November 1986
NOVEM BER
1986
This month's meetings:
FRIDA Y, FRIDA Y,
SPACE MAST
NOVEM BER NOVEM BER
14 21
At the Falcon Heghts Community Center 2077 Larpenteu r Ave W SPACE ELECTIONS and SWAP
MEET
2:.:::-1~!13 . !Mi tor Bob llliooe. 774-6226 Bob :;ieoe . .. Trea:surcr 1891982 537-5142 Bob Floya . . Gecretary 4d4-1516 Frank Haug . .. Disk Lib. 774-6226 Jim 5iede . . .. Paper /F.ducation ai l,ibr::i r i 11n ~d!l-:J!.16;.! SPACE/'fAlG 8ull1'tin tloard ... s;;:::-wu·r
Drucc llaug . .. President
,Jim Schulz .. Vice-PrP-s
by the St. Paul Published Atari Computer Enthusias ts (SPACE), an independe nt organizat ion with no affiliatio n with Atari business is Permissio n Incorpora ted. granted to any similar organizat ion exchanges SPACE which with newslette rs to reprint material in We do, however, this newslette r . ask that credit be to the authors :ind to SPACE. Opin ions expressed are those of tho article authors ::1ncl do not necessari ly reflect the of SPACE, club officers, views members, or Atari Inc.
I!I -:'!l!S ISSUE: SOFT'ii/J'.E REVIEWS :er ~-Bits ana
STs
IC::> ::::'.lFEREllCE :~nt~nued irom Octc~er
BY ~AWS amendment s MAG:C SAC
~ac:ntosn emulator
Plus all the monthly :olumns
Bytes from lhe Fre!I November elec:bon time is here! Alonq with lh,1t c::nm•• ct11rn1,1•• to th" By Laws , read about them later in this n•w~lutt~r. The Minneapolis Childrens Hospital pr OJl>C l: i ■ c:qmm1114 •lcmq fl ne. Come to the meeting for • report or, hnw I 1111 r nm1111t •r pn,,;entatian went on Fri Nov . 7th. The St. r ,uol l hi l11rw11 ■ Hn■ pltlll Is still being worked an, more info llt thi, m"'"llr,q ,
Proposed By Law changes ARTICLE V MEETINGS Section
6 . MINNESOTA ATARI ST ( MAST I is a SIG of SPACE.
•
Section
7. All SIG's are required to Elect a
•
Co-Chai rs,
• •
board.
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* * *
SWAP MCET NOV 14th MEET INC, After El ■ctlon•
·••**•····*~·-,·~··
Hop■
th•Y 4'1
I V II
lly
ffl■■tlng
p.,p.,,
,final
apprcva l
of
Chairman the
or
e:: ecut 1 ve
ARTICLE ??? GENERAL Section 1. No SPACE - MAST Officer or member is paid for duties preformed. With prior E::ecutive Board approval "out of pocket axpenses" are paid upon tl",e ;;ubmitting of a bill or sales slip to the Treasurer at an E:<ecuti v@ Board Meeting.
dllta .
QllM Wei 1 I c:oul d sure use ,;ome ■ubml ■al"" " • 111 I ti ••<J11I h 11, ■ proqramg wont all mal:e i t in the newal ■ tt1>r. l 11 h!!/ ,.,1,11,.,1 ,.,.,. •ftar this is submitted.
The proqrams on the Nov■mbor 1qu1-, IJIU1 , 1.PQWRSTAR.COH - A Pro,-ral•••• d•mll at • Ill •riht Looks goad. 2.SECTCOMP compares fl le• aru1 I I •I 11 ,.,., h h y ! • th•t different. 3. TXTSPLIT si::es . 4 . PC256.DOC - doc for 116. :5,PCCARD - a qui cl raf ■ r•nr• c:u ,t l11, 6.PC256XE.&AS - Allow• t'•l>•rclqJ 10 11e • 11111 ltrl I exp~nded machine. 7.SPELLFtX.BAS - fi:, for c.0mp11t• • • ep•.,d 11<1 lfll, 8.YATZEE - A cla!IIC dice q-m■. 9 . SLOTS - Ona ar-med b•"dlt. any oqor°'
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Section 8. Club OOM's will be sold at club meetings by the Designated DOM Libr-ar1an, and the price of this ,;oftware will be set by the SPACE - MAST executive boar-d.
Please at the Swap Meet bring only ,i, 11pnal IH!lUr•111■ wtth Doc's . The Nominations committee ha■ tun,e,d 1r, • ■ lfltlt uf ufflc ■r• to be voted on, ,;o now you can rl!lllx com1> tn tt,,o mwwl 11,u, VUIE!, And not worry about being elected. Self nomlnAIH1n la lrt c111l ■ t If you would like to add your name to the list. see you at the meeting'! PS The Bull; Dishs are ordered'
sub jec:t
Section 2, No SF'ACE - MAST Officer 1s F'AID. Compensation 1s (II free DOM each month, additional DDM's are provided when there is more then one dis~ per mcnth, IF the Officer provides the DOM Librarian with the blant media. SF'ACE MAST Officers are not required to p~y membersh1~ dues, upon termination of aff1ce, dues 3re '~quired. These du~s will be calculated on a per mont~ bas1s if a full t~rm 1s not served.
••
Section No SPACE MAST member shall sell org1 ·.re SPACE - MAST Public Domain software t~ any ether p1?r-son, bulletin board~ or Computer Club. ~11 requests for SPACE MAST public domain software will ~~ author,aed by tt-11:? des1qnated DOM librarian or E:~ec~t1 ·.·e 3 =ard.
1,,,.
Section 4. SPACE MAST does ~Qt sell DOM's to Non-Members. Other computer clubs may ~rade with SFACE MrlST on a
one far one basis, disk -fer ::~i-
or
p,...ogr.8m
for
program.
Mor-c, proqr-ams wi 11 be adder1 b■ I m Q I h'I! mi~•• I IHI. CI ttop■ J Thanl· s for all the P• ■t ■ llbmlet11n 11 . /\rH1 pltt•UI donLlt ■ •□me pr-ograms or else the dom wll c•••• to a .· 111l.
Section
~. Any member found to be :r ~•olation of these the c:!1~1::i. N.;:J l"'"eun::tur'=iement of unused dues will be made .
B,- Laws will be e::pelled from
..
....
