphics. Also, I learned that the classic shooter was ported for the Atari Lynx very recently. It looks very good on there as well. Piotr Kaczorowski has created a CPU accelerator with a 16-bit 6502-based processor for the XE, making it a 16-bit machine. This was discussed during the Meeting. The new Neo*Geo AES+ console is coming out that plays the real cartridge titles that the original classic game system did. It will use real and improved ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) and will have HDMI output. It is a modern version of the original system, and it is coming out later this year in November. This year also marks the 35th anniversary of the Neo*Geo.

–TABLE OF CONTENTS–

MEETING ADJOURNS: The Meeting adjourned around 8:00 PM, lasting approximately forty minutes.

Page One: The President’s Corner SPACE Officers’ Reports

Well, this concludes the Secretary’s Report for June. I will be back with the July Meeting minutes next month. I will see you then. In the words of the late, great Stan Lee…

Page Two: Atari 8-bit DOM Review Page Four: SPACE Bylaws Amendments Proposal Pages Five and Six: SPACE Comics Section

Message from Captain Irata:

EXCELSIOR!

“Happy Independence Day and Happy 250th Birthday, America!”

TRIVIA TIME!

HOO-RAH!

Human beings have forty-six chromosomes, making up their genetic code. Chromosomes determine our genetic traits and our biological makeup.

Let me score this file now so you can see my take on it. SCORE:

Welcome back! We are going to have a single DOM Review for this month after all. I was running out of time and couldn’t complete two DOMs in time. Sorry for the inconvenience and for getting your hopes up. I will have a double-DOM Review next month in August. Now, get prepared! There’s going to be a lot of content installed here in this A8 DOM Review. You’re in for a treat. OK! Enough said. Let’s get started with the Review. June 2026 DOM, Side A:

Graphics: Animation:

9 10

TOTAL SCORE:

19/20 (95%)

The third file is called “Snoopy Dance,” an animated demo by Heiko Ortmann. It was produced in Mad Pascal and shows two pictures of Snoopy from the classic Peanuts comic strip dancing with an animated text ticker above the Pictures of Snoopy dancing to music. It’s really clever and fun to look at. It well-animated and must have taken a lot of time to program and render. Well, the time was worth it because this is really amazing stuff. Being a fan of Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip, I think it’s cute and funny, plus very good work.

The first file on this DOM is called “Pie Chart Memories,” a 133-byte graphics file by Kamil Trzaska. Basically, it’s what the name entails. It’s an animated rendering of a pie chart. It renders in real-time, but basically it’s a demonstration of how a tight-code program works.

The game is well thought out. It has challenge to it and it’s like a puzzle. It remind me of a game for the classic Atari 2600 called “Turmoil.” That game is similar to this one, only the layer had live in the Atari 2600 game. You only have one chance here, and you have to make it last. Or Christmas is doomed… XD Anyway, it’s a cool little mind-boggler. It’s full of action, and will entertain kids from 1 to 100. The graphics could be better, but I think this was made on a schedule. So, if the graphics might need to look better, the game makes it up in game play. It’s a cool and fun game.

Although there isn’t much to it, the graphic is a fast render. It is impressive how fast the A8 can render something like this when you want it to. I wish it would be more, but it is what it is. It is a simple demo and that’s all it is.

Let me score this now. SCORE:

You have to love the dance Snoopy does in this demo. It even moves faster as time goes on during the demo. The typography looks nice, too. Top-notch work! I will score this demo now. SCORE:

I will score this file now. SCORE: Graphics: Animation:

6 10

TOTAL SCORE:

16/20 (80%)

The next file is called “ATASCII Plasma,” by Pawel Rosowski. It is an animated graphics made up of only ATASCII characters, and it is 248 bytes in size. It looks really cool. It reminds me of a lava lamp when the blobs of wax in the lamp move all over the place when heated. It’s amazing because the file is made up of hundreds of text characters. That’s all it is. Nothing but! It’s really clever programming, and I quite enjoyed it. It really flows like it is programmed to. Impressive rendering!

The patterns look really interesting. How the text is rendered to produce this effect is quite astonishing. The text is just in the right places to produce the waves.

Graphics: Animation: Music/Sound FX:

10 10 10

TOTAL SCORE:

30/30 (100% perfect score)

The next file is a game, “Santa Overflow,” by the team of Anschuetz, Weisgerber and Anschuetz. You play Santa Claus, and you have to keep the Christmas presents on each assembly line from overflowing and overwhelming you in the middle. As you go along, it gets more hectic. The plot of the game is to keep it simple as long as possible. Eventually, though, the presents start moving faster and it gets much harder to deflect them from the middle of the screen. If the presents make it to Santa in the middle of the screen, the game is over.

