SPACE Newsletter - May 1985

May 1985

BYTES

FROM THE

PRES.

by Bob Floyd 130XE at meeting: Those of you who didn't make it to the last meeting mis.sed the SPACE Phil Seifert debut of the Atari 130XE. brought one to the meeting from User Friendly very machine is The Larry! thanks impressive and I have to admit that I am tempted to get one.

'"""'9iMer's Group: The Beginner's Group had a large turnout ( )20 ). I was a 1 ittle surprised to see a consistently high turnout I am glad that 1,11e are for this group. providing this service. Jon Nelson has been contributing his time, 800XL and Indus drive to this effort for some time and should be The gr·,Jup ;,; i 11 .:1ga in meet thanked by a 11 • immediately after this month'=- meeting.

New Club Equipment Purchase: Noi>.1 that have the above two subjects out of the way, I'd 1 ike to brief you on a subject to be I th i nK covered at the upcoming meeting. another 8-bit that the club should buy computer, either an BOOXL <must be on sale cheap), or preferrabl y a 130XE. I th i nl< 1,<Je also need another disk drive and monitor. We foll01,<Jing the equipment for need this u reasons: 1) The club needs to stay current. 2) We need a second TV or monitor for better monitor is A viewing at the meetings. preferred in case of a future ST purchase. should be large enough for good viewing. ~ The c 1ub needs a second sys tern for spec i a 1 interest groups, 1 ike the Beginner's Group. This will alleviate the burden on members from uprooting their own systems from home.

4) The 130XE is preferred because it may be compatible with the new 3.5" drives used on the ST series. We should delay purchase of a disk drive until this is clear. So, for the moment, I am proposing that SPACE buys a 130XE and monitor. Let's discuss this at the meeting. Schaak Shocker: The Schaal< "deals" were very disappointing. About a dozen of you called me to check these out. There was !12. hardware of any kind for Atari • The .software was too expensive, but there some golden oldies. Examples would be Missile Command, I'll Pacman and Space Invaders for $27.00. bring the listing to the meeting for those interested. Discounts: It occurred to me after the meeting that some of our newer members may not know that Wizard's Work and User Friendly offer a 10% discount at their stores to You must identify yourself SPACE members. This may be with a current membership card. why Larry at User Friendly says he doesn't see many of our members. Incidentally, all already is meetings the at software discounted. Disk Exchange: We just received 3 double sided disks from ACE in exchange for software of our own. DOS 2.5 (with RAMDISK, etc.) was on one of them. Looi< for these programs on a DOM in the near future. Also, MACE has sent us a catalog that we can choose 4 disks from as well. We will try a few other clubs as

CONTINUED-->

Mike think that Spartan Software: Gustafson from Spartan Software will be at our meeting. Mike is the designer/ author of The Chip/Arch iver and SpartaDOS/US Doubler. He wi11 clue us in to upcoming products and answer questions about existing products. SPACE Pirates: I saved the worst for last. I noticed last meeting that a lot of members kept offering advice to Steve Pauley and Ba11b1aze r demo'ing was while he among be to surprised bit a was I . Fracta1us the few that was not fami1 iar with these games. Since these were just released, it is safe to assume that many members have the pirated versions that have been floating around. I hope you Know that these games that sure I'm cancelled . were almost for mouth their in taste bad a has Lucasfilm And, e. experienc bad first this after Atari I'm sure the rest of the industry has noticed thisaswe 11 asother cases. It all boils down to this: IF WE WANT PEOPLE TO WRITE SO~RE FOR, ANO SUPPORT, OUR CctlPUTERS, WE I·' d 1 i ke to HUST BUY THEIR PRODUCTS! suggest that the pirates among us go out and buy those games. Let·' s make an honest hacker out of everyone! 'Nuff said!

