SPACE Newsletter - June 1986

June 1986

This month's meeting s: FRIDAY, MAY 9, 7:30 PM SPACE FRIDAY, MAY 16, 7:30 PM MAST-SIG At the Falcon Heights Communi ty Center 2077 Larpente ur Ave.

222-3593 Bob Rhode .... Editor Bruce Baug .. . Preside nt 774-6226 489-3982 er Treasur Bob Siede .... Jim Schulz . . . Vice-Pr es 537-5442 Bob Floyd .... Secreta ry 487-2627 Frank Baug .. . Disk Lib. 774-6226 Jim Siede .... Paper/E ducation al Libraria n 489-3982 SPACE/TAIG Bulletin Board ... 473-2897

by the St. Paul Publishe d asts (SPACE), Enthusi r Compute Atari with no ation organiz dent an indepen Atari with ion affiliat s busines is Permiss ion Incorpo rated. granted to any similar organiz ation exchang es SPACE which with newslet ters to reprint materia l in We do, however , this newslet ter. ask that credit be to the authors and to SPACE. Opinion s expresse d are those of the article authors and do not necessa rily reflect the of SPACE, club officers , views members , or Atari Inc.

IN THIS ISSUE: DANGERS OF $D301 Part 2 by Bill Wilkinso n 320K 130XE MOD by Scott Peterson ST TIPS Part 2 by John DeMar ST SOFTWARE REVIEWS by Jim Schulz

page 4 page 4 page 7 page 8

Plus all the regular columns

SPACE JUNE, 1986 PAGE 2 BYTEB FRO~ THE PRES HELP l HELF,( HELP I

SPACE needs member written newsletter articles and reviews - WHAT do you do with your computer? WHAT do you like about ATARI? WHAT do you dislike? Do YOU ijANT a ONE PASE NEWSLETTER With thE NA~ES oF tHe OFFICERS anD MEETJN6 DATE??? Ho~ about t~e DOM? The Disk of the Month is about ta be dropped - WHY? NO MEMBER SUtt!iiED PROSRAMS, If peopie DON'T SUBMIT PROGRAMS, where do we get them? Now that I have said that, here 's what is being planned for the future -- !n JUNE we 11ili have Mel Rossing from Computer Outfitters to tell us how his unique business operates. You .an buy new or used software there, and he does accept trade-ins of used software. For JULY , ???? For AUS. or SEPT. Gordan Landsaan of Wizard's W ork will start a series on Word Processors or Spread Sheets. WHICH would you like to have first? Let 's decide at this teeting, and that's what we will have first in Aug. 1 and the second in Sept.

*** RAFFLE THIS "EETINS 111 ftf--------------------ttt tttTHE CLUB'S TV SET -111 lft--------------------ftf fff

1/$1.00, 3/$2,00 ttf Bruce Huag (a.k.a. THE PRES) Da Dof. Can epitaph) by: Frani: Haug

Welcome to another agonizing DON article. This 1onth I received the same amount of submissions as last month ii.e. zilch), l just don ' t know. How can you er.pect me ta give you gre;t pragra:s if you don't subiit even garbagel ! ! Now don ' t get me wrong; I don't want garbage, but I NEED yes NEED member submissions. if we don't get same me;ber submissions soon, well .•. the DOM will die, lt's up to you now. You decide if the title of this article is appropriate. This .;onth Ne will be selling a seperate dis~ for $4.00. This disk is a combination of sane excellent graphic deao's fro~ Germany hy "ay of Jersey (thanx JACSl.

V.P. Notes By Jiri Schulz

This 1onth ~e continue the ie;ory upgrade topic witr. an article fer upgrading a l30xe to 320k and one for 576k next month. I have net tried either of these upgrades. Use at your own risk. Ne~ory upgrades seem to be a hot topic for 8 bit co1puters now that the lo bit computers have me1ories of up to lib or 1cre. Upgrade your 130,e and have as much memory as a 520st! Topic tMo this ■or.th (seen in Antic Kag.) is the Basic revision C chip which is standard on J30xe and always promised for the oOOxJ and BOOxl. Basic revision C fixes ,any of the problems of the revision B Basic and a sir.ple 10 1inute chip uµgrade. B ! C Computervision of Santa Clara, CA are sell ing the chips for $10.00 plus a r.inimum $5,00 shipoing charge. This Mould be a great opportunity for a group order. Any volunteers??? To determine Mhich Basic you have, type "PRINT PEEKC43234)', Revision A returns 162. Revision B returns 96. Revision C returns 234. Finally, CES season has arrived and the news has already strarted to trickle out about the new developments. CES, the annual Consu1er Electronics ShoM in Chicago, is going on as! Mrite this. The first bit of the news is about the an again off agin 1agazine from Atari called the Atari Explorer. Lately, the only the ti1e you see the magazine is when Atari releases a nu1ber of oe" products and feeis like teliing us about them. Well, that might all change real quick. Atari has hired some big na1es in the computer publishing business to take ove the sagazine. The new editors are, get this, David Ahl and Elizabeth Staples. Sound fuiliar? David Ahl was tne editor-in-chief and founder of the late Creative Cor.puting magazine and Elizabeth Staples was tbe aanaging editor at the time of Creative Co1puting ' s demise. The current plan is go biaonthly im1ediately and go to a monthly foraat in i9e7. Let's wish the111 good luck, If the Atari Expiorer is going to succeed at all, these people have the best chance to 1ake it possible. Nore CES neMs is forthcoming at this aonth's meeting. Well, that's it for this month. Until the SPACE 1eeting, happy co1puting. The Analog Disk of the Nonth Dyanne Haug