V.P. Notes By Ji11 Schulz November is here •nd it is election tiae in ■ ore ways than one. I am SPACE writing this on election day whatever day it is this year and this month holds its elections, too. The only difference between the election day's already elections and SPACE's elections is that our elections for officers are aonth pretty much decided. But ■ aybe that's the way all elections are. This or we will be electing a new president, vice president, secretary , and treasurer to tome should I say reelecting . All offices have no ■ inees so you only duty is throw and vote. If you would still like to run, just coMe to the Meeting and election your hat in the ring. Just one final point, you don't have to fear the 11onth 11eeting. Some groups announce elections and have one-fourth of the into an office. At ■ embership show up for fear that they will get coerced come to SPACE, all the arm twisting is done and all you have to do Is agree. So at this the meeting to agree on the ballot of offic1rs and buy soMething cheap As always, the doors of the officers and phones are always ■ onth's swap meet. open for suggestion s and help. Now on to the news •••••• What news???? This month is another slow ■ onth for 8 bit news. But is here are soee goodies which I have picked up. First of 111, Atari E•plorer this now available at a store near you. The editors did a very nice job with issue first new issue even though so ■ e of the news is old. Hopefully the ne•t has will be a little bit more current. For a first issue, I like It. Atari finally moved their magazine fro• the reala of propaganda to •o•ethlng Atari worthwhile to read. One paint which I have heard ■ entioned by others, as Explorer has done a nice jab of interai•in g the 8 bit and ST news and reviewsone to not anger either group. The ■ agazln• is 50/50 and not seeMingly slanted Ne•t way or the other. Naybe both ■ achines can coe•ist in the sa ■ e ■ agazine. ■ onth: Issue 12, I hope. Mell, maybe both ••chines can't coe•ist??? ? This month, ANALOG has piece announced that they are starting an exclusive ST magazine. I know this like of news doesn't belong here, but ANALOG will return to 8 bit only oagazine by side pre-ST days. The new ST ■ agazine Nill be monthly and will be sold side with ANALOG. Now •hat will ANTIC do?????? The piece of news that I do have ls that the BO colu ■ n box has been delayed again for some unearthly reason and now will not be available for Christ11as. More updates on this and other 8 bit stuff will likely surface will keep during this month's COMDEX soft•are show the •eek of SPACE meeting. I news my eyes peeled and give you the coaplete rundown of the latest and greatest 256K or at this oonth's meeting. Possible announce ■ ents include updated XE •ith aybe ■ Sl2K of oemory, official announce ■ ent of the 3 1/2 inch disk drive, and •••• the possible sound upgrade with ANY sound chip. We shall see. Stay tuned Good stuff is coming soon to our disk library. Unknown to Frank, I a ■ runs in the process of getting a super developaen t program from Europe which ••••. only on the 130XE or upgraded systeos(I expectl. Nore on this next oonth I would like to belatedly thank Bordy and all of those who participat ed one in the wordproces sing deoos at the September meeting. This was probably To of the best demonstra tions I have seen at our oeeting and more is to co••· and see part two of this series show up in Deceaber for the spreadshe ets talk all hands-on demonstra tions. Also, since I a ■ thanking, I would Ilk• to thank I think of those who volunteere d to help with our Children's hospital project. for this is probably one of the most i ■ port1nt thing• that this club h11 done the community and I and all of the club officer, appreciate your support. Finally, this ■ onth in 8 Bit Xtra we will have part two of the !CD
conference . Next ■onth, I have uncovered a part of the aissing 1090 expansion box specs. "ore on that next ■ onth. Also so ■ ewhere else in this ■ onth newsletter is the first installmen t of 8 Bit Reviews. I hope you enjoy. Mell, that's it for Nove ■ ber. Reae ■ ber Christ ■ as is right around the the corner and your Atari would always like a present, too. No new news on be stock sale fro ■ Atari. The offer for a prospectus still stands. I would nice to tell the ae ■ bers of both groups first hand about Atari's financial status. See you at th ■ ■ eeting with the latest and greatest news and latest wards fro ■ CONDEX. Happy co ■ puting.
8 Bit xtra our club This is the second in a series of BBS articles which I have collected for This aonth is the second of two parts of a conference with two newsletter . at a part of representa tives fro ■ !CD on Septe ■ ber 13, 1986. Ne•t ■ onth we get to look Read and the long lost and never released Atari 1090 e•pansion box hardware notes. enjoy. Ji• Schulz
the difference (Ji ■ Woods) When I got ■ y R-Tiae 8 cart. it ca ■■ with dos 3.2d, what is 3.2d ~ 3.2b and is 3.2d the latest? 055 cart (!CD-Hikel I forget exactly .•• I think it has to do •Ith BASIC XL and old up when it accessed inco ■ patibility ••. th ■ cart would lack up the syste ■ when it booted TIHE ind DATE the RTB. The other thing had to do with the way it handles input uin the ire very ainor. coa ■ ands ••. now batch files stop ... overall, the difference s (Ji• Woods) is it the latest? ga (!CD-Nike) 3.2d is the very latest land has been for quite a few ■ onthsl (Francis) That is go for ■ e! I never knw why it does. 2)How do you (Jerry) Ills the Raadisk Battery backed •• l've heard both it is and isn't; set the drive nu ■ ber of the NIO hardware or software. asused with (!CD-Tomi I -- The HID uses a separate power supply Hh1ch is the same type U.P.S. a 1050 disk drives there is not a battery back up prov1s1on unless you get •.• each drive (!CD-Hikel 2 -- The drive numbers (DI-DB> are set up Dy the NIOconf1g uration nuaber can be one of the following: 1. Hard drive (set partition, controller ID, and unit nuaberl 2. RAN drive (set size) ii, but no 3. Floppy drive (set actual floppy number ••• i.e. D4: could be floppy unit software can tell the difference would without 4. Unusigned ••. in which case it Hill access the regular ID as it normally the HID All you have to (Chan Ke1thl Also, Jerry, I might add that the "config' pg ■ is resident. do is hit SELECT/RESET and up it pops! ok, ga Bryan, then Darius. (!CD-Nike) (thanks Keithl <BRYAN DREWI with that config prog, can i set ■ ultiple drives? and up to (ICD-Hikei Yes, the config assigns devices (RAN,Hard,Floppyl to all B drives any Bl eight RAN, Hard, or floppies can be used (but the total is still a aix of (BRYAN DREWI How about Percom dd emulation? number of sectors (!CD-Hikel The NIO RAN and Hard drives all are double oens1ty •.• the are set by the conf1g ... 1 'm not sure I know what you 're getting at. SpartaDOS X IDariusJ SpartaDDS 3.2 has trouble working with 1030 Express. Will the cartridge fix this? And any plans for a disk cache? fro ■
(!CD-Toa> It does? Could you answer that Keith? with 3.2 is that for some reason IChmn Keith) sure ••. The reason 1030 Express! won't work what Express' } uses and is !which aodea XH301 the with the T: handler that comes It causes SD to lock up the first tiae it tries to SpartaDOS don't like each other. found in DL2. The way around that is to use the TPATCH.CON that can be HUST do a ti ■ estamp a file. you Also, ion. instruct RETURN sieple a into vector p• It turns the "timestam and so does SD's keyboard KEY OFF coaaand, since Express! steals the i ■ aediate VB!, buff er. g. Will Sparta X allow the (Darius} But the patch keeps the tiae and date fro ■ advancin cache? Xa301 handler to be used? And lastly, any plans for a disk prereadi ng?l ga <!CD-Hikel What do you aean by disk cache laore buffers? (Darius) Prereadi ng. ent, the Atari can't IICD-Hike) No, that is only possible on a aultitas king environm The SOX will use ■ ore buffers handle this without be iaco ■ patible with aost software . the MIO which (hold on} will however, <again) The SOX has •ore buffers when used with in SOX ••• so far neither Keith nor eake it run much faster, The Xm301 handler we will try care of and fixed ••• I have found the conflict ••• I hope that it will be taken soon using a 'relocat able' <Chmn Keith) on the Express -- a new version will be out ••• version of the xa30l driver. ■ aybe that will fix the problea <Chan Keith) ck, bill is next. ■ ent. I would like to be able (Bill Colburn) Ok, sorry, Anyhow, I a ■ fro ■ an IBK environ ons, etc. Then when I read/wr ite to define a random access file to SD X with key definiti key stuff. A• I drea ■ ing the i ■ possiblt a record, I want SD X to take over and handle the dreui? (!CD-Mikel You •ean database with 'INDEX' or key files? update of the (Ch ■ n Keith) Mike •• what he is asking Is if the (Bill Colburn) Yes, sort of, Are you faailiar 11ith VSAN'?? rent• to the user •• in other words, SD ICh ■ n Keith) index and stuff is going to be •transpa X will do it •automa tically". !Francis ) BATCH files? all you have to do is define you !!CD-Mikel Yes, SOX will do all key adds transpar ently, you just add records (via XIO> keys <i.e. what fields to keep it sorted byl, from there and thats it. Other calls are: position within KEY (next record in sa ■ e sorted mannerl lookup record lby KEYi delete record and several others for flaxibil ity. program? !Bill Colburn) Is all this accessib le froa MY applicat ion RENAHE or DELETE. IICD-"ik e) Yes Bill, the calls are all fro ■ XIOs just like unload and reorgani ze my keyed <Bill Colburn) Sounds fantasti c! How about utilitie s to files??? become scattere d througho ut <ICD-"ike) yes, after ■ any adds and deletes, the key files pass) utility will read and (single pacting ■ co A sectors. partial only fill your disk and es do not since it i1 theeselv records the ••. file coapact ore ■ a into keys the reorgani ze spaces are (note that deleted where re•ember to ability with file linear a straight these are strictly fixed length records} . thanks) 18111 Colburn) I got my VISA card out!! HOw much•• (and in about 3 mos IICD-"ik e) The cart will be 79.95 and will be availibl e (hopeful I yl. francis, Abdul. tChmn Keith) sounds great! next are Remus, Jarry, gary, !Bill Colburn I Fine'! 111 And can I comfig a hard drive !Remus) Any plans to use an IF ••• THEN ••. ELSE to SD X? as 5,6,and 7? IICD-Hike) Yes, the batch file processi ng will handle:
IF •• then .• else do ••• while assignae nts (varible s etall this is soae of the and possibly •ore structur es (as fit and are practric al. you want .•• and may be later decision s), The Hard drive can be any drive nuaber several <HID) the proapt? Like (Chan Keith! aike, going to put the current director y in Dl:DOWNLOAD> ? 11ill be finalize d in (!CD-Hik el Very probable ••• this is fairly easy stuff and a aonth or so. (Chan Keith) ok., greot. IRe ■ usl Thx IRA") itn, (Larry Friday) I assuH then that the HIO is still a volatile unless you leave the power on. way to go. They are IICD-"ik el Yes, if it ■ ust NOT crash the RAN, a UPS is the takes a lot of power RAN !Neg since cal impracti is bckup battery but e, •xpensiv <relativ e to CMOS BK static RA"s) •• <Chan Keith) ok, gary then francis. <Larry Friday) Yeah, that·s what I thought too. Thanks. up to lbH, right? <Francis ) So, under BASIC, up to BH, right? But Under ACTION 1 ls it correcti on I POINT lchan, OK-b4K 1 0 -255 by ault b4K. u continue . ACTION llCD-Toa) Hike is off tuporu ily again (Dang ST) but let and other language s are lbNeg. drive so can up yo? (Francis ) Toa, I noted. So for KIO, how larger for hard Chan, I aa not finish yet. SCSI controll er will (!CD-Toal The "ID will handle any Hard drive the SAS! or "egs (lets say DI: and take ••• for exaaple: you can divide a 40 Neg into 2 lb Db: l ••
guess that HIO had no liait aax. size of hard drive? <Francis ) (!CD-Toa) then use the last BK as another drive unit. (Francis ) See thanks! that is al I. I NEG? (Abdul) Can the Raa in a 25bk MIO be upgraded to say ••. special ORA" ICs not <ICD-Toe) Sure, but it •ust be done by ICD. The MIO uses S200 to upgrade, normally avilable and no sockets. Price will be arouno (Abdul) ok thanx!!! and will prgs (Jerry) How auch prograai ng area will we have with the Cart Ii ke ••.• by himself. (Francis ) lhat is possible for hardware hacker can do it ROM ana nave large (Jerry) Express be able ta take advantag e of the DOS in buffers. aaount \ (ICD-Kike) To ■ is down ••• The SOX 11ill take about the same to field that one? (Chmn Keith) want and see. (!CD-Hikel of •e ■ ory as does 3.2. We'll just have to wait 1n a cartridg e? lChmn Ke1thl hma ■ ••• sa ■ e amount of memory even tho it is in RAH becasuse (co•e <!CD-Hikel The SOX still has to put ■ uch of its contents nor•al carts or on guys) because the ROM can not be activate d while running be ALL in ROM ••• will proc •and ■ co the however, ••. area cart programs in the the old commano area tne •.• up set this of featues g redeemin the of this is one of the kernal (or n expansio general with replaced be will up take to proc used FMS). <Jerry) Oh well it would've been nice. (l'tark(To olworksl l will ICD sell a kit for MIO ra ■ upgade' (!CD-Tomi Absolute ly not! Sorry Hark. (Mark I Tool works)) bu,uer !
•e
(Francis) Mark, unless you are hardNare hacker. (Chmn Keith) hehe,.ok, Robert.
8 Bit Revi eNs By Jim Schulz a Okay, which better game to start revieNing with than a re•ake of is classic, For those of you Nho don't know or don't own, Star Raiders the Atari 400 probably the best known and one of the first ga ■ es available for was the and 800 now many years ago. This space adventure /shoot'em up game it is still first game that I brought for •y Atari 800 noN lour years ago and or steal one of my favorite games. II you don't own this game, beg, borrow that much (shame on oel to get it. This is a ■ ust buy. How he ever squeezed But this isn't a review of Star Raiders. ga ■ e into BK of ROM, I'll never know, a Atari, in their infinite wisdo ■, decided that they would produce II.' Does it sequel to Star Raiders and call it you guessed it 'Star Raiders it??? Nell, live up to the original? ??? Is it worth buying??? Should I buy I hope to answer these questions in the following revieN, original First off sooe history. Star Raiders II is not written by the nothing to do author of Star Raiders and really unless I ■ issed something have a story ta with the original. II you want ta get technica l, Atari did write Star Raiders II is actually a cleaned up ■ ake it look like a continua tion. of 'The Last Starfigh ter", a gaae that the version original the even ar version Ok, Ji ■, but what about the game??? released. never but , announced Atari aid Give u time ..... Instead Okay, noN to the ga•e. The pre ■ ise af the game has changed, with a number of of just defending space stations, you know must defend planets But this time cities. You again have fighters which are trying to kill you. fighters off in they are just a bit mare intellige nt. If you kill two af three the fighters are a wave, the next wave will again have three fighters until all it past them gone, Killing these guys is not a piece af cake. And if you make easy. You Well, then you have the destroye r• ta deal with. These ain't But this isn't kill off one or two of these and then it's back for refueling . three space the whole ga ■ e, in addition to protectin g four planets and up ta might ask??? stations, you have to destroy the ene ■ y attack bases. How you on your awn By warping off to their planetary syste ■ and zapping their bases their bases is strafing runs like they data your planets. Destroyin g all al ship•. the only •ay to Nin the game and stop the continuou s waves of enemy other ar Sound interestin g???? Well, the story sound goad. If I sa•ehow One good part of a good game is not haw good ■ essed up the story, I a• sorry, ation, If I the document ation is, but how it plays. I hate reading document Alright •.• get a game, I want ta play it not read. Ca ■ e an Jim, continue. So that the game in a nutshell, what da I think??? Ho• does it it is if you compare?7?? I like it. If there is one thing that I don't like, ships keep don't learn how to destroy the enemy bases, there is no end. The it is one of coming. This could be good or bad. I have not finished it, but it to Star the only games that I play these days on my 800 and BOOXL. Compare The kills Raiders?? ?? Star Raiders is a classic and not likely to be outdone.
in Star Raiders are tougher in Star Raiders II. The ships are ■ are intellige nt ■ eone wanted a II. The graphics are better in Star Raiders II. But •••• If so I play II??? truthful answer, I think I like Star Raiders story better. Will beat this thing Yau bet, probably ■ are these days than Star Raiders. I have ta waited two I someday, Should you buy it???? You bet, if you can find it. They are hard to co ■ e ■ anths for •Y copy and haven't seen another copy since. II and should by. To conclude, it isn't Star Raiders, but it is Star Raiders II is a be judged an its awn ■ erits and not an its predecess or. Star Raiders game very goad and enjoyable game and should be added ta all software collectio ns. ■ onth I So what's next up. Haw about Super Boulderd ash!!!! Yes, next Until next Nill look at the original and its sequel, Haw da they fare??? ■ onth, see you at the SPACE ■ eeting.
The article is 'The Kyth af ST Superior ity• by Sheldon Lee ■ on, one af the contribut ors ta Co ■ pute's ST. This article has created a lat af talk an the BBS's since it's publicati on in the Co ■ puter Shopper. Now you can judge for yourself, OSS 055.NEWS - Saft•are Press Release. This is press release fro• announcin g their new BAREWARE line of software. If you are an 055 fan or not, read about the release af their first two products in the BAREWARE line only available by ■ ail. this, It also Well, that is or what Nill be on-line by the ti ■ e that you read you like this you an idea of what will probably be posted in the future. If a bit with the idea and find it useful, let ■ e know. I have ■ y hands in quite group, writing disk library, running the MAST group, helping ta run the SPACE it, it will newslette r articles, and starting neN projects. Sa if you like I will continue. If I hear na response, it will probably fade away and download sa ■ e of this infor ■ ation for ■ yawn use. this ■ anth new on KAST On-Line: Hot news fro ■ the COMDEX ne•s on software shaw, the latest updates of new ST saft•are, and the latest get the disk this month's disk of the ■ onth. If I can get ■ y act in gear and on •hat is finalized before Thursday night, I will try and post a quick update This 1s Friday. that eating ■ HAST the for month the of disk month's on this •Y goal.