Graphics: Animation: Gameplay: Music/ Sound FX: TOTAL SCORE:

8 8 9 8 33/40 (83%)

Japanese programmer Inufuto has done it again by making another game called “Awass.” In this game, you have a puzzle to solve. You have to make the floors on any certain level move to so you can capture the flags you have to retrieve in the game while avoiding a pesky ghost. By the way, you also have a time limit to finish each level. You can move each floor left or right to accomplish your goals. There are obstacles that can block you if you are not careful in moving the floors. You stay stationary on the screen as the floors you move are moved. You can also climb ladders and can move ladders to your position to escape the ghost and capture more flags. Inufuto can do better with the graphics, I think, but I am not worried about the look. Actually, who cares this time? It’s the gameplay that really stands out. It does have a challenging edge to it and it’s harder because of that. Cutesy graphics disguise its difficulty, and that’s the draw.

Overall, the gameplay makes this game, and it is outstanding. I think that, if you want to play this game, you’re going to need to practice. It will take a while to move the levels the way you need to move them to complete them. It’s a tough game! Let me score now. SCORE: Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Music/Sound FX:

7 10 7 7

TOTAL SCORE:

31/40 (78%)

The next file is called “ALMOND,” by AquaMarine. It is an interactive music jukebox demo. It shows an animated logo that says “WESTERN FURION” on it and it has an animated text ticker. You can choose what music to play and it’s really cool to see the nice on-screen graphics.

The colors look good and I like the shooting star and the Moon in the background of the picture in the sky. This is a great picture and I am sure it took a while to render it because it shows. There is a lot of detail in this pic. TOTAL SCORE:

10/10 (100% perfect score)

The final file on Side A of this DOM is another picture called “Imaginacja,” by an unknown artist. It reminds me of graffiti that I see in various cities. It’s imaginative, yes, but looks a little gritty or urban in nature. I think that’s the point. It looks interesting. Actually, it reminds me of the various graphic design pieces I have seen other artists compose, and it is definitely eye-catching. Definitely looks abstract, to be sure.

It definitely gets a lot of sprites on the screen. But, I think that is the point. I think it’s to see how much can fit on the screen before it gets bogged down. It does a great job with that along with the animation. I will score this file now for everybody reading this. SCORE: Graphics: Animation:

8 10

TOTAL SCORE:

18/20 (90%)

The next file is a 262-byte demo called “Unlimited Sober Carpet,” by Kamil Trzaska. It shows a bunch of lines forming a “carpet” and waving up and down like it’s flowing in the wind. It looks really cool. The animation is fluid and I like the effect. Really nice job.

It took a lot of programming knowledge and talent, as well as a lot of time, to create this demo. It looks spectacular and it has stellar graphics. Plus, there is variety in the music that the demo allows you to choose. It’s a great file.

The colors look like they match on a complimentary color scheme. The logo looks great and I like its animated shimmer. The text ticker looks awesome and is animated in real-time. People can have fun with the music tracks built into the demo. Pretty cool! I will score this demo now. SCORE; Graphics: Animation: Music/Sound FX:

10 10 10

TOTAL SCORE:

30/30 (100% perfect score)

The next file is a music track called “800 X-CESS,” by Nils Feske. It is a music track with tonal fades and a nice drum beat to it. It has a slow beginning, but the tempo does get faster. Then, it gets peppy and active. It’s a cool little tune, and I think you will like it. TOTAL SCORE:

9/10 (90%)

The next file is a picture by Christian Duesterhoeft, called “SV25 Winter Edition.” It’s dedicated to SillyVenture in Europe. It shows the SV25 logo in the snow, depicting the famous Atari club. Plus, it looks really cool. I like the colors and graphics and the time put into making it.

By the way, as you may have guessed, “Imaginacja” means “imagination” in Polish. You can ascertain that because it has the word “IMAGINATION” in the picture, and it definitely is imaginative. It even has cameos of classic video game characters in it. Again, it is interesting.

Anyway, for 262 bytes, I like the effort in this rendering. I know it isn’t much code to work with, but it does a good job with the amount of data that it has. Again, very nice.

Let me score this now.

I will score this file now.

TOTAL SCORE:

9/10 (90%)

Now, onto Side B, as there are more files on there as well! Side B: The first file on Side B is called “Within Cells Interlinked,” a 256-byte demo by an unnamed programmer. It shows dots reproducing on the screen, going at different speeds. It looks like it shows cell mitosis, or division, into multiple cells on the screen. There’s not a lot there, but it does what it’s supposed to do. It’s like an experiment on how many sprites can be on the screen at once, at least that’s what I get from it. The animation is pretty fluid, so it does a good job with that. Personally, I would like to have seen more. It does hold a lot of sprites for 256 bytes, but I think it could be more than this, maybe a little more graphic embellishment in it. But, it is a small file, so it could only show so much. But, it is neat to look at.