ANALOG D.O.M. Bob & Joanne Floyd

We received enough interest in the ANALOG Computing disk of the month that the club has sent in for a disk subscript ion. At the upcoming meeting, we tll i 11 be offering DOM·' s from issues #29 & #30 of ANALOG. You must prove (or already have proven) that you are a subscribe r to ANALOG by bringing in a recent issue with the mailing 1abe1 intact in order to purchase a disk. You must also be a SPACE member. We wi11 maintain a 1 ist so you only need to bri~; nan issue once per year. We will also take orders for back issues (all the way back to #10) for those intereste d just bring in 1 or 2 old issues to qua1 ify. to requireme nts are Incidenta lly, these generous please ANALOG which has been enough to make this offer to user groups. We will sell the DOM's for $4.00 each, before & See for a short while after the meeting. Joanne. She will handle sales for a while, We at least until the November elections . will also need a volunteer for a few months <we have a baby due around June 1) to se11 disks at the meetings. The baby's here already. (Editor's note: Congratu lations Bob and Joanne!)

Experienc es Debugging a Copied BASIC Program by John Norotry Being a programmer but never having us~ BASIC, I acquainte d myself with the language by writing simple loops and skimming over This got me to a fair various examples. understan ding of the more common statemen ts, a major applying them in but weak in The next logical course of undertaki ng. action for me was to cop>' a program and find out how it worked; so one evening after 10 PM I opened a book of Atari games to a well Known game where opponents take turns firing at each other across a hill, the players INPUTting the angles and charges for the shots. At 12:30 (AM), the program was "safe" on the disk (there is another true story here which I may share with you some day!). I started the game and things appeared to The proceed normally until the first shot. game generated a trace of the trajector y from one combatant up over the top of the hill, The first shot from the then disappear ed! I other combatant appeared to work fine. fired again. This time the trajector y went off the top of the screen, and the program got in a 1oop, repeating solicit for ,powd~ Since T charge, but never acting on it. wanted this to be a learning experienc e, I was somewhat glad that there were bugs to be found, a task for tomorrow. The program was laid out in a fairly easy to follow structure , with REMarks identifyin g the building of the various objects on the screen, and routines for messages and player input. The logic of the shots was soon isolated to a section approxim ately one-tenth of the code. I checked my code against the be the same. book, and it appeared to shot code. the REMarks were non-exist ant in overly generatio n seemed The trajector y of point incumbered by calculati os for each performed the trajector y that needed to be only once per shot, so new variables were added to keep these calculati ons, then used A throughou t the course of the trajector y. the test run showed a much quicker shot, with Further evaluatio n of problems unchanged . the code showed the functiona lity of two separate PLOT statement s, the first to clear the previous visible point followed by ,· update of coordinat es (based on a change '-'I time), and the second to plot the updated IF-THEN two were There coordinat es. statement s between the PLOT statement s to check the updated coordinat es. One, if the

trajectory went off the right, left, or bottom of the screen then the shot was done. The other, if the trajectory went off the top Then don't plot the point, of the screen. · 1t advance time and return to check the next ....,..oint of the trajectory. Good logic, but this seemed to be the culprit. I looked at the 1 ine and it looked perfectly good (IF Y<2 I took the statement out and THEN 500). GADS!, both trajectories completed. I gave it a big charge value to put the trajectory off the top off the top of the screen,· and crash <ERROR - attempt to plot negative coordinate). Obviously the statement removed I was needed, but what was its problem? changed the offending statement to IF Y<2 then STOP and ran the program to the STOP. My wife just happened into the room, so, needing an ear for my frustration she stopped my I explained blankly as and stared predicament, showing her the statement where the program was stopped and the value of the Y1? That's Y-coordinate (using PRINT Y1). right! This darn code uses X,Y for the I change of the X,Y coordinates X1,Y1. changed the offending statement to IF Y1<2 THEN 500 (exactly as it was in the book), the program ran perfectly, my wife continued to the closet for the vacuum cleaner, and I ~elearned a major lesson, the computer is '-" wayJ; r i gh t. SERVICE & TROUBLESHOOTING by Wayne Tyrrell In this article we'll look at two basic system problems. One is the computer system The that has never worked from the start. fine worked that system the is other We'll look yesterday, but won't work today. how discuss and hints at some troubleshooting is component major to figure out which causing your problems. If you are installing a new computer it prob 1ems, ex per i enc i ng and sys tern a at thing one up sometimes helps to hook before time. Make sure each unit is working hooking up the next. Once the computer and monitor working, then hook up the disk drive, then the printer, then the modem, and ect. As soon as you find the bad device, take it back to the store and get a new one, or have '' fixed under warranty. ~