Now on 11itt. the (lad of) Dom programs on the June 1986 1.ATARIDEH - An interesting graphic demo of the old reliable, lthat's the 800 for you XL/XE users) 2.ANADEMO - Two Animation deaos of supurb caliber. 3.HEX.PUZLE - Slide the HEX digits into their proper order (that's ·1-9 .then A-Fl 4.SEADuE - Shoot the sub, uses paddle, 5.HOLLY.CDI! - 'HOLLY NEDEVIL' an interes1ing detc, 6.WJD.LST - Fir. for l!HWBSTR i of tast 11onth's ga:aes. P.S. lf nDbody is going to enter the prcgra~ing contest, let ie kno~ new and save ie the agony, ok'

Due to 1y recent takeover of this position, I didn't get an article in until now. I would greatly appreciate it if the following people would bring a current ANALOS to the meeting so that I. can straighten out my records. Brad Jones Rich ~ohrland Susan Richter Larry Vandenplas Robert Perch11an Anyone who hasn ' t bought a disk within the past t•o eonths or so should bring a current 1a;aiine with them. Thank you.

SPACE JUNE, 1986 PAGE 2

SPACE JUNE, 1986 PAGE 3 MHY MEET!NB MINUTES by Bob Floyd The last SPACE meeting was held Friday, April 91 198b. In the president's report, Bruce Haug reported that ATARI has a new user group coordinator, Sandi Austin. She has sent her· first aailing to all registered User 6roups. Among the items she covered were that the XK301 modem has been a great success, •ATARI Planetarium' has been released and that 'Teacher's Pet• is an excellent program for teachers to keep track of various aspects of teaching. Here are a few other things Bruce did not have a chance to· comment on because I handed hi ■ the ■ ail too late: Sandi also said that a few "ATARIWRITER Plus• dictionary disks for the spelling checker went out with problems between the words "bloomers" and "bubbles•. See your dealer if you have one of these disks. Another point she ■ ade was that everyone should pay careful attention to the "System Requirements• labeled on every piece of ATARI software. Examples of potential problems are that •star Raiders II• will only work on a 130XE, and 'Silent Butler•~ "ATARI Planetarium• only work with a 1050 (or other 1.5 density) disk drive. In •rumors•, Jia Schulz, the vice president, reported that the XN801 ($220) dot matrix printer for the 8-bit computers Nas shown at Coadex. The 80 column cartridge Nas also shoNn, It will plug into the joystick port and includes its own parallel (printer) output port. 8-bit software shown included •star Raiders II" ($19,95), •super Boulder Dash", and "Racing Destruction Set•. A3.5" disk drive for the 8-bit line was also shown at Coadex. Treasurer Bob Siede reported that there is $1250.28 in the treasury. He said that the NAST sig is in the black, too, Nith most of their monies tied up in inventory of 3.5" disks for the disk of the month. Frank Haug, Disk of the Month !DON) librarian demoed several programs from the DOM. He mentioned that we have received several public domain 'Print Shop• libraries fro• JACS (Jersey ATARI Computer Society!. These will be on sale at the next meeting. Bob Rhode, newsletter editor, said that he 11ill be 011t of town for the July newsletter. He would appreciate any help yo11 can offer. (This is a one-ti;e thing, not a co11itaent.l In "Old Business•, it was reported that the ribbon re-inker is doing fine. Those Nith reel-type or the large, long Epson cartridges can have your ribbons re-inked for $1.00. Be sure to put the ribbon in a baggie before turning it over to Larry Vanden Plas at the meeting. The BBS was doNn at meeting time. ln "New Business•, it was suggested that the cl11b raffle off its old TV set and 400 computer and buy a second color ·monitor. After some discussion, there was a motion that was seconded and then carried. Arrangements are being made to do these things, In "Offers &Deals", it was reported that LaBelles 11as selling an 80 column printer and a color monitor cheap. COMB

SPACE JONE,

is selling a Qume compatible letter quality printer for $i90. One of the 1e1bers had purchased it and was satisfied with the printer. Since the meeting, I've noticed that Children's Palace is selling ~he 130XE for $120, which is $30 off prices locally. This may not be a bad way to gain access to 'BASIC XE" (a very ir.proved BASIC!, upgraded •synFile+•, 1 PaperClip" and "ATARIWRITER Pl11s• enhancements and •star Raiders II".

