SPACE Newsletter - February 1989

February 1989

■

FEBRUARY • 1989

SPACE Meeting Frida,, Feb 10th at 7:30pm MAST Meeting Friday, Feb 17th at 7:30pm At the Falcon Heights Community Center 2077 Larpenleur Avenue West MAST+ Programmers Meeting Monday, Feb 20th at 7:30pm At First Minnesota Bank Building - second floor Lexington and Larpenteur, in back of building

Minnesota Atari ST

•

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER DISCLAIMER

Published by the St. Paul ATARI Computer Enthusiasts (SPACE), and Minnesota Atari ST (MAST) group, an independent organization with no business affiliation with ATARI Corporation. Permission is granted to any similar organization with which SPACE/MAST exchanges newsletters to reprint material from this newsletter. We do, however, ask that credit be given to the authors and to SPACE/MAST. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SPACE/MAST, club officers, club members or ATARI Corporation.

SPACE / MAST BULLETIN BOARDS SPACE/MAST East (XE) - BBS Phone: (612)-n4-0135

Sysop: Bruce Haug (Home Phone: 774-6226) SPACE/MAST West (ST)- BBS Phone: (612)-560-9254

Sysop: Steve Pauley (Home Phone: 560-2917)

President Greg Howell Vice President Dave Cole Secretary Larry Vanden Plas Disk librarian Joe Danko Paper Librarian Jim Scheib Membership Coordinator Bob Siede SPACE/MAST Treasurer Allan Frink

636-0381 776-8395 636-2415 777-9500 721-4185 489-3982 482-7911

President 533-4193 Jim Schulz Vice President 823-1276 Dave Meile Secretary 560-2917 Steve Pauley Disk Librarian 533-4193 Jim Schulz Paper Librarian 646-1272 Neil Palosaari Membership Chair 482-7911 Allan Frink SPACE/MAST Newsletter Editor 823-1276 Dave Meile

NEWSLETTER ADVERTISING RATES : · 1/2 page - 4" vertically x 5 1/8" horizontally • $ 15/mo., $140/yr. Full page - 8" vertically X 5 1/8" horizontally - $25/mo., $240/yr. Club members classified - 50¢ per 40 characters, $2.50 minimum per ad. Send to: SPACE/MAST, P.O. Box 12016, New Brighton, MN 55112

FEBRUARY • 1989

•

Bytes from the Pres by Greg Howell

Well a lot has been happening lately. We have installed the new BBS software (and it seems to be working very well!). Bruce Haug, our sysop) has done a VERY GOOD job of getting the board up and functioning so quickly. Since I (and everybody else) forgot to mention the swap meet last meeting, we will try to have it anyway! SO BRING YOU STUFF! ••• 8-Bit Programers ••• For those of you intrested in programing your ATARI computer, we will have a discussion (after the regular meeting) about the formation of an ATARI 8-BIT PROGRAMERS SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP. And remember (for those of you who don't think they're so hot at programing) THERE Will NOT BE A TEST GIVEN! So stop by and join in! And now it is time for some club business. In some discussions I have had over the last month with my Officers (and appointed members of SPACE). We have noted that there is never enough time to Demo all the software and hardware we would like to! And sometimes Joe Danko (our Disk librarian) is unable to make to a meeting due to his being out of state, or (as almost happened last meeting) Joe's computer would break down during the meeting. One of the solutions brought up, was for the club to

purchase a computer and disk drive. I personaly feel that this solution is the best one that was discussed, and I hope it will be the one that is chosen by (you) our members . I think that is about it for this months article. so, I hope to see you all at the meeting!!

FROM THE EDITOR by Dave Meile I apologize if this gets to you late. Work schedules and other high priorities had to be taken care of first. However, I am moving the submission date forward in order to ensure all members get their newsletter before the meeting. Submit your articles!

Deadline for the March 1989 issue is Friday, 24 February.

Last Nite by David Cole Since SPACE has received BBS Express Pro, the BBS has been looking better. Although many of us will remember the old BBS, this "new" BBS will be pretty good. And it is pretty good, too! The 1020 plotter demonstration was pretty cool. Computer Mail Order is selling them.supposedly, for a very

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER inexpensive price! It sounds like a good printer for people who are just buying a printer because it is inexpensive and that you need no 850 or P:R: interface hooked up to it. And if you want a second printer or a first plotter, the 1020 is ideal for you.

and before the December receipts SPACE had $269. Current balance should be over $300.