Ca ■ ing
Finally, MAST On-Line is far your questions and hopefully answers. so if you call up both boards at least once every two days if not ■ are often I •ill get back have a question ar co ■■ ent, leave me ■ ail. I lave ■ ail. And wants and needs to you, MAST is more than •Y opinion and Bob's opinion, MAST and I your input so if you have any coa ■ ents leave the ■ publicly or privately will get back ta you. column So that is MAST On-Line. If it continues , I Nill continue this what you want telling you •hat is new, what 1s coming, and if I get any mail, aid on-line or have questions about, This column would be siailar to ANTIC's mademing. column or ANALOG's new on-line coluan. Until the meeting, happy
NAST On-Line By Jim Schulz Okay, Jia, Mhat is this??'? Didn't you tell us about this last •onth and Mhen I called nothing Mas there??? Another false notice,huh? ??? Well, .. , Ok, listen up. MAST On-Line is ■ y futile attempt to support and coamunicate to the MAST members between meetings. I get quite a bit of information in ■ y research and reading for this newsletter and the NAST ■ eeting so I hope that cam pass some of that infornation on to you. NAST On-Line currently has both a LR Data BBSes. ■ essage base and a doMnload section on both Nindtools/ST A6 and Neither of these boards are financially supported by NAST, but both boards have given some space to the NAST group for this effort. Now the phone nu•bers: Nindtools/STAG542-8980 LR Data777-6376 Now for what's out there: not ■ uch as I write this. Since Nindtools Mas up first, they have most of the stuff so far, LR Data currently has nothing. But as soon as I finish Mriting •Y contribution to the newsletter, both boards should be reasonably full of ST and NAST news. Here is a list of the new or everything for this month: NAST Disk Library Listings - This is a co ■ plete description of all of the disks of the month by ■ onth and a copy of the Todd Burkey's DISKTOP disk ■ anagement progra ■ and the data base for all of the disks of the month through October. All of the individual files will be posted as well as an ARC file of everything. ST Software List - Some brave soul has taken on the job of keeping a coaplete list of all available software for the ST. This is currently updated monthly as well as a list of all new entries. This has appeared on the last two disks of the ■ onth, but fro• noM on will appear here, I will post the new list of all available software each ■ onth as well as the list of new software from the previous month, The new software list will continue to appear in the disk of the ■ onth. San Jose Show NeMs, and Atari Stock News - The latest neMs •••• These are four files that tell you about what new ST software and hardware that was shown at the Atari sponsored San Jose Show and the latest information about Atari's public stock offering. ARCSHELL.RSC - Updates to disk of the eonth. Right after the meeting, this file was uploaded to Delphi which lets the ARCSHELL program from last month's disk work better on a monochrome system. Download it if it is useful, bring ■ e your last month's disk for exchange, or buy November's utilities disk if you want this f i I e.
HDX.ARC, READNE.HDX - This is the latest version of the Atari hard disk driver Mhich fixes the bug if you specify disk sections anything other than the defaults. Since the usefulness of this is so limited, I figure this is the best way to get it out. Download the READNE.HDX file to see if you need it, MAC Emulator News - This is two files. The first file appeared on last ■ onth's disk of the month and describes Mhat the MAC emulator now called MAGIC SAC can do for you. The second article is a very good conference text article of an on-line conference done with David Smail. the author of IIAGIC SAC. This will also appear on this month's disk of the ■ onth, Amiga vs, ST - This is the article that I talked about at last month's aeeting. It doesn't belong on the disk of the month, but it is very good reading and a good conversation piece for ST owners,
News froa the Co-Chair By Ji• Schulz It's that tiae and again and tiae for the latest news and coaaents froa yours truly fro• the MAST chair. I have quite a bit this ■ onth so J hope I don't get too long winded. First off before the news, soae club business. We need a secretary. Bob has talked about it at the last two •eatings and it would be nice to tell others who aiss the ■ eeting what the hack happened. All the secretary has to do is show up at all of the aeeting and write 10aething up for each month's newsletter. The secretary does not have to Mrite anything else or have to write saae of the voluae that Bob or I write. All we need is something. If nothing else to tell new members what to expect and tell current ae ■ bers what they missed by not showing up. And aaybe start so ■ e discussions on topics discussed, The article can be ■ ailed to•• or Bob on disk, or uploaded to either Mindtools or LR Data's 88S. If uploaded, Just ■ ail ma~ aessage and I will get it to the newsletter editor. You write it, and I will worry about the delivery. If you are interested, contact me or Bob. We will be glad to hear fro ■ you, Next up, ae ■ berships. I don't want to digress on this again, but if you enjoy the club aeetings, enjoy the newsletter, or use and enjoy the disk of the month, please join NAST. I and the other officers can tell best how NAST is doing by the nuaber of registered me ■ bers, If you are reading this fro ■ a One note, though, for registered ■ ailed newsletter, please disregard this plea, Could you please check the list of current NAST aeabers at the next ■ embers. Bruce should have it up front. Currently, unless you recently ■ eeting??? joined, SPACE aeabers are SPACE members and KAST •••bers are NAST ■ embers. would like to know about those of you Mho have switched groups or who now attend both groups. I feel on real shaky ground talking about nonregistere d members when I don't actually know hoM ■ any aeabers NAST has. So check the list so that we can get an accurate count. And please join if you are not a ■ eaber. Next up, can a sig have a sig'?'' What?''?? I have been given permission by the executive board to do a prospectus on starting a MAST programmers sig, Ny plan for this group Mould be that I Mould run it. It would be very informal. Meetings would be held soaeplace free and would meet either the Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday following the NAST •eeting each •onth. The meeting would center around programming the ST and would be a lot more technical than the general MAST meeting. Demos Mould include softNare development products, compilers, and the like. A general progra ■■ ing topic could also be discussed at each aeeting. Uit1mately, I would like to break up into two or three groups at the end of the meeting and talk C, Pascal, and possibly Modula. This aeeting would be an extension of the MAST ■ eating, not a repetition of the same news. The aeeting time would also allow those who can't attend MAST on Fridays to join NAST and participate . Disk of the aonth would also be sold for those interested, Well, that is my plan. Now for the kicker, I do not want to start such a group and invest more of my tiae unless there is sufficient interest. Reason for the prospectus. Nothing that I said above is cast 1n stone except for the focus of the group on programaing and meeting time of the meeting. Initial reaction has been m11ed at best so I do not want proceed unless there is interest. If it 1s a go, meetings would start after the first of the year. If you are interested, mail me a message on either of the MAST On-Line boards telling me your name, which day you would like to meet, and if you are currently a MAST member. I will also have a signup sheet at the next meeting. I Mant at least 15 committed meabers before I continue work on this new sig. I, personally, am very pleased at nuaber of experienced programmers
who are associated with MAST, but currently we have nothing specific to offer them. 1 hope this fills that gap. Please, if you are interested, get in contact me. Bruce told me when I proposed it ta him that he has already had four people inquire about such a group before I mentioned. I hope this is a goad sign. Next, MAST On-Line. I really haven't supported this like I should over the last month, but by the time you read this both HAST On-Line sections should be packed. For more information, read this month MAST On-Line update column. Also if you enjoy this benefit of your HAST membership, let me know. If no one uses it or wants it, I •ill discontinue it. Finally, so ■ e confusion has been started about BBSs and HAST. HAST does not have its own BBS. Also NAST does not financially support any BBS. The two NAST On-Line BBSes are run by two private software dealers and have donated the space on their board to NAST. hope this clears up any confusion. Next, this month's newsletter. This month, I have renamed Disk Notes to Chuck's Notes. Chuck Purcell donates a lot of his time to support the club rather quietly. One of the things that he does is write descriptions of things that he finds interesting or things that I have find interesting or get asked about. Well, that is Chuck's Notes. This month, Chuck talks about ass Pascal and parameters for the co ■ piler and linker as well as so ■ e notes on the editor. Other news, 1 did not find time this month to tackle my VTIOO emulator comparison that I promised. Four days of newsletter writing and two aore days of planning gets to be a little long. In addition, a new version of FLASH' is out which is more VTIOO compatiblelsee below) so I hope to get that and include that in the analysis as well. One comment, though, the UNITERN program on this aonth's disk of the month looks like a clear winner in early returns. He tested it using this VTIOO tester progra ■ before releasing the program into public domain. See the DOH article for ■ ore info. Expect this comparison next ■ onth.