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To Whom it may Concern You aay have noticed that in the past couple of months that we have been seeing so1e quality articles, and you may have been feeling pretty good about our club. Let me put a little cloud over your sun. This club is being carried by a few dedicated people. Jim Schulz produces oodles of first rate copy every 1onth, including extensive reviews. Bob Floyd always produces ample words of expert caliber, and Brur~ Haug is setting a fine ·precedent as president. Bob, Jim and Frank Haug spend hours each month scouring BBSs nationNide for the articles and DONs we see. It's a oay of celebration when a SPACE or NAST member writes an article or program. _This club's in trouble. We use a lot of outside material, but prod·uce very Little. I suspect that the success of MAS~ is due almost entirely to the tireless efforts of Jim Schulz; would that SPACE had an equally self 1ess r.esiber of its own. 1986 PAGE 3 from AConcerned i'!emoer

SPACE JUNE, 1986 PAGE 4 only one byte. (Oh, yes, the fix on a 400 or 800 is ta put the OS in CRITIC mode while waiting for the connection. See a mapping book about location $42. l

DANGERS QF $0301 by: Bill Wilkinson, OSS

Part i110 An obscure comment in the original Atari OS listing -- and the fact that we had worked with b820's six or seven years ago -- gave us one of those •blinding flash" insights into the problem. That is where we left you hanging last month. Now we give you the answer, and the rest of the article. You don't see what is wrong with that? Recall the recommended method cf changing extended memory banks: (!) Read Port B, (2) masi: cut the current bank select state [using ANDI in assembly language, usuallyj, (3i include the new bank selection [probably _using ORAJ, and (4i store the new selection back into Port B. Look at step 1 again: READ PORi B!?! The problem gets especially acute if you are changing banks during an interrupt service routine (including a Vertical Blank or.el, If the carrier detect interrupt occurs Mhile the IRQs are disabled, it is "held off" until they are reenabled, But if Port Bis read from in the meantime, then the hard11are "foroets• what caused the interrupt. ·Now we will admit that the situation necessary to achieve that glitch seems an unlikely one to happen, yet it happens ouite handilv all the time with BASIC XE. a 1030, and some ~arieties of· AMODEN. Don't care about that? Well, then, how about you 400 or BOO owners who have a 1030? Did you ever call up on your modem, listen, hear the other modem answer yours {i.e., ·hear the ~arrier tonel, and yet have your program sit there twiddling its thumbs? My guesstimate is that this scenario should happen to you about once every 50 to BO times you try to make such a connection. Why? Because, in the 400 and BOO, Port Bis connected to joysticks 3 and 4; the operating system reads those joysticks (to copy their values into the shadow reoistersl DURIN6 EVERY VERiICAL BLANK~ If your carrier conne~tion occurs sometime between the beginning of the VBI routine and the ti1e the joysticks are read, say aoodbye to the Service Request interrupt!!! • Whew 1 Long winded, right? If there is no fix, why discuss this? Ah, came now, did you really think we'.d do that to you? The fix ~e adopted with BASIC XE seems a good one: never READ from Port B. Writing or storing to it does no.harm -- only readino does. Well, not quite never. When your progra~ first ;tarts running, read Port B once and save its value in some memory location (often called a •shadow• location -- used exte_nsively in Atari ·s OSl. ihen, when you need to change the bank selection, read the shadow location, perform . your bit manipulations, and write to BOiH Par; Band the shadow location. if your shadow can be in zero page (not recommended with Bi\SI= programs, due to the shortage of zero page), then you are increasing the size of the set-memory-bank routine by

ihe 130XEi320K upgrade by Scott Peterson. After both reading and building both the B00/2BBK upgrade (D.6.Byrdl, and the BOOXL/2S6K upgrade (C.Buchholzl, I decided that there also had to be a way to upgrade the 130XE. There is and thanks to the "Freddie' chip (C06199ll this modification is much easier to do than either of the other upgrades, Note: Thi Eupgrade is completely compatible with the 576k upgrade coming next 1onth, so if you want to do half cf the wor~ now go right ahead and perform this r:od. To do the upgrade you will need a soioering iron, a de-soldering tool, and some fine wire. See the parts list for the chips needed. First, remove both the case and the metal shield to get down ta the 1other-board. Then reaove the eight ram-chips U26 thru U33 ("T4264l. They are the row closest to the TV RF module. Next, bend up pin 1 on Z2 thru Z9 so that they point straight up and do not contact the PC board or sockets. Now install Z2 thru 29 in the place of U2b thru U33. These are the 25bK ra1-chips. You can solder them to the mother board, or use sockets. Now take a piece of wire approx 12 in. long and run a juaper from pin one on each of the 2SbK ram-chips to the next. After you do this the wire will be connected to pin 1 on 22 thru Z9 and you should have about b inches left over. Next, desolder and reaove U23 (C01479Sl, and replace it with a 40 pin socket. Bend up pins 15 and 16 on U23 and insert it in the ~ocket you just installed, iake Zl (74LS15Bl and bend up all the pins on it except pins Band lb. Put this "piggy-back" on top of U20 (HD14050) and solder pins B and_ 16 of Zl to pins 8 and lb on U20. Now solder a short Jumper troa pin 15 on Zl to pin B of Zl. Now, find chip C021697 (40 pin l, find its pin 21, Just to the lo11er right of pin 21 is a solder pad on the PC board (see diagram 1 for exact location), Solder a wire to the pad and run it to pin 1 on Zl. Next solder a wire to pin 15 (one of the two you bent outi of U23 and connect the other end to pin 2 on Zl. Solder a ~ire to pin 16 on U23 and connect the other end to pin 3 on Zl. Take Rl (33 ohm) and trim the leads to about 1/4 in. iake the wire you connected to pin one on the 25bK ram-chips and solder it to one e~~ of Rl. Solder the other end of Rl to pin 4 on Zl. Re-assemble the RF shield and case and you are finished. PARTS LIST Description Quantity Part Id 74L515E (2 to 1 Multiplexer) 1 Zl 41256 dynamic RAM (!50ns) Z2-Z9 8 33 ohm 1/4 ~att resistor R1 40 pin socket 1 16 pin socKets (optio~al) 6