Well, it seems like the SpartaDOS X cartridge is out now. Sounds pretty good, I haven't used it, but if it is like the disk version, I'll get it! And by the comments of some people who have used it, I may as well get it.

5. President's report: The Mounds View Community Education department has Atari programs. This was clarified to be 4 to 5 programs and a donated 400 system.

And beleive it or not, there are other Atari groups around the U.S. and the world tool I've been talking to a person who calls LD from Florida. He is a member of an Atari group down there. I'd tell you the name of the group, butl forgot! (hard to beleive, eh?) And, it has come to my attention that there is a group from Poland. It'll be nice to talk to them in the future. I also found out that there are some places in South America that use Atari 800Xls in their schools! I'll bring you more info on that when it comes.

Minutes of the SPACE Meeting by Larry Vanden Plas 1. The meeting was called to order at 7:40 PM January 13, 1989 by President Greg Howell. 2. The December minutes were approved as published. 3. Bob Seide reported that at the end of December after newsletter costs

4. Vice-president's report: We received a letter from a Atari User Group in Poland.

6. Offers and Deals: Two Epson FX ribbons for $5 at Computer Fitness Warehouse in the little Canada Mall. Computer Boutique has excellent games for $8. The owner has an Atari and plans to order more Atari software. The Maplewood Mall Sears has some older Atari software, e.g. Net Worth, Word Attack. CMO is selling the Atari 1020 four color printer/plotter for $20. Computer Station has a lot of Atari software and some hardware, sells for 30% off; had an ST drive for $80-85. United Business Machines is repairing the Star NX-1000. The Star NX-1000 is available at Best Buy for $180. 7. Questions and Answers: Very large documents such as a book can be printed in one continuous printing with Atari Writer and Atari Writer Plus by putting the sections in separate files and chaining them together. How good is the Atari XF551 Disk Drive? It is designed to write and read both sides of the disk without flipping it over. Therefore disks that have been written backwards by turning them over cannot be read properly in the Xf551. In addition, the XF551 turns at 300 RPM (faster than previous Atari drives), this causes a problem with speed sensitive

FEBRUARY • 1989 software such as Flight Simulator. With a DOS designed for a double-sided Drive, the XF551 stores 360K. The New Atari DOS is out.

around .. It sure helped me. We need UPLOADS ... I will get some of the old programs out there, but it will take time.

8. Rumors: Nentendo had filed a lawsuit against Atari for saying they offered more software. Most of the software was on disk and Atari was not selling any disk drives due to the discontinuance of the 1050. Atari solved this problem by rushing out the XF551 even though the DOS to use the double sided disk drive was not ready.

As you know I was not for getting "PRO" at first, but now that I have fought my way through it I love it .. lt really is a nice system. ment to be four boards in one, with security to keep everyone in their own place, except for the msg bases. PRO has 40 & 80 column ATARI, which can be separate, and 40 & 80 column "NON" ATARI. On our board there only are four levels of access. 1)new user 20 min msg base only. 2) ST or NON ATARI30 min everything but up/down load. 3) ATARI 8-bit, everything but NEWSLETTER Oil's and SPACE Officer msg base. 4) SPACE officer's, all msg bases, all UUDL files.

9. Ribbon reinker: Reel to reel and small cartridge reinked for $1, large cartridge for $2. Bring in one month, returned the next month. 10. BBS: Our new software, BBS Express Pro, has arrived and will be installed in the next couple of months. A new BBS in the area, WARP 10 (7716745) was mentioned. 11. The meeting ended with a demonstration of programs on the Disk of the Month (DOM) and a demonstration of the Atari 1020

8-Bit BBS NEWS by Bruce Haug SYSOP Well BBS EXPRESS PRO is up and running. I finally have most of the "OLD" files from Express transferred over to PRO. The "Library" is in place with "NEW" info up to date just do a "L" at the command prompt.

A special thanks to Steve Nelson for the "Help" file on how to use "PRO" .This should help new people find their way

Hope to see you on the BBS!! I'll try to make the February meeting, to answer your questions.