Final Iv, if we can get a volunteer, I would like to see a survey done of our members to see how Bob and I are doing at addressing your needs. The ■ e•bership is always so quiet so unless you speak up, we will assume things are okay. 1 would also like to know what you like and dislike about the disk of the month and what you want to see and what you don't want to see on the disk of the month. So far, I organize by my own tastes since no one seems to have any opinion. If you are interested in putting together such a survey, let Bob or I know and we will give soae suggestions and maybe some old SPACE surveys to get you started. Now it's time for the news •.••••• First off, business comings and goings. Rumors has it that Shanner will be going out of business any day now. Shanner is the manufacturer of a third-party disk driver, and distributor of a number of pieces of software including the Clock Card, Shanner Key, and Hacrodesk. It seems fro ■ current reports that Shanner wasted all of their money on three color display ads for a disk folder and ran out of ■ oney for Print Shop wins over Printmaster in court, ■ anufactur1ng and administration. Broderbund, makers of Print Shop, sued Unison, makers of Printmaster, over visually coping their Print Shop progra ■• Broderbund won the case and if they have their way will soon be off the market. Unison is appealing the case. In unrelated news, Broderbund has received STs from Atari as well as Atari printers and are currently in their final stages of development of a version of Print Shop for the ST. This version of Print Shop will include all of the standard Print Shop features along with print preview and picture save capabilities, Sound familiar. One of our favorite co ■ puters has recently shown up on television in one of the strangest places, On a cable television shopping
t I
program last •onth, Telshop, I saw the ■ selling of all things, an Amiga with 1 couple pieces of software. This •ight not see ■ so strange, but aost of the stuff sold on this program are closeout and discontinued •erchandise, Is this an omen of things to come??? Speaking of television, Atari itself is getting back into television. Atari is starting to test ■ arket co ■■ ercials for Christmas, The first two co ■ mercials for the bSXE and the 7800 are already being shown in Boston and Philadelphia. Based on their response, they will go nationwide. An ST commercial Is also in the works. To give you an idea of what the coa ■ ercials sound like this is the slogan fro ■ the bSXE co ■ aercial. 'The bSXE blows away the b4C ••••• for under $100," The com ■ ercial is supp011dly very well done and very funny. So ■ ething new to look forward to fro ■ Atari. Finally, Atari has announced educational discounts of 201 off the retail prices for all ST computers until Dece ■ ber 31, 1986. This applies to both students and teachers. Ask your local dealer for ■ ore infor ■ ation. Well, that's it for the news .•••• Oh, no!!!' I forgot two ■ ore ite ■ s. First, ANALOG has announced that starting with the January issue, ANALOB will publish ANALOG for 8 bit stuff and ST-LOG for ST stuff, ST-LOG will be published ■ onthly and sell for the sa ■■ prices as ANALOG. If you subscribe to ANALOG, you will get the first three ■ onths of ST-LOG for free and then you ■ ust ■ ake a decision on what ■ agazin ■ yau want. If you want both, you send the• $1.50 for each ■ onth left in your subscription for the second aagazine. A very nice way of introducing a new Now, what will ANTIC do with START??? Ru ■ or has it that after th• ■ agazine. Me will see. The Dece ■ ber quarterly issue of START, START will go bi ■ onthly. first issue of ST-LOB will be 1v1il1ble the first week of Dece ■ ber. Secondly, the infa ■ ous 6DOS will be released any day naw, but with so ■ e strange conditions, If you want to license it for resale with your product, It will cost you SSOO. Atari will not give it to developers or ■ achine owners. You have to buy it with a nu ■ ber of pre ■ ade fonts whenever Atari finishes its package. This ■ ight be a long ti ■• co ■ ing based on past experience with Atari sold software. Next, any progra ■ written In DSS Pascal will not work with it. It just hangs. This is because of a bug in OSS Pascal which has supposedly b1en fi,ed, but not released. It don't look good. For those of you who are wondering what 6DOS is, 6DOS is a patch ta the operating syste ■ as a file in your AUTO directory that allows you use different fonts with the ST and different printers other than Epsons. It is currently used in Easy-Draw and Degas Elite and soon to be used in Paper Clip Elite and Hlcrosoft Nord. That's it now for the news, now on to software. Software •..••. Boy, has the software coae out this last ■ onth. Let's see. First of all, we has the British invasion. All sorts of software held up in customs came out at the sa•• ti••• Th• progra ■ s include Starglider, Deep Space, ST Y.arate, ST D1fender, and Space Station. Also ne" in th• stores about that time was World Bames fro ■ Epyx. The second round of software has just finished rolling in. This round included Degas Elite, Crystal, Ker ■ it for Flash! and Flight Si•ulator. Another proqra ■ fro ■ Epyx was also released which is a motorcycle version of Pole Position. Of these progra ■ s, the ones that look real interesting to me are Starglider, Deep Space, Degas Elita, and Flight Simulator. More on these in my pick of the ■ onth. COMDEX is coming and will probably be done by the ti•• that you read this, Here are so•e things that I have picked up about possible happenings at COMDEX. First off, Atari will not show any laser writers, AHY music chips, or 2 or 4 meg STs. Atari has stated that they will not show the 2 or 4 ■ eg ST or talk about it until it gets FCC approval. Mith all the noshows, Atari still
strange n••s an liy1 thit it his a lat of goad surprises far ST a•ners. Hare ssor the happenin g, at Atari at the next •eating. Also a aath ca-proce 32000 chip and cartridge Nill be shaNn. This cartridge Nill use the National of new ST only 1peed up aiaple •1th (+,-,* 1 /l operation s. Expect a lat e ■ ulates, get this, an ST. annaunc ■ aents and •aybe even a new ca ■ puter Nhich or check far Far ■ are of the latest COMDEX news, ca ■ e ta the next NAST ■ eeting the latest n ■ w1 an HAST On-Line. pragri ■ Okay, ti•• far updates, This •anth, it's ■ y favorite ter ■ inal the chinges, FLASH!, Fla1h! has been upgraded ta I.I and her ■ are sa ■ e of It is naN ■ are First off, Flash! now supports baud rates up ta 19200 cleanly. ng. VTIOO ca ■ patible, now supportin g all VTIOO codes except far underlini far each phone Cantral-W now Nipes the capture )uffer. Baud rates can be sat I do ■ anitars. nuaber individua lly, And 48-line ■ ode is supported far hi-res ■ atian i• fro ■ not have the update, but I will be sending far it. This infar and your inather user group newslette r, Far in updite ta I.I, send SS.00 , CA 94107. original di1k ta Antic Saftware/ 524 Second Street/Si n Frincisca ■ e far ti Findly, it's that ti ■ e agiin ...... hh!!! hh!!!. Yes, it's First off, if Jla'1 pick1 of the ■ anth. This ■ anth, it is il ■ ast tao easy, ga ■ e has ta be you like a goad shaat'e ■ ga ■ e, you ■ ust buy Starglide r. This 3-D effects. Thi• is a 1 ■ en ta be believed. Husic, digitized voices, and the ■ are in drawing, au1t buy far your gaae collectio n. Far those of you intereste d Elite illaNs you Degas Elita is far you. Ta ■ Hudson h11 done it again. Dagis auta ■ atically ta have up tao pictures in ■ e ■ ary at one tl ■ e, ■ ultiple fonts, ■ are, I have convert• any picture as it is laided, blending, and a whale lat Degas Elite, anly seen this pragri ■ de ■ aed 10 if you like Degas, you'll lave your ST, haw Finally, far those af yau wha need a battery backed up clack an Twin Cities about the clack cartridge fro ■ Bigfoot Syste ■ s. Otta fro ■ the reviewed it this ANTIC lly. beautifu runs it and software and clack th, designed add-ans planned new same has he that it has ar ■ ru Also it. laved 1110 and ■ anth the last NAST far the clack cartridge in the future. I have used it now since need a clack •••ting and it runs flawlessl y ind is very ••II ••de, If yau near you. One Cirtridge . check out the one fra• Bigfoot Syste•s it i St dealer r, 1 just saN aare pragra ■ that ■ ight qualify far next aonth is Flight Simulato a made• twa far the first ti ■ e tonight and it looks great as well as offering player option, Watch far a de ■ a at the next aeeting. it far Nell, I NiS a little long-wind ed igain this aanth, but that is I think that is this •anth, This article took two days ta write this ■ anth ind far Nave ■ ber far aare thin enough, Sa I will see you at the next MAST ■ eating software, See the hottest neNs, rueors, demos, and, of course, public domain you there.