SPACE JONE, 1986 PAGE 4

SPACE JONE, 1986 PAGE 5 The next page is a quicr overview of the bit table and numbers to be used in location 54017 [PORiB). I have finished aodifying a raadisk handler for the eltra rat. It uses a ram based OS so basic XE or XL can't be used. At present the best deal for this 10d. is to use MYDOS 4.0, which supports a very large single density ramdisk, With basic XE you can use a 1500 sector ramdisk and without it you can have about 2000 sectors. This upgrade has been tested on a BBS and has run for days on end without memory loss or error. If you need help or ■ore information feel free to call the Peanut Gallery 1408)-384-3906 (24HR 1 300/1200 Baud). Leave aail to the Sysoplthats ael. Sood luck and let me know if you write a better handler. Memory Control Register 54017 ($D301l Bit 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 U> ,:a ""' Da b C c d B R ... D=O enable diagnostic ROM. ·:.: ..:: .... a, B=O enable BASIC ROM. "C1 R=1 enable OS ROM. ...... 0 IU c,, C=O enable extended RAM. CL .ca ::, abed= 1e1ory control bits. .>"'.. ...,.r::....."' a, ... ..., ...IU Bank I Control I ... ... C

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If you are using NYDOS 3.016 and wish to use Basic XE and a ra1-dis~: at the sa11e ti1e 1 boot DOS and poke 5275,163 and 5324 1 16. So to DOS and write the new DOS. This will keep the two fro& •bu1ping 1 into each other. A similar poke can be done to DOS 2.5. It is poke 4838,163. The handier I have will set up 192K of the extra ram as 2 SD ramdisks or I DD ra1disk. If you are a hot-shot prograamer (I'm not) I think a print spooler that uses part of this ram would also be very· nice. This mod is ·easy to do and perfect fClr running a BBS, One note, on compuserve there is a mad by Rich Andrews which should not be confused with this one, his uses 33 new chips and mine uses 9 new chips. Have fun. Scott Peterson

Words From :he Co-Chair by Bob Floyd Again, I don't really have much to say this month. I a~ counting on Jim Schulz to come through as usual with the latest news either at the meeting or in this newsletter, I will try to cover the less •newsy• subjects. Club ST: It appears that NAST 1ay get a 1040ST in the near future. This is mainly due to the incredible jab Jim Schulz has been doing with the disk of the month. I don't think you can get public do1ain disks as good as the .ones Jim prepares anywhere in the country lor out of the country, for that matter), For those of you fro ■ other clubs who read the SPACE (NAST sig) newsletter, the DON's are available for mail order. Just send a note to Ji• (c/o the adaress on the newsletter) for a listing of disks (there are about 301. Price is $7.00 each for a full 360K disk of progra1s, drivers, et:. Raffle: The raffle aade only a few dollars at the last 1eeting. I think we need so1e aore active soliciting of tickets for this to work, Jim and I just don't have time during the meeting to do this. Naybe we can get a volunteer in the future • Ti1e Bandit: This really is the 1 1ust have• ga■e for the ST. It is 1ostly an arcade ga1e of· great variety with a few ele1ents fro■ adventure ga■ es. So get it! Newsletter Articles: It still appears that •sT-Nriter• files are the best form to subait newsletter articles. The easiest way to handle this is to upload the file(sl to Dave Hutchinson's BBS. There is a separate section there devoted to SPACE/MAST newsletter file uploads. Use X-Modem for file transfer, The phone nuaber is (612)-777-6376 between 6:00pm and 7:00a ■• You 1ight visit to see what else Dave has on hand. (Thanks Dave for providing this service.) ANISA Noes: The ANISA appears to be in trouble, at least if you believe two recent articles in lnfoworld, ihe arti:les clai1 aost of the original designers have left the company and that Coar.adore is not supporting the ■achine properly. Who knows what will happen? User Group Noes: There seems to be a rash of ATARI user group "cash flow• proble1s going around. I have heard of these troubles with ACE, MACE and TAI6. Let's keep supporting our club as we have in the past. It takes volunteers and a small co11it1ent to keep the club running properly. Perhaps the best thing you can de as a non-officer is to write a newsletter article. There are ■ any other one-time volunteer jobs that coae up from ti ■e to ti1e 1 tco. So, let's help out!