If the problem is on a used computer, could go through the previous steps, but may save a lot of time by asking yourself simple question. What has changed since

you you one the

last time it worked? Did the Kids use the monitor as a TV last night? Maybe you loaned your disk drive to a friend, or maybe someone clean the table that the computer sits on. It's very possible that someone may have bumped a cable, changed the disk drive unit If number, or disconnected the video cord. the problem is more serious, you might want to try the following steps. the First, disconnect everything from computer except the power supply and the monitor. If the red power indicator on the computer is working, then the power supply is probably OK. Next, see if BASIC will put the 'READY' on the screen. If not, try another TV or monitor if you have one. If you have in the bui 1 t 800XL, running an Atari diagnostic may te 11 you if the cornpu ter checks out OK. The second step is to hook up the disk drive (or tape drive if that's your main program device) and see if the unit has power. Most disk drives should have a red power indicator. If it comes on, check to see if the disk spins. If not, look inside the disk door for anything that may be jammed If the disk and causing it not to spin. seems to work OK but won't spin when you turn on the computer, check the disk address switches and the cable to th~ disk drive. If you are getting 'BOOT ERROR' on the screen, make sure you are using a known good disk. It sometimes helps to clean the disk heads on the drive. If you have a tape drive, see if you can move the tape forward and backward. Does the tape start to move when the computer requests it to. Most of the tape drive problems I've seen are caused by bad tapes, tapes that are too long, or 1/0 cables not seated properly. equipment the of rest The (printer,modem,ect.) in your computer system can be checked out the same way. Look for power indicators and normal unit operation. make I use to few hints Here are a troubleshooting a 1 ittle easier. First, I keep a known good disk (tape or cartridge) handy to use when checking a problem. It helps eliminate the possibility of bad media messing up my troubleshooting efforts. Second, I'm very careful when I do It's usually the a unit swap of devices. fastest method of troubleshooting, but it might cause additional equipment problems. Third, if the problem is intermittent, I write down on a sheet of paper exactly what the computer was doing at the time of the

2400 bps modems:

DoY9U Realfyneed anotfler speed?

• Is the shift from 300 to 1200 bps going to repeat itself at 2400 bps? The answer is both yes and no. There certainly are applications for 2400 bps asynch dial-up modems, but we shouldn't expect 1200 bps to die overnight. • 2400 bps modems can improve throughput, thereby getting tasks done quicker and more economically. However, 1200 bps has become the virtual standard for professional dial-up communications, and most users are satisfied with it. So why consider a 2400 bps modem at all? • One reason is flexibility. If the modem you select operates at all three speeds (300, 1200 & 2400) in accordance with accepted industry standards, it will serve virtually all dial-up applications now and in the foreseeable future. • The modem you select should be the MultiModem224. It is Bell 212A and 103 compatible at 1200 and 300 bps, and CCITT V.22bis compatible at 2400. It is also 100% compatible with the Hayes command set, meaning that it will work with virtually all communications software packages, at all three speeds. Other features include both synchronous and asynchronous operation, full intelligence and a phone number memory. • The MultiModem224 is available in both desktop and IBM PC'" internal card versions. (There is also a rackmounted version for central sites.) And as a bonus, we provide free offers from ten of the most popular on-line information services, including CompuServe '7 Dow Jones'" and The Source;" • A 2400/1200/300 bps modem is just a plain good investment. Why not let the MultiModem224 provide your communications for both today and tomorrow?