SPACE SOFTWARE LIBRARY NEWS February 1989 by Joe Danko, Disk Librarian

Another month has rolled around bringing another burst of DOM activity. There will be a 2-sided DOM for February as well as a special disk of TURBO-BASIC applications. So far the only program I can guarantee for the TB disk is a disk sector editor written by our PREZ, Greg Howell. Be assured that there will be more. We

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER

have been having quite a battle with the boot screen and the loader/menu program. Greg Howell wrote a very nice one and then pared the size down but I still don't have enough room for it this month so all you get is the menu/ loader. The SPACE club info is in a small DOC file called SPACE.DOC. So, here we go, the DOM for February, 1989: SIDEA SYS DOS SYS AUTORUN

MENU BON MENU BOFFMENU BASICON BASICOFF BLKCASTL

MATHGAME MATHDOCS TAX88 SPELL

MAINT FASTLOAD HELP SPACE

COM COM COM COM BAS COM TXT SC COM COM COM DOC DOC

The following four programs will only work when running on the S00XL or 130 XE. BONMENU.COM Turns on BASIC and causes MENU to RUN. Use this when BASIC has been turned off. BOFFMENU.COM Turns off BASIC and runs a machinelanguage program loader that lists and runs ML programs that have the '.COM' extension. BASICOFF.COM Machine language routine to turn BASIC off. BAS ICON.COM Machine language routine to turn

BASIC on. BLKCASTL.BAS This is a BASIC graphic/text adventure game. The evil-doers have forced you and your clan out of your castle. It is your sworn duty to get it back. You will need an iron will and a joystick. MATHGAME.COM MATHDOCS.TXT An arcade style math drill game with documentation compiled in machine language. For some reason, this program is real finnicky about its loading environment and I can only guarantee it will load properly if you boot your machine with OPTION depressed and LOAD it from the DUP .SYS menu. I suppose it is meant to load as an AUTORUN.SYS with OPTION depressed.

TAX88.SC This is my annual income tax spreadsheet template for use with SYNCALC. Hyou have an ATARI and you don't have SYNCALC, shame on you. SYNCALC is one of the best pieces of software ever written for the ATARI 8 bit machines and one of the most powerful and easy to use on ANY computer. Just load TAX88.SC with SYNCALC and enter your tax data wherever you see a '$' sign. All other cells are protected. The federal tax is calculted automatically but you will have to look up the state tax in the tables due to the byzantine complexity of the tax rates in Minnesota. Happy April 15th! SPELL.COM

MAINT.COM FASTLOAD.COM These three programs comprise a nice spelling checker package that will work with any ASCII/ATASCII file. SPELL.COM is the checker itself. It looks on D1: for a file called WORDS containing the dictionary. If none is

FEBRUARY • 1989 there it will create one. SPELL.COM then asks for a file to check. It will make a backup copy of the original with the extender '.BAK' and proceed to place all spelling corrections in the original file. Any new words will be added to the dictionary which can exceed 36,000 words in size. MAINT.COM is used to edit dictionary files. FASTLOAD.COM will ask for a document and then quickly load all of the new words into the WORDS dictionary file, providing a rapid way to build a dictionary. Just make sure ALL of the words are spelled correctly. SIDE B: * DOS SYS * AUTORUN SYS FIERO PIC DEFLEPRD PIG ORCA PIC SPUDS PIG DRAGON PIC CRAIG PIG TWINS PIC SATLITE PIG OPUSTREK PIG DALE KS PIC WINSTON PIC PLANET PIC DUKE PIG MOONSl-!TL PIG SPCBATTL PIC MEGAZONE PIC IWANTMTV PIC HOSE RS PIC AUTORUN.SYS is actually called KOALODR.COM and is used to display MICROILLUSTRATOR/KOALA/ ATARIARTIST compressed graphics. It requires that all graphics files have a '.PIG' extender. Each picture may be tailored individually for order of display and type of fade.

During SUPERBOWL weekend the 8bit librarian from the ATARI club in Phoenix called me on the phone and we chatted for about a half-hour. I have sent him several ANALOG DOMs that they lost in the mail along with TURBO-BASIC and our latest DOM. They want our latest menu/ loader. He will be sending me his complete library listing for swapping

purposes.

Protect Your Modem by Jim Johnson Many computer owners protect their equipment from damaging electrical spikes using surge protected power strips. Your modem's power supply is probally also plugged into such a device. Believe it or not, you have only done half the job. The phone line is also capable of delivering a killer blow to your modem. I looked at a couple surge protectors for telephone equipment sold by companies such as Radio Shack. These devices generally will not protect your modem from an electrical spike on the phone line! The only devices that I have seen that do so are built into highly sophisticated power conditioning strips and cost in the range of $35-$100. Look at the modular connector at the end of the cable that plugs into your modem. You will notice there are four wires. Typically they will be red, green, black, and yellow. On a single line telephone setup, the red and green wires carry the telephone signal, and the black and yellow wires optionally

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER carry AC current to power devices such as lighted dials and so on. Most of the inexpensive protectors only protect the black and yellow wires since they are the ones connected to the power lines. However the red and green lines can also carry damaging current into your modem.

colors. Cut off all BUT the red and green wires close to the modular plug. Take the spade end of the cable and do the same thing. Since your modem does not use anything but the red and green wires, you can eliminate possible problems by only letting those two pass into the modem.