SPACE JONE, 1986 PAGE 5

SPACE JUNE, 1986 PAGE 6 News from the Cc-Chair Ey Jim Schulz Well, that time of the month has come for another NAST meeting full of news, rumors, and disks of the month. This month's rumors will most likely center around the CES show taking place as ! write this. I expect that we will hear a lot of good news about the ST and new software becoaing available. A couple of the things have already started to leak out. One of these is the new ftlitors of tne Atari Explorer magazine. Read my 8 bit news article to find out more about this. Probably the most interesting piece of CES news is that Commodore has decided not to show the Amiga at all at CES. Frc~ early reports, it sounds like the Amiga is hard to find anywhere at CES. It seems the bad Amiga news that Bob reported is now starting to show up in public. Expect to hear more about this at the ~AST meeting. ST-wise, it sounds like the Atari booth is bigger than last year and again packed with software developers showing their wares. The only thing different, though, at this co1puter shoN is the ST is also at a lot of non-Atari sponsored booths. This means more that more people are agreeing these days that the ST is the computer to buy. Nore ST news to come. It looks like we will soon have another Si magazine to add to our mailboxes. Compute! has decided that the Si is the computer of the day and is going ta publish a bimonthly ST-oriented magazine for $12,95 per issue which includes a disk with all the programs. The magazine will only be sold in a disk-magazine package. Ny only hope is that they clean up their act soon. The amount of ST related material has been slim at best in their recent issues, and in magazine format they are going to have to do more than print chapters out of books they have published. The 1ost important point for the magazine's success is to include OSS's Bill Wilkinson in their plans. His er.pertise in the ST and OSS Pascal will help make this magazine shine. 6ood Luck. Now for a hot rumor that happens ta be fact. Atari is test marketing a new monitor in California. This aonitor includes - get this - a double-sided disk drive ala Nae. Atari's idea is that with a 1040 you will get a 2-drive system in only 2 pieces, thus using less desktop space. Whether we will ever see this new monitor in Ninnesota retains to be seen. The fallowing is what I will call the BEN tip of the month. This another of the many undocumented SEN tricks that are yet to surf ace. If you find any, drop 1e. a note in the mail and! will include your tip next aonth. The following is not my writing or description. I could not write that clearly. [Take his word for it - and mine -ed.J Imagine you have two windows open on the desktop, one far drive A and _the other for drive B. If, say, the window for drive A is the active window, but you want to copy a file from window B tc window A, you don't have to click on window E 40 times for things to happen. Simply hold down the right mouse button while yau position the pointer over the file in the inactive window. Now, keeping the right mouse buttcn down,

click on the left mouse button and drag the icon ta the active windak, Release both buttons and the file will be co~ied without the active window being changed! Similarly, you can run a program in an inactive window using a right, dawn, left, double-click, Next let me tell you what my hot software programs af the month are. Drum roll please ••• The winners this month are: Rogue by Epyx and Cards by Michtron. I will not write a full review of these this aonth but bath of programs/games are very well done and a nice additions to your software library. Rogue is a D&D maze, shoot'em game with wands, potions, gold, scrolls, and a whole lot more. This program is a little hard to explain but it is a conversion of the mainframe game which has been played on UNIX systems for years. If time permits, maybe I can demo this at meeting. [Readers of SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN will remember when this program was featured in Computer Recreations -ed.] Cards is a collection of five card games in a 6EM interface setting. The gaaes include solitaire, cribbage, poker squares, blackjack, and canfield. All of the games are very well done and if you like card games, this is a must buy. As for last aonth's picks, Tiae Bandits is just as good as it was advertised. I heartily recommend that you purchase this shoot 'em up adventure/pacaan gaae. There is something in this game for everyone and it really never grows old •. There is also a very interesting two player option. As for CAD-3D 1 I am still waiting. I stand by •Y reco11endation and hope it will show up before the meeting. Finally, two local dealers are offering MAST memberships free or at a reduced price with the purchase of an ST. Wizard's Work will give you a free one year's membership to MAST and Mindtools will give you the same 1e1bership but at a reduced price. Reaember this when you tell your friend to buy their ST. An ST and a NAST membership - a perfect combination. Others who are interested in joining this deal can talk to Bob, Bruce or ae at the next aeeting. Finally (I said that once already), NAST is starting an official Atari developers sig (i.e. those who spent $300 for the developers' kitl. If this is you, please bring so1e identifying papers so that you can be registered. The best papers would be the envelope and mailing for the last devlaper tailing or the label from developers· kit box. Please see me for more information. Well, that is it for this aonth. Came to the June NAST meeting for more of the hostest news, rumors, software demos, and public domain software. Need I say more??? No.

SPACE JONE, 1986 PAGE 6

SPACE JUNE, 1986 PAGE 7 Some Tips on the ST John Del'!ar

Original article accompanied "ST-Talk" version 1.1, by John Del'!ar, distributed by Quantum Nicrosyste1s, Inc. Reprinted by permission of author and Ql'!I. Volume I, Part 2 bl Printing the Screen You'll need an •Epson co1patible" printer and a healthy printer ribbon for this one. If you ever want to grab a graphic copy of your screen display, press <Alternate} and <Help} at the same time. !'lake sure your pririter can handle it or the ST will go to sleep for a couple of 1inutes. Also, if the image will not fit on your printer, use the Printer Config Desk Accessory and choose 960 for the pixelsiline. Save the DeskTop to aake it permanent. 7) ACheap Nonitor Stand Out of despair, ! looked around for soaething to lift •Y 1onitor up a few inches. I grabbed a letter tray (one of those stackable, plastic in/out baskets) and flipped it upside down. ihe monitor sits nicely on it and the cables hide in the opening of the tray: Nost stationary stores sell the1 for three to five dollars or so. I have three trays now for ■y drives and two 1onitors. 8) Upgrading to One Neg of RA!'! Who would ever believe that we would be complaining about having ONLY 512K of RA!'!: With TOS in ROI'! <available for f25 now), the 520ST is 1ore enjoyable than any other personal computer. But One Neg gives you lots roo1 for nice things like large desk accessories and a big RAN Disk or two. Now the bad news ••• If you are not extremely comfortable with electronics and soldering, DO NOT attempt the upgrade yourself! Although I have an electronics ·degree and ten years experience with soldering, only two out of the five I've upgraded so far have Norked the first time. The others required careful debugging using an oscilloscope, along with a knowledge of 1icroprocessor systeas. l'!y suggestion is to wait for a plug-in board and pay the difference, If you can't wait, have soaeone install the RAM who has done it successfully before. By the way, I've been 1ore successful soldering to the BACK of the PC board instead of directly on top of the old RAM chips. The RF shield on the back of the board acts as a heat-sink for the RAM if the cardboard is cut away and no wires touch the metal. Remember to bend back the leads 180 degrees to mirror the pinout of the chips:

assocciated files together, just as you would keep related things together in a file cabinet. Selett •New Folder• from the File Nenu on the DeskTop. Give it a general name that describes its intended purpose iyou cannot rename a folder later on!l. Just click tNice on the folder and you will see what's inside of it. Nhen copying files into a folder, make sure you have enough space on the disk and do not go according to the '.'!.llber of bytes shown at the top of the window; this refers only to the folder, not the whole disk. Click the disk icon once and use the 'ShoN Info• selection from the File Menu to check the free space on the disk. 10) Backino-Up vour Protected Software The best solution to this problem is not to purchase softNare that is protected~ If you have a protected program and need a back-up copy, it is your right to protect yourself. First, ask the comoany to sell you a back-up copy without a 1anual at a reduced price. If they laugh at you, laugh at them by not purchasing any 1ore of their products and by suggesting the sa1e to your friends. Fortunately land unfortunateiyl, there are copier progra1s to copy just about anything en the ST. Please use these for your own personal back-ups onlv. Respect the rights of those publishers Nho are respecting your rights by NOT protecting their software. We're all looking forward to a long and prosperous life for the ST. Acomputer without software ■akes a great doorstop !com1odoorstop?l 1 The third part of this article Nill be printed in next aonth's neNsletter -ed. MAST NEWS NAST will be getting a 520ST cf it's oNn. The money taken in on the DO" sales is going to buy r.AST a 520 ST. Keep up the good work ! Buy more disks and "AST Nill buy acre equipment to help run an efficient and better organized aeeting. This 1onth we will RAFFLE off another program, chances are $1.00 or 3 for f2.00. The 1oney fro• the raffle goes towards new equip1ent! Tell your friends about !'!AST! Our meeting hall is AIR CONDITIONED; spend a cool evening with us JUNE 20th. There is a interesting article in June BYTE aag, 'The Atari 520st Upgrade", See 1e at the 1eeting if you are interested. Bruce Haug, SPACE Pres.

91 Using Folders When you find yourself staring at a screen full of files a~d looking all around for a certain file, you're ready for folders. Folders are actually sub-directories to keep

SPACE JONE, 1986 PAGE 7

SPACE JONE, 1986 PAGE 8 Diak of th• "onth - Jun• By Jia Schulz had nine d1•k• of th• ■ onth.

how 0=~b~!c•:;:.!~r •=~t::~:: H•••••• got jh~!v~~·t ia~ :~:{h!~i•r::~t~=~~h •o•• are h•r• but dlak, •ontn·• thia far in r••ult• th• fLnaf L••t •onth

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but• full featured disk fil ■ tnd ■ x pro9r•• that allo•• up ta It ■ v ■ n allo•• for• 1000 fil ■ a for a atnol• sided disk. Very co ■•■ nt field for each d1•k and each fll ■ an aach di ■ k. to r ■ organiz ■ ay o•n I • • using this nicely don ■•

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Jf all go■ a ••11, tn1• ■ i;ht for lnfor ■ ation on all past DO"•• b• avail•ble by ~uly. Screen S•v•r - lt didn't tak• lan9. did it? At the la•t •••tin9 •• t•lk ■ d •bout a caaa■ rcially availabl• ■ creen saving Thia Vea, fr ■ •!!! Nell. nere is on• for fr••• pro9raa. pra9ra ■ i ■ a de ■ k acceseary which when ■ elected will ••ke your ■ cr ■en oa black and brin9 i t back every one• in a while ta tell you it ts an,•• the XL• do. You will probably TinyBtuff - What???? Yea, Tiny Stuff,

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lt Nill also unaqua ■ z ■ the file• into DEGAS or NEC pra9r••• This ta tn ■ pro9raa tau•• for your picture file di ■ k foraat. ta get •••i•u• pictur•• and slidesha• too. Thi ■ ta a quality Puzzle - Really descriptiv•,

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Btev ■ Life - Not the board ea••• th• coaput ■ r oa••• Pauley has outdone hL•• ■ lf by sp ■ edin; up th ■ o•n ■ ration cycl•• Th• last varaton •a• •nd addin9 a sc~atchpad load feature. 90adJ thi• one 1• even batter. "uaic ftaker - Juat on ■ last t••••r, thl• piano ■ ueic :~:a:~1::•o:::~o::::~~ -~nd afford tt, then this prooraa tf you like Nu•ic Studio and I already hav• fiv• auatc fil•• and J •• ■ ur• aora is for Thia ia sure ta b ■ coae th ■ •tandard public doaatn will co••• ■ u ■ ic ••k•r proor••· l already hav• • checker Nell, that·• it far starter•.