Multi The right .,._-every time. 82 Second Ave. S.E., New Brighton. MN 55112

(612) 631-3550, lWX:910-563-3 610

prob lem. The next time it fails , I do the same thing . Then I look to see if there is any corr elati on between the firs t and secon d time . If there is, it may poin t me in the ight dire ction towa rds solv ing the prob lem.

no cut and dry, sure oting a prob lem. lesho fire method of troub on one prob lem, er long Some meth ods may take If you use a her. anot but take less time on when od meth step by step logi cal, e littl have will you troub lesho oting , the In . unit em probl diff icul ty findi ng the next few artic les, 1 ✓ 11 be desc ribin g how the troub lesho oting diffe rent unit s work and any have you If unit s. insid e the les, artic ted rela sugg estio ns on serv ice plea se feel free to let me know at one of the next meet ings . 1 ✓ ve found there ✓ s

D.O.M. by Frank Haug This month ✓ s disk has the Atar i 2.5 DOS. Unfo rtuna tely, we do not have instr uctio ns for it yet, but shou ld soon . If anyone want s ~ta pe of the month, they shou ld noti fy us at the meet ing, and we wi 11 ma i 1 it to you. These are the progr ams on the MAY ✓ as D.O.M. 1 .SPMENU You must avoid miss iles 2.BLACKBRD.BAS and bomb targ ets in this arcad e type game A program writ ten by a 3.SYNPRINT.BAS Pres ,) to be used with (our S.P.A .C.E . member ram. prog the SYN-FILE 4. SYNPREP. LST - Used t.\l i th SYNPRINT for file text The 5.SYNPRINT.DOC BAS SYNPRINS. 6,SYNPRINS.BAS - Use this program to prin t the instr uctio ns for SYNPRINT. ?.TITLE.BAS - A neat program that can be used to make a title scre en. inte resti ng An 8. RUNSHOOT. BAS reaso n some for NOTE targe t-sho oting game. OUT (TAKE DRIVE DISK you MUST TURN OFF YOUR IT. PLAY CAN YOU RE BEFO THE DISK FIRS T!!!! ) to. you tells pt prom Turn it OFF when the 9.GRUBS.BAS - Anot her arcad e type game. You use the trigg er to dig and fill hole s. - i rs t d i g a ho 1e , then 1et a , grub·' fa 11 i n ~ d f i 11 it up on ·'em. the escap e Try to 10.HIDNMAZE.BAS can. you as fast invi sible maze as That 's the disk of the month.

Apr il Mee ting Min utes by Joan ne Floy d The last SPACE mee ting was held 1985 with 85-~ 0 peop le in Apr il 12, the Sei fert , Phi 1 atte nda nce . pres i.de nt of TAIG , brou ght one ~f the new 130X Es to the mee ting . This new wid 71y yet is not mod el, whic h ava ilab le, has 128K RAM, an expa nsio n inte rfac e and a bett er keyb oard than for reta il will It the XLs .' Floy d adde d , that Bob $150 -$20 0. all of the . firs t d hase purc K-M art has the a~d th~t 130XE ✓ s ship men t of late in very deli for due ship men t is In the •rum ors• depa rtme nt, a Apr il. rece nt Info wor ld repo rt sugg este d that ATARI may be sell ing a •Fat Jack • pack age com pose d of a 520S T com put~ r, a mon ochr ome mon itor , and a 3.5• disk also Bob only $799 . driv e for e merg will e azin mag ROM men tion ed that , June of as r lore Exp ri with The Ata 1985 .

the vice pres iden t, Bruc e Haug , byla ws whic h have new desc ribe d the <Th ese the club . for been wri tten issu e last the in byla ws were prin ted bers mem club The of the new slet ter.> by ws byla the oved unan imo usly appr a d ribe desc also Bruc e voic e vote . ular pop 32 with new AMS mus ic disk be can disk mus ic The song s. g nyin mpa acco the purc hase d for $6 and the er, Feu Max play er disk for $4. trea sure r, repo rted that the club has a bank bala nce of $97 3.81 . He also men tion ed that he has tran sfer red the mem bers hip list from Tex twiz ard to Syn file+ and may have •1os t• a f~ mem bers in the tran sfer . Con tact him if your name appe ars to have been drop ped from the list . Bob Bus ines s", New Und er the of disk log Ana anno unce d that an to isk $4/d for red mon th wou ld be offe club are who Ana log sub scri bers mem bers if enou gh peop le sign ed up to show inte rest . He also men tion ed that Stev e Hop per has been talk ing with the grou p of ATARI own ers in Cloq u~twho were inte rest ed in beco ming affi liat ed with SPACE. The grou p has now deci ded to beco me an inde pend ent club but to exch ange pub lic dom ain soft war e with SPACE. 0