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a READ.ME ST. All software progra•s are checked by me and documented in works, file in each directory so you are sure you get something that DOM, Far those who cannot make the ■ eeting and still would like the $6,00 plu, will ■ ail them to you within one week of the meeting for the standarddisks six Sl,00 far postage and handling far the first si• disks and each thereafte r or $0,50 for one disk. My address is: 3264 Welcaae Avenue North Crystal, MN 55422 I Also, if I blow it and don't have disk that you want at the meeting, will ■ ail it ta you free within one week of the MAST meeting. MAST Sa that is it far Novemoer · s disks of the oonth. See you at '~he more always with aaeting with best selection of public domain software around coaing.
Disk of the Month - November By Jim Schulz First Yes, it's that ti•• again and ti ■ e for another disk of the month. the ■ ulti off, last month's mystery disk was a mouse driven version of HACK, ta play any of six level dungeon game. This version is very fast and alloNs you Nas the or eight different character s, Very nicely done, Also last month so it arrival of the first document ation disk, This Has very Nell received bad deal, Also will continue and be updated eanthly. For S3.00, it is not a far ARC. The last month on the utilities disk was a very nice shell pragraa This has only problem was that it didn't run very Nell on monochrome monitors. by either been fixed by a neN resource file (.RSC). You can get this file utility disk, ar swapping utility disks at the next meeting, buying the November is yours, download ing the neN resource file fro• NAST On-Line. The choice month Well, 1 am finally going ta start reorganiz ing the disk of the with 171. this month, Starting this ■ anth, the dis~ Nill be nu ■ bered starting library disk Previous disks Nill be backnumbered in the months ta come, The developer Nill be divided up into four sections: normal disks of the month, Each of these disks, disk of the month docu ■ entatian disks, and starter disks. Nill also be disks All II. at starting numbered lly individua be will sets Nay of organizin g subtitled Mith the Month that the disk was prepared in, This ■ eta aaintaln disks should make life~ lat ■ ore easier ta buy disks and far them. Nhich Next, starter disks. Every aanth, a new ST aNner comes and asks games. Sa I•• disk has the best made ■ program or the best ra ■ disk program or each category of going to put together a set of Best of disks with the best of cam ■ unlcatian programs. This set will Include a utility disk, applicati on disk, disks will be disk, one or two gaae disks, and an infor•atio n/demo disk, These in each updated about every four aanths ta stay current Nith the best programs ta start disks category. Then Nhen a new owner asks, I can direct him to these you like best out, Now for your participa tion, I need to know which programs •eat the and find •ast useful. Please Nrite the ■ down and give them to favorites , but meeting or mail me a list an the MAST On-Line BBSes. I have my so please help. I often •i!s some of the ■ as I a ■ busily putting together disk1 These disks should be ready far the January meeting. oanth Next, prices, The prices of the document ation disk starting this with your ha; been dropped ta $2,00 to allaN you to always reep up ta date the price of the document ation on the disk of the •anth, Now document ation far your original disk. Also $2,00 is the price for updates to disks along with co ■ es along disk. Oftentime s after I put out a special disk, a minor update you a chance with one or two neN files, Now I will update that disk and give also include to keep up ta date for S2,00. New disks coming in this category driver/u tility a Degas font and printer driver disk and a First Ward printer so naN I can disk. Either I see a ne• printer driver or a font each month, the saae or give you these without clutterin g up every disk of the •anth with a cauple'af updated ,ersians of printer drivers. Watch for these as •ell as other updates in December and January, you what Well, that's it far this •anth •••• But Natt, I forgot ta tell is the latest and greatest software for this month so here goes: it ca ■ es as one huge CP/H Emulator - Yes, Atari has finally released it, Off the BBSes, l will da that Well, disk. CP/H a and disk boot CP/N a make and up ARC file to divide the boot disk first disks, emulator CP/M two together put will I month, for you. This of CP/M lull itself disk CP/M the second and ation document CP/M the with all of Next aanth, 1 Nill utilities . This month, I Nill distribut e the full Atari release.
- ..~- JJSB+-1:tiSC r
,I
distribute a sacond utility disk based on suggestions from GENIE CP/K group to the question, What else do I need??? After that it's up to you, The CP/H public domain is probably the largest available so I am not going to download everything, If someone has access to CP/K stuff and would like to donate it, I will pass it along. I will continue to look for CP/K stuff in the hope if there is enough interest to have a new CP/M disk Heh aonth, Speach Synthesizer - Soaeone has written a speech prograa, You type in a sentence, a word or a phase and the ST will repeat it, I have not yet tried this, but everyone who has loves it, Also I have instructions on how to build you own speech synthesizer box, Kaybe one of our hardware hackers can build this and deao it in Deceaber. Chess - This is a chess prograa in Geraan, yes Geraan, that plays a pretty mean gaae of chess, It will only run in monochrome. It also inciudes a character editor to change the pieces to your own liking, This is a very nice chess gaae. CAD-3D Deaos - These are two more CAD-3D ani ■ ation deaos, one is enhanced single sided and the other is double sided, The double sided de•o will run on a I meg machine. The single sided de ■ o is called hollow, I can't reaeaber the name of the double sided deao, After this, I have one aore left for next year. Hollow will be demoed at the meeting, Regent Base - I have a full running demo with no save of Regent Base, the new GEM-based database prograa, I have not play1d with this prograa too auch, but fro ■ first lapresslons, the interface looks real iapressive, Try it before you buy it, Kusic - I have two sets of ausic progra ■ s this aonth, First I have a very nice KIDl/non-KIDI ausic player progra ■ which is a deao of a KIDI music program, I also have series of ausic prograas that you start and play whil1 you do other things, Clocks - Yes, Chuck is at it again. Chuck Purcell just got back fro• Europe and he 1s back at it to produce a better cornerclock prograa. You will see what he has on this aonth's disk, FASTER 11 - This aight seea strange, but this is a disk of the aonth fro ■ Canada, This group puts out a bilingual French and English disk with a menu packed full of stuff, have read alot about this disk and everyone says that it is the best disk of the month for the ST, I have not yet downloaded it, but this month we will have II and ne1t month 12,