Pi•no

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Th• hate fti~. on this dtak include th• and utilitr proora■•· The utility pra9ra ■■ include •••r B•rr ■ Palka and Star Nar ■• 1 !!~!1:~h:~:·:a~~~: f& ■ t raadlsk prooraa, a atzaable co ■■ and line d ■ •k •cc ■■ sory. a ~r:,r~:•p~=:~~:.t:~:: 33k print spooler and a full featur•d praora•••bl ■ calculator Bo ■ ethtno for everyone. for aonochro•• aonitors. ½:.a.:;r:c::,:=p~~::~ !:: and 8on fil• Tiny O ~~~-~-=:~d.fr::".~~i=e~ ~oN:T~:~ :=a~·=;o:r::~int The inforaatton fll•• include a preview of Toa Hudeon•• CAD-3D, 1 an i~:t,¥c:f:~•.:~:c~u~:t :~:a:;:r~fl~~:r~~ud:! ~t : : raadi•k•. proor••· •nd d••o of disk a is ■ Thi •3 "ay Diak 2 The d ■ •o• includ• • 5 ■ inut ■ 3D cad d ■•a The Qa ■ es include bl&ckJack• Catch the Mandelbrot prozra ■■•

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TAJ&•• Ralph Russel.

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"AST "ay Dl•k e4 - This ia a dl ■ k of Coaeuntcatton interface articles and 098 Pascal tutorial fil••• proor•••• th ■ co ■■unic•tian prooraaa include & UMJX t•r ■ c&p The an X"ODEN co ■auntcation proora ■ Mith source. ••ulator BEN interface •rticles are the l&taat Antic B•• tutorial• fro• ::~friy!u~f~~=~•Bi~c! ~=~o~tr~::~yaf~::ctal and a 8Et'I "aunt•1n de ■ o, a full featured 8E" Rally Race

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:h:•~;.::~~r~~::!,1•tT ~f:t~~ • full editor -for iapl•••ntation of Forth •ith an r~t!~::;~!nfln!•:d:~. :~t: • • • and that i ■ tnterfac••• AE9 atngl•-•tep d•bugger and YDJ and and futur• Thi ■ l• a au ■ t far all Just for •tartars. Forth pra9r••••rs. only dt•k• As of laat aonth •• have 21 lcount ■ ka, ••• •• di past th• of on 1nforaatian For four aonths. at th• naxt •• ■ ting. th ' for -~~~ht::•:h:~;.d~~:&ok n:~lc~A:! ar ■ checked All far th• sf. docua ■ntad in• READ.NE file in aach directory so you are ■ ur• •1.00 of prlc• new to ■ a ■ atntno that work ■• Pl•••• note the

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lf all 90•• ••11 this ■ antn l •111 ■ tart the MAST picture 1 yo! :~:•.!~d:~t~o at -~E::s:a~~O f !:~:r:n: th• excallent Pics•itch pro9ra• on April'• DON •hy th 0 • t~:·;t~iu;:·:t~e~-~~Xc !h: t ~::e:~==~~.:~~n I eaxiaua picture• and slide ■ haw, too. Raeeaber that I aa always That'• -it far th1• aonth. I know that th•r• are aoae int•r••t•d in ua ■ r aubai ■ aiana. around to•n Ju•t ••itinQ to aha• off their great So for now, 1 wil~ ••• you •t the n ■ xt NAST •••ttnv with •ark. at l•••t four new full d1 ■ ks of the be ■ t public daaein ■ oftNare to be found fro ■ the la•t ■ onth.

Software Reviews by Jim Schul:

thinYo~d~:: :~r.tr!•n::n!h~ ■w diviaian of the gov■rna■ nt,

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:~:rr:o:·b::t~ ·~ ::t:~~!1 :~1:~·.0°~0~ ~:~r:!~rd:fw~T~~·c:t T~~r:!~f·:o~ro,ara• a:· prograaaer•

Clock Card by Soft Logik Corp. Yes, the clock cartridge is out. Well, what does it do?? It auto1atically keeps the clock in the ST up to date. Does it work?? Sure, to a point. Let's start at the beginning. The clock cartridge is a cartd dge that goes in hole on the left hand side of your ST. The cartridge works with the cooperation of a desk accessary which pulls the tiae out of the clock at boot time and allows you to set the time on the clock. The cartridge includes a five year battery and is sealed permanently. Now the big question: does it work?? Yes, it does 11ork. But ... i have run into some problems with the clock cartridge after having used it for about three weeks now. First of all, 1y clock seeas to lose ti1e. It has lost about three 1inutes fro ■ the time it was originally set. It only lost three minutes total. Seeas strange ••• 1 would think if it started losing tiae, it would continue to lose time. The instructions say that you can expect to lose 30 seconds on the clock if a file is not accessed after the system is booted but not three minutes. This, I find a nuisance but not a no-buy bug as long as I know that it exists. The other problem is a little 1ore distressing. if you try and run their desk accessary after you have done any application, the syste1 will crash with two or three bo1bs. This is a problea. You can not use their desk accessary as a clock. I have added the digital clock desk accessary to 1y disk so that I can see the time. Well, no11 do I buy this new fangled gadget for 1y ST even with its proble1s?? I will say if you really want to ti1esta1p files and always want to 1ake sure you have the correct time and date, yes. I have a use for this and have found it an almost indispensible piece of hardware addition for my ST. But Ji11 what about those problems you 1entioned?? I am willing to accept these limitations for the benefit of the clock cartridge. But I aa not going to leave it there. I a1 going to write them with •Y proble1s and see if I get any responses. I hope to give you an update next month. I really like this product and it will probably fill my cartridge slot until soaething better comes along. King's Quest II by Sierra On-Line Are you an adventure gamer, arcade ga1er, gamer or even ST user in general? If so, I sure hope you own this for your ST. King· s Quest II is an adventure game with a difference. Animation. Yes, animation. -So what so special?? First of all, you are character on the screen that walks when you move the joystick or use the keyboard, Big deal. How would you like to swimming in the ocean and 11atch ti sh jump up and down in the water around you as you swim?? Yes, they do. Still, big deal. Well, in your