Several new programs were shown at the end of the meeting. Joe Danko demonstrated the Enhancements to Basic program. The program includes many extra DOS comrnands such as a deleted file directory, a trace mode, macro keys and the ability to build in your own macro commands, a. very fast renumber routine, the ability to do a global search on variable tables, and many other features. It can be pu~ch~sed mail order for $15 including sh1pp1ng from FirstByte Software. Bob Floyd demonstrated Activision ✓ s Ghostbusters game, in which you buy a ghostbusters car and equipment and tool around trapping ghosts and foi 1 i ng the Mar_shma 11 ow Man. Steve Pauley demonstrated Lucasfilm ✓ s Rescue .Q.!l Fractalus and Ballblazer. Both programs have excellent graphics. In Rescue, you are flying a rescue craft that must locate and retrieve people stranded on a planet. In Ballblazer you are in an airfoil playing ~ soccer-type game in which you try to capture the ball and move it through your goal. _The game can be played 1-player against droid <with droids of varying difficulty) or 2-player. Todd Burkey demonstrated Microleaque Baseball, a game where you can choose famous teams from the past and recent present and pit them against one another. You can also choose the starting lineup and statistics on the players available. At the end of the meeting, Jon Nelson led a beginner ✓ s group session.

ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., REPRINTED BY PERMISSION. HANDS-ON WITH

ANTic ✓ s

1985.

DEVELOPMENT 520ST

by JACK POWELL ANTIC TECHNICAL EDITOR Our Atari 520ST just arrived in the Antic offices. This is the $5,500 development package, and it includes the computer, two 3 1/2" disk drives, one medium-resolution (640 X 200) RGB analog mQnitor, and one mouse. The software in the package is the •c• compiler, machine language assembler and the Mince debugger by Digital Research screen editor by Mark of the U~icorn, Kermit a modem protocol program for file transfer, CP/M-86, and, of course GEM which is in ROM in the machine. '

On back order -- but expected soon -- is a high-resolution (640 X 400) monochrome monitor and a ten-megabyte hard disk. Along with all this came 1000 pages o~ documentation and since it will take som"""-" time to digest all of this, we thought you might like a first impression of this new, high-level Atari computer. The development 520ST is a preliminary model and there will be some changes between now and the time you see it in the stores, but all parts of this machine were factory made in the same manufacturing plants as the final product will be. The only real difference -- besides the price is that these machines were hand assembled. The first thing you notice when taking the ST out of its box, is that it ✓ s very 1 ight. Although somewhat larger in size than the 800XL, it feels 1 ighter. This may be because the shielding has not yet been added. It looks exactly like the ST on our May cover, but there are some details you can ✓ t see from the photograph. On the right edge of the machine, to the rear, are two joystick ports identical in appearance to current Atari joystick ports, except they are. als..-, used for the mouse. ~ On the left edge, rear -- opposite the joystick ports, is the cartridge slot. This will accept a 40-pin board -- 20 upper and 20 1ower. are various In back of the computer switches and ports, each labelled beneath and with an indicating icon etched in the plastic above. From left to right they are: 1) Reset - a small, square button. 2) Power - identical to previous Atari power switches. 3) Power In - 7-pin, male DIN. 4) MIDI Out - 5-pin, female DIN. 5) MIDI In - same as above. 6) Television - RCA, female. 7) Channel - mini-switch, labelled "L• •H". 8) Monitor - 13-pin, female DIN. 9) Printer - female D-25, IBM-PC/Centronics compatible. 10) Modem - male D-25, IBM compatible. 11) Floppy Disk - 14-pin, female DIN. 12) Hard Disk - female D-19. Besides the standard keyboard and ten-key pad, are ten function keys, labelled Fl to F10. The isolated cursor section is particularly well designed with the lower