SHOWPIC2,PRG - This is the next picture viewing prograa from To ■ Hudson, This program has You can adjust the disk drive a lot of features to view old pictures as well as true. for pictures, the speed of the picture loading, and display of a file name. Also from Toa Hudson is a Degas font conversion progra ■ for GOOS. UNlTERH - This is a terminal program that has to be seen to believed, This 1s a VTlOO eaulator and a Tek4010 emulator terminal progra ■, For VTlOOs, it supports 128 characters for 132 colu•n mode, double width characters on monochrome, and just about everything else, It has been fully checked by the author with the VTIOO emulator check program, The only things not supported are interlace, autorepeat control, and smooth scroll down, Very nice program. I don't know about the Tek4010 emulation, but 1t does support te1t and vector mode, If you have been looking for a good public domain VTIOO emulator, this one is it, Well, that 1s it for this month on our way to 100 disks for the first year of MAST, If I have time, it might be 100 disk for the new year. For more up to date information bn the DOH, check the MAST On-Line BBSs after Tuesday on the week of the MAST I might have another two disks lurching yet 1n the dark. ■ eeting. So far as of last month, we now have 7l(count eml disks of the month after nine months, For information on any of the past disks, se• me at the ne,t meeting or purchase the MAST documentation dtsk for $2,00, Sena $2.50 if ordering by mail. This documentation disk includes a description of each disk as well as a 11st of all files on all disks organized using the DIS~TOP prograa, For those who don't know, MAST has a disk of the month which we charge Sa,00 for which is packed full of public domain software for the
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Notu fro ■ Chuck by Chuck Purcell Every
■ onth
I get
so ■ ething
Chuck that he has either uncovered in so ■ e foreign ■ agazine or just discovered by hacking through soae code. The other day, I asked Chuck if he kneM the SMitches Mere for the OSS Pascal co ■ pller and linker, if I ever wanted to give up the SEK-based shell, The folloNlng is Chuck's response. If you didn't knoN, the CCD in the Personal Pascal copyright notice relates back to Ger ■ any Nhere this version of Pascal Mas originally Nritten. You see Personal Pascal in Ger ■ any is actually ST Pascal and is sold by Atari Ger ■ any. With this in aind, I no• take you to Chuck's response. fro ■
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AA (Nord Personal Pascal Vars. 1.02 2/10/86 Copyright 1986 CCD and OSS,lnc, Buried treasures Nithin OSS/PASCAL <PASCALplus van CCD ia Test> Various publications obtained on ay recent trip to &eraany, et al, indicated that the OSS/PASCAL contains a very attractive coaaand line interface. This facility has been useful to ■ e and aay Ntll be useful to you in your progra ■ a ing environaent I I use cshell.prg, aostly I. CJPurcell,ST,PAUL,NN 55113 nEDITDRH EDITOR.PR& ••••• usaga EDIT <filenaae>C<llne>C<coluan>C<errnua>lll lay uugel editor filenue[ ... l KEYPAD usage: Nhere A signifies siaultaneous control-KP operation
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tab
left side
next line
A7 -----------------AB----------------A9 ---------------A_-------------paste copy buff. down one delete current bell A4 ----------------- A5 ----------------- A6 deltte CR/LF sp. bel 1 hide cursor
right cursor
---------------A+ _____________ _ bell 1 eft cursor
AQ --------------------------------------
right side
bel I
I
line split
carriage return
Other keystrokes: HELP is available fro• help key(not noted in my manual): HELP yield1: COMMAND SUMMARY: Copyright 1996, CCD and OSS, Inc. Us ■ arroN keys for movement Shift-arrow aoves by page, or to beginning or end of line Control-arrow Moves left or right by word
Hoae - Beg1nn1ng of text Tab - Move cursor to next tab column Backspace - Delete character left of cursor Delete - Delete character under cursor Insert - Toggle insert/re~lace ■ ode Fl - Delete current line
See AQAR
AZ
"S <-
AX dn.
■ anual
+F6 - Backup ON/OFF +F7 - Write copy buffer to file +FIOQuit Nithout saving for WORDSTAR-like extensions:
ho ■ e
AT AR page up AD AF -> word> Av AC page dn AQAC end
AB
"Delete
- Delete word right
AN
AQ AK
AP AL
A"
-•=
HLINKERH FASTLINK VI.I - fast GEKDOS linker by J.Lohse,copyright 1985 by CCD Nallruf LINKER.PRG ••••• usage FASTLINK Cfile=l file <,file •••• } (11y
usagel
linker
fna ■ e.prg=fna ■ e.o,pasge ■ ,paslib •.•.
tested.
fna11e.to1•fna ■ e.0,pasge ■ ,paslib ..•.
batch
co ■■ and seg ■ ent:
fastlink Xl,paslib,peekpoke r■
- End of text
AJ
AH
"6
Al tab
HCONPILERH ST PASCAL/68000 Y 1.3 by J.Lohse,copyright 1985 by CCD Walluf CDNPILER.PRB, •• usage PASCAL filena ■ e{/OPTIONlC>llstfilel (ay usagel coapller fna ■ e /LIST /CHECK /&EM .•• }listing • options: /CLEAR for ■ clear before use code ? /CHECK range fP fR fl ? * /NOCHECK ? * / DEBUG for ■ debug code * /PAUSE ? ? /BEN fora GEK prograa (instead of TOSI • /UGEN use BEN NindoN for report(not very useful) • /LIST list to screen [ }listfile l • /NOCODE do not fora code result • OPT not yet verified, but probably best In-line in source, anyway, see aanual. /OPT fC fD SE fl fK fP $R fS fl SU Nhere: fC -+= sets clear fD sets debug SE-•= sets external access fl fn sets include filenaaeCs?I SK-+• set• aodular co ■ pilation fP -+• pointer range checking fR -+= range checking fS n sets space for stack~heap on TOS ST -•= fU n sets user 1eaory for GEM The final display is useful for production progra ■ aers, size statistics,etc.
Ger ■ an
+Home
Au
AV
X 1.0
not tested ..
Well, that's Chuck response. NaN if hate GEN, you can throw the shell aNay and run it fro ■ Micro C-Shell or any of the other shells available. As a side note, soon after OSS released Personal Pascal, they received a nu ■ ber of responses to do exactly Nhat Chuck has docu ■ ented. OSS Nas supposedly dumbfounded because they figured everyone would want to use the GEN interface.
+Fl - APPEND to copy buffer
.
I guess that they Mere Mrong. What Me have far next aanth, only Chuck knaMs. Chuck Is ROM into cornerclocks and caps lack indicators and you will be so ■ e of his Mark on this aanth's disk of the ■ anth. Chuck is also Marking on a quick reference guide ta the help based E ■ acs, so expect that also In the aonths ahead. I Mould once again like to thank Chuck for his contribution and encourage others to do likeMise. Until next aonth, happy co ■ puting.
Dave Small 10/4/1986 Data Pacific, Inc.
609 East Speer Eoulefard Denver, Colorado 80203 (303) 733-8158 Magic Sac 1: $!29 suggested retail Magic Sac Plus: $149 suggested retail Magic Sac is a product for the Atari 520ST and 1040ST It allows those computers to use Macintosh software. We wanted an inexpensive The Magic Sac comes in two flavors. product for people who don't have a lot of money, so we offer the It includes the This is the basic version. Magic Sac 1. cartridg~, an ST disk with transfer and other software, a Macintosh disk with a transfer program, and the manual. It includes The Magic Sac Plus is the more expensive product. <This clock an onboard clock-calendar with battery to keep time. may be_used both from TOS, the ST operating system, and from the Mac operating system>. Both products include a transfer cable to move software from tha Mac to the ST; more on this in a moment. Optional product: An ImageWriter cable, to run the Apple Imagawriter printer from the ST. A prodc1ct we are worf,i ng on, but have not rel eased, 1 s ,. Plan on it show 1nq up Mac-compatible disk drive for the ST. No pricing yet. around January. Either product may be ordered directly from us. Dealers are only receiving the Magic Sac Plus. Two notes -Once upon a time, the Magic Sac was kno~,n as the i5 "Mac II trademarl.eo by worci the However, "MacCartri dge 11 • Apple Computer, which we were unaware of when we used the original it. changed we When Apple let us know, name. The Magic Sac went on sale at the San Jose Atar1fest computer This was a hacker-only specicd; ,.,e show, at a show special of $99. agreed to sell at $99 ifl we didn·t have to include the tr~nsfe~ We sold out, by the cable: The $99 price doesn't apply anymore. way, 1n four hours (kind of a feeding frenzy). There are many considerations involved here, so l'll cover them one by one. The Mac generally executes at 5.9 Mhz wheN CPU Speed. 1) The
computers.
running out of RAM,
display.
due
to
contention with the vid~o
memory
The Atari generally runs
at
7.9
Mhz
all
the time.
you will Sac~ Hence, when you ran M3c software using the Maq1c Benchmar~s snow 23% 1mprQveMenc a :oz speed increase. see about
<The Macs ROM execution speed. thouqh, in RAM programs. Mhz, and thus identical>.