SCORE: Graphics: Animation:

9 10

TOTAL SCORE:

19/20 (95%)

The next file is from Fandal, called “Word Frenzy.” It reminds me of Boggle in a way. Find the letters on the screen that spell your word listed by your player number and spell it. However, the letters are always shifting and disappearing off of the screen, making it more difficult. I guess the player with the most words spelled correctly at the end of the game wins. Up to four players can play at once with a MultiJoy adapter. It looks really fun and it looks challenging. I also like the title screen graphics and opening music. Very well done.

SPACE BYLAWS AMENDMENTS PROPOSAL The following are several Bylaws changes ("amendments") proposed by Michael Current. NOTE: For emphasis, the SPACE Newsletter has presented the text to be amended in the Bylaws as BLUE underlined bold text, whereas the text to be omitted from the Bylaws as RED bold text, struck through with a line to prepare it for omission from the Bylaws, if the text is approved for omission. Thanks for reading this proposal. ARTICLE III MEETINGS Section 1. SPACE meetings shall be held at 7:30pm on the second Friday of each month, at the Falcon Heights Community Center, unless otherwise directed by the Executive Board. ARTICLE V NEWSLETTER Section 2. All currently paid club members shall receive a copy of the Newsletter by mail each month. ARTICLE VII DISCORDBULLETIN BOARD SYSTEM Also, I like the music Poison came up with in this game. Vic and Scooby created a very nice title logo. So, hats off to Fandal and his team for making a great game. I will score this game now.

The graphics could be better, but the game has a lot of challenge to it. It is a game where you have to put a lot of thought into solving the puzzles. Very nice game, and with that I will score it now.

SCORE:

SCORE:

Graphics: Gameplay: Music/Sound FX:

9 10 9

TOTAL SCORE:

28/30 (93%)

The next file is a demo by Ralf Patschke, called “Snowman (PP’s).” It shows a snowman outside in someone’s back yard. It is animated and it has music. It has slow animation for the falling snow, at that is so it looks relaxing and pleasant to see. It’s quite good.

Graphics: Gameplay: Animation: Music/Sound FX:

7 10 7 8

TOTAL SCORE:

32/40 (80%)

The next file is a track called “Run the Track,” by Christian Duesterhoeft. It sounds like a dance track with a peppy tempo and lots of sliding tones. The creator of this track does a great job with the sound, and it does sound great. It’s a great track to sample and listen to. TOTAL SCORE:

9/10 (90%)

There is one more music track on Side B, called “Pole Positn,” by Zdenek Eisenhammer. It is fast, has action and has a great tempo. It gives you that feeling you are in a race jockeying for position. Nice drum beat as well! I also like the tonal effects in the music. It really is pretty good music from an A8 computer. I will score it now. TOTAL SCORE:

Actually, it looks like an animated post card. I like the effect and it looks nice. Let me score this demo. SCORE: Graphics: Animation: Music/Sound FX:

9 8 8

TOTAL SCORE:

25/30 (83%)

The next file is another game called “AI Sokoban,” written using artificial intelligence by Staworzynski. It was written using Gemini Pro 3. It is a Sokoban game where you have to figure out which ways to move boxes correctly to advance to the next level. You can always restart by pressing the Escape key to restart the game if you make a mistake. It is challenging. I have to practice just to get out of Level One.

10/10 (100% perfect score)

Well, this concludes the A8 DOM Review. I will be back with another DOM Review, and I promise it will be another double-DOM Review. Carpe Diem, fellow Atarians, and thanks for reading! See you soon.

Section 1. A Discord serverBulletin Board System (BBS) supporting Atari computers shall be made available by the club. The Discord serverBBS provides an online forum for Atari discussions, and an optional communications medium for club matters. Section 2. The DiscordBBS System Operator shall be responsible for maintaining a friendly and welcoming environment on Discordthe BBS. Illegal software or offensive language shall not be tolerated. ARTICLE IX OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE BOARD Section 4. The Executive Board shall actively seek volunteers to fill the following positions: Membership Chairman, Newsletter Editor, DOM Librarian, DiscordBBS Operator, and Webmaster. These volunteers shall be subject to the approval of the club membership. Section 5. The Executive Board shall also seek volunteers for other ongoing administrative duties, such as meeting location arrangements and post office box maintenance.

SPACE COMICS SECTION! The Misadventures of A-Man and C.D.

Ferret Fracas

SPACE 44th Birthday Party! Friday, July 10, 2026, From 6:00 - 8:30 PM. DOM Demonstration Meeting & PARTY HEARTY! Thanks for coming!

You will need to check in with security if you come to the building after 5:30 PM, We will meet in the Midway Room 2310.The Meeting time is allocated from 6:00-8:30 PM, every second Friday of every month.