three keys represen ting Left, Down and Right, and the Up arrow centered above them. On either side of the Up key are Insert and Clr/Home. The top two keys in the cluster -1\ich are enlarged -- are Help and Undo. The ~do key may become particu larly useful. The drives accept Sony 3 112n disks. To boot the machine , first turn on the drives and insert both disks before turning on the compute r. A disk must be in a drive for the compute r to later access that drive. When booted, the GEM desktop appears as a light green backgrou nd with pale blue border and black-o utlined icons. In the upper right corner of the screen are two disk icons, one over the other, that look like file cabinet drawers . In the lower right corner of the screen is a trash can. In the border area, above the upper left section of the green backgrou nd, are the words, "DESI< FILE VIEW OPTIONS." In the middle of the screen is a thin, black arrow-c ursor which is moved by the mouse.

DISK

THE

MONT H

The disk/tap e of the month contain s program s from the club l i brary. The tal)es can be purchase d for $3 and the di?ks for ·t-4. The groui:, makes a sma:11 prof It from the sale c,f these which go toward supporti ng some of the things the group does. Each disk/tap e usuaTly contain s eight to twelve program s. Most of these programs are games with some utilitie s and demos mixed in. The program s are obtained from trading with other user groups and from submiss ions from local members Members who submit a program will receive a. disk or tape of the month free! What a deal~! -, For those of you who are new to the D.O.M. her·e are some operatin g hints. After you are finished with one program and you whan to bring in another , simply hit the break key, and then type in RLN 11 D:SPMENU". This will return you to the space menu.

Not all of the programs on some of the older D.O.M. ✓ s work I would 1 ike someone to make al ist of these, and then ask for • voluntee r to fix the problem s and th•n I will make up a new disk. _

We·'ll save details on GEM for later articles . Suffice it to say, it is fast~ It ran redraw an entire screen of icons in the ...,J)ink of an eye, SP"'C= ,..,, / nI 'te.e.."t::.i i:;;;

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WANT

ADS

It is possible for members to place 'Want Ads' in this newsletter. The ads may be for selling used hardware, used software, tutoring services, or Just about anything that has to do with Atari. The rates are as follows: 6 Lines $1.25 216 Letters 1 Line .25 36 Letters The following is a 1 ist of advertising rates for vendors or individual members. Full page $18.00 7-1/2" X 10• Half page 10.00 3-5./8" X 10" Half page 10.00 7-1/2" X 5• 1/4 page 5. 50 3-5/8" X 5" All advertisements must be paid for when they are submitted. Deadline for ad placement is the last Friday of each month. To place ad or for more info, cal 1 the editor. Bob Floyd Bruce Haug • . Bruce Haug . • Jim Schulz • •

Published by the St. Paul Atari Computer Enthusiasts (SPACE), an independent organization with no business affiliation with Atari Incorporated. Permission is gr.anted to .an::,· s.imilar· organization with which SPACE exchanges newsletters to reprint material in this newsletter. We do, however, ask that credit be to the authors and to SPACE. ' Opinions expressed are those of the article authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of SPACE c 1 •Jb officers, members, ~r Atari Inc.

President 487-2627 Jon Nelson Editor Vice-Pres 774-6226 Max Feuer. Treasurer Disk Lib. 774-6226 Bruce Haug Cass Lib. Paper/Ed. Lib. 537-5442 Joanne Floyd Secretary SPACE/TAIG Bulletin Board . • • 544-9058

St. Paul ATARI Computer Enthusiasts 2589 Fisk St. Roseville,""' 55113

J. P. Scheib 3944 24th Av. S. Minneapolis, Mn. Next SPACE Meeting: Fr i day, May

10 , 1985

7:30 P.H.

Uoi N St. Paul campus Classrom Office Bldg. ro1111s B-35 + 8-36

St. Paul, Nime~ota

55406

484-9027 483-3895 774-6226 487-2627