1s
7.~
The Mac uses a 512 x #42 screeN. Screen si=e. 2) at 64() x 400. Magic Sac uses Atari's monochrome screen, screen si=E and uses larger Generally, Mac software adapts to the
it; for instance, Microsoft Excel gives you that much larger a window into your spreadsheet. Note that the Sac *only* works with a monochrome display. Someday we may support color on a limited basis -- but, the Mac does not support color and the color screen only has 200 lines of vertical resolution, and that's only half of what is needed. THe Mac uses a 400K disk format with a custom 31 Disk FOrmat. The Atari ST uses a standard IBM-format "GCR" fisk format. you canNot read Mac diskettes in controller chip, the 1772. Hence, Software to be run on the ST must be transferred, via ST drives. modem cable, before it can be run. We call the destination disk format, a 4001< 1772 format, It holds the same amount as a Mac disk. the "MAGIC" format. Right now, we don·t support a S~)K double - sided format, Remember, the Mac did not hafe double but we're working on that. sided drives for some time; our basic product is very much like a Mac. There are several ways to do this: XMDEM tHe progrAms across using Freeferm, MacTEP, or a al similar Mac terminal program; Use the supplied disk-copy tool which transfers an bl entire diskette across a serial cable, from a Mac to an ST; We are working on a Mac-compatible disk drive for the ST c) which will let you directly use Mac disks, but that's not happening until January at a minimum. d) If a program is copy-protected, youwill generally not be able to make a copy of it with the modem program (because of the protection). However, copy protection is pretty much fading away in this industry; thank heavens. The Magic Sac uses two Mac "Eoot ROMS", or "64K ROMS. 41 It does ROMS"; these are the "old" ROMS, not the new 128K ROMS. We do not supply these chips. not work with the 128K BOOT ROMS. The user must supply their own ROMS, and of course, we In our manual, recommend they obtain the ROMS from a 1 egal source. we recommend remOving the ROMS from your presently-owned Macintosh, and using the Magic Sac as an upgrade. Incidentally, the Magic SAc does not work with copies of the Apple ROMS; we don't want to see the Apple code copied or pirated. The Magic Sac software also does e,:tensive checks to prevent a disk-based copy of the ROMS from operating. The Magic Sac uses some memory for Overhead, and Memory. 51 emulates a Mac as follows: a I 520 ST: 1281( or 256K Mac (Note the 256K Mac was useD in-house, but was never officially released; still, it offers performance improvements over the 128K size, particularly in such things as MacPaint or MacWrite.) bl 1040 ST or 520 with 1 meg upgrade: 1281<, 256f<,512K, or 900K Mac ~le also ofFer the "Motivator", a built-in RAMDIS1,; 1 as an It reads in the entire startup option on the larger memory size. then runs off of disk (in 16 seconds on the newer versions), This gives very hiqh performance improvement, for RAMDISf·::. instance, the syst~m boOt once read in takes around 4 sec, launching MacPaint takes around 3 seconds, and returning to the Finder takes
lf you're about 3 sEconds. Much better than disk-bas ed speeds. r mal·es doing a lot of moving between applicati on,., the Motivato the task of switchin g between theM much quicker. 1 meg One rumour about the product is that i t only worls on now. machines1 · wh1 le that was true a long time ago, it um ' t trc,e o> Compati bility The Magic Sac offers very good Mac compat1 b1lity The 5ome 5ituation 1s very much l11'e an IBM compatib le; there are programs that will not work, but most stuff does. For years, the developm ent There 's a logical reason for this. t system for the Mac was the Liga machine, which has a differen 1n a internal architec ture. Mac software had to be develope d Lisa the both on machineindepend ent manner so 1t would run ent and Mac.~ Hence, there's a great body of machineindepend software out there. the Incident ally, there is a prograM known as "MacWor ks" for you might Lisa which lets the L15a use <a lot of) Mac software ; consider the Magic Sac as "Macwork s" for the Atari ST. There are several areas we do not offer compati bility in. not work-Program" whi ch breal: the Mac developm ent rules often do ng the such things as writing directly to screen memory or addressi so not ROMS directly . Fortunat ely, they won't r un on a Lisa, either, very many of these programs •~ist . not We are working on a list of software that does and does . work1 many users a re also Giving us feedback on their results with Some of the programs that work which you may be familiar are, MacPaint , MacWr1te , MacDraw Microsof t Basic, Excel Aldus ' Pagemale r Ready-Se t - Go FreeTerm 1.6, MacTEP [These names are pretty much al l trademar ked by thai r manuf•c turer.J we do not presentl y support thE 7) LaserWr1 ter : Future &upport 1s unknown. La<5erWr iter or the Appletal l, network. We will be looking into it, however. such 8) Serial port s : We support access to the ser ial port, for Yo u can, for things as modem programs , printers , and whatnot. ~nd forth, inst~nce . download files from Compuser ve, send stuff bacl and whatnot, t ..,a ser 1 al ports, one more or 1 ess a1is1 gned to The Mac has modems, one mor e or less ass1gneo to pr1ntars . The Atar1 only has one builtin <5er1al port , so 1f you which to use have a serial printer and modem, you'll have to resolve
Thcre · s ~ome well known Epson drivers, for ln•t~nce . You need a s pecial cabl e to use the lmaqewri tPr (4 - wire You c'"n make your own, or qet one fr om us . cable>. Hard 01sl· : . RigHt noq, we don t suppor t the Atari or Supra l (•l It will f11r aw i\y, them 1 ■n t h.ird di s l, but a driver for be support the Mac aa a full partition on the drive, and shouLd I~ quite fa11,t, as the hardware performa nce of the ST drive good 1mpress1 ve indeed. 5 or I•) megabyte partitio ns should yield Pl!!rforma nc:e. Wa •upport revision s of the Finder Finder and System . 11> c~.I, up to and including 4.1. We don't support the very new Find1trs We re l 00"1 ng at that I r 1 ght now etc, w1 th HFS> Nor Systems. <Certain ly the n those rev ts1ons do not seem very stable to us. SyGtem h~• gone th~ough many bug ftx•s sine• rel&a~e) . We recommftn d Fi ndar I, lg for I 28~ and 2561systems, and This matches Apple · s Finder 4,1 for the other system sizes. <Finder 4. I was nod really designed to run rec ommenda tion as well. ely tested on a little system.> This system software has been extensiv and Is protty bug-free . The a.rc:hi tec:tl1r1t,s of the 1~> We don ' t support sound at all . •ach1nes are Just too differen t here. Perhaps we will tac~le this on a later release. Some often-a•k ed question s -ROt19 At present, the "glue" software , which ties the Mac <274 to the SThardwa re, Is 13,oOO lines of 08000 assltffibly code a about 1 t took Dave Smal I pages>. The source code i • 388K long. yEar to write it. Apple h,ad ,som1t objectio ns to the original "MacCart ridoe" wE resolved those issues with Apple name, and some other issues1 further. lfor instance , we changed the name> and have heard nothing that The very first run of paclages h•d a manufact uring fault software resultin q in flakey software performan ce1 we mailed out a We are presentl y update Ca week later> that cured the problems . supporti ng Rev1s1on 2.00 (10/3/86> of the software . LaserWr 1ter, MacPaint , MacWrite , lmaqeWr1 ter, Apple, •• . So is MacDra,., Mac~lorlis , and Mac are trademar hs of Aople computer Mcintosh is a trademarl , of M•c1ntos h laborato r i es. F i nder. trademar k of a 1s E::cel Pagel'lal er is a trade,.ark of Aldus . If I forgot any oth.,... trademar l s, my apologie s . Microso ft.
at any one time .
Printer output may be sent to the p ara llel por t 1f you so select. tmage•ir1 ter '-"' the We support the Apple lm.:,qe.ir1 tcr: 9) Right now, we don't ~upport other printers . such printer of choice. are as the semi -s tandard Epson pri nter found on man y s r ·s. We th1nk1ng about supportin g 1t. Note
that
some
you get that s oftware,
Mac
it ' ll
so+ t.,.,,are
probably
supports othe,.- pr 1 nters;
1
f
wor~ with your printer as
..
ST . PAUL ATARl COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS BRUCE HAUG , PRESIDENT 1697 E. HOYT AVE. ST . PAUL, MN, 55106 ( tH2) 77 4 - 6226