SPACE JONE, 1986 PAGE 8

SPACE JONE, 1986 PAGE 9 travels you run into a cave and a mad witch, and if you are lucky you might hear that famous cave theme. No, not the Flintstones. But yes, Batman. And what would Bataan's theme be without the Batmobile? Yes, you see the Batmobile heading into the cave. There are also other little stories. Would you believe 6rand1a's house and Red Riding Hood?? And what would these be without, yes, the wolf? But don't get the idea this is gaae for kids. This adventure is a lot aore. This gaae has depth - Literally. The trees in the forest can be walked in front of and behind. Need I say any aore?? This prograa is well done. Now the important question: do I buy it?? With no reservations, I say yes, yes, yes!!! If you are going to buy any games for the ST, this ranks in ay personal top two on an equal basis with the excellant game Sundog. This gaae is for the whole family, not just the adventure gaaer. This is next step in graphics adventures and I can't wait for ■ore. Sierra On-Line has just released Black Cauldron for the ST based on the Walt Disney movie. If it is anything like King's Quest II, it is sure to be a hit. I don't have it yet but I aa waiting. This gaae truly takes advantage of the ST's graphics to best e~tent. Buy it. Yes!!! Print Master by Unison World, Inc. If you have been waiting for Print Shop, Mait no longer. It is here and better besides. Print Master is the latest in the Print Shop clone race, the first available for the ST. If you don't know what Print Shop or Print Master are, these programs allow you create your own custo1 cards, signs, banners, etc. from borders, fonts, graphic icons or pictures. They also allow you to create your own graphic icons with a graphics editor. Print Shop is the granddaddy of these type of programs Mhich started the whole print design craze. Print Naster takes Print Shop and goes one step further. So1e of the nice features of Print Master include print previeM (see what it looks like before you print itl, saving of designs for further editing (no longer do you have to start over each ti1e you design that sign), 1ultiple icons per design, calendars both aonthly and weekly, and significant for the future, the print drivers are separate tasks allowing for updates of drivers and new drivers for non-supported printers. Also graphics icons can be designed in three colors - white, black, and gray.adding for some interesting effects graphically. Now the question of the hour, yes. If you liked Print the other computers and were waiting for the ST on Shop version, buy Print Master. The way this program is designed, future expansion for more borders, fonts, and print drivers is not limited like Print Shop. The first graphics libr~ry is already out _with 140 new gFaphic icons with a second disk due out any day now. This is another good buy if you have a graphics printer and a good use for the many print design which can be generated, Just cake sure you have a 1ot of ribbons handy, though. You sure will use them.

Followups from last month Last month I reviewed a very good program called Disk Librarian from Extended Software. Well, the program has a few bugs. So I wrote E~tended Software with ay list of bugs and one 1onth later I recieved an update with the bugs fixed and a thank you note for spotting the bugs. Let's hope other software companies are as responsive as this. I will keep you infor1ed. Short Notes First, a communication program called Mi-Tera was reviewed by Analog in the last few 1onths as the first communications progra1 with a 6EM interface. It has also recieved a very good review fro■ Analog. Well I I woui d Ii ke to put an advisor;· on this program. I seen this program and ad1it that I have not used it. Those who have say it is not as easy to use as originally advertised, This is not to say that it a bad progra1, but run this progra1 and look at the 1anual before you decide that this is the best coamunication progra1 to buy. It works as advertised but requires some set-up that is not always as straight forward as it 1ight see■, On one BBS that I get on at least five people who bought this progra1 now have it sitting in the box because it is just too much work and too co1plicated. You have been told, Second, at a previous 1eeting all Hippo Software was panned as bad software and a bad buy. Well, Hippo must be listening because new versions of all of their software is now being released with printed docu1entation and no copy protection. See, soaetimes it pays to complain. They do listen. It should also be noted that all Hippo Software was panned as bad. Since that ti1e I have seen one very good program fro• Hippo. This is Hippo Backga11on. This is a very nice done backga11on ga■e which uses the SEN interface. I as not a backgammon player but if you are this program should definitely be looked at, It is very well done. Nell, that's it for reviews this 1onth. If I find time; next 1onth we will read about Check1inder, the long announced and finally available program fro1 Haba and Pawn, the next generation in text adventure gaes. Until next 1onth, happy ST computing.

Bradle y's Bromide

If comput ers get too powerf ul, we can organi ze them into a commit tee. That will do them in.

SPACE JONE, 1986 PAGE 9

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