There is an inexpensive solution. For well under $10, you can build your own phone line surge protector. No soldering or electronic technical expertise is required. In fact the only tools you'll need are a screwdriver and a pair of needle nose pliers with built in wire cutter (the most common kind).

There should be some screws for mounting the phone wires. There are likely spots for the screws that are labled RED and GAN (green). Connect the red wire on the cable to the red wire from the jack. Connect the green wire from the cable to the green wire from the jack. Don't tighten the screws yet however.

You will need three parts, all of which are available from Radio Shack or other sources. They are a modular wire jack (I suggest Radio Shack's six wire jack #279-420), a modular connector to spade lug cable (Radio Shack's 12 inch #279-391 will do very nicely), and a MOV (Radio Shack #276-570). A MOV (metal oxide varistor) is the heart of any surge protected power strip. It traps temporary voltages that are above a safe level. The MOV mentioned above is listed for power circuits, but will also work for phone lines. When the phone company wants to ring your telephone it sends 90-125 volts into your telephone. Dialtones and speech are at a much lower voltage. The ring signal is very close to household voltage levels, so the same MOV can be used. The phone jack listed above comes with an enclosed back, which is why I recommended it. Remove the back and you will see six wires of various

The MOV is a nickle or quarter sized disk with two wires sticking out. Place one wire under the screw for the red wire, and place the other wire under the screw for the green wire. It will help if you use the needle nose pliers to bend a little "U" in the end of the wire for going around the screw. Now tighten the screws. Push the MOV down inside the jack and replace the cover on the jack. Plug the modular plug into your modem and plug the cable that used to plug into your modem into the jack. Now call up your favorite BBS (SPACE naturally) to test it out. As a final word of caution, your modem is now protected from surges coming down the phone line. However, NO surge protector is going to save your equipment from a lightning stike near your home. Play it safe and unplug all your electronic equipment from both the electric and phone lines during a

FEBRUARY • 1989 thunder storm. Also, your MOV can burn out after saving your modem from a large spike. Your modem will continue to operate fine, but your protection is gone. If other telephone equipment starts acting up, I suggest replacing the MOV in your modemsurge protector. Its cheap insurance.

8 Bit Xtra

Comments by Jim Schulz Well, it's the beginning of a new year and here is some of the latest 8 bit news. Following this is an answer from one of the more famous 8 bit authors, Dan Moore, author of Synfile+, Paperclip, Backtalk, and Sherlock, to the age old question: Why isn't software being converted to the 8 bit? But first some news.... First, Atari is starting a new magazine for the game machines called The Atarian. Atari is advertising this magazine as the new magazine for Atari game players. For $15.00 for 6 issues, you also get a free Atari game champion T-shirt and a patch as well. To subscribe, send $15.00 and your T-shirt size to The Atarian/7 Hilltop Road/Mendham, NJ 07945. Second, six new cartridges are now available from Atari. These include Desert Falcon, Ace of Aces, and Mario Brothers, Crystal Castles, Thunderfox, and Into the Eagle's Nest. Third, Atari is running a contest of sorts Atari games. The detail are as follows: For 5 games purchased, you get a free Atari T-shirt. For 15 games purchased, you get a free Atari game cartridge. For 25 cartridges purchased, you can buy an

II Atari 7800 for $25.00, or get an XE game system or XE disk drive for $50.00. Also for 25 or more cartridges purchased, you can enter an essay contest and an all expense-paid 7-day/ 6-night trip for two to California. The entry form also displays 36 cartridges which are eligible for this contest. Finally, Sir-Tech, authors of the Wizardry series, have released a new game for the 8 bit called Star Maze for the low price of $9.95.no more is known about this new game. Finally, here is an answer from a software programmer on why software isn't being written for the 8 bit or converted to the 8 bit. This article is from USENET, a UNIX message service. But before I go, a few notes. Currently, SPACE and MAST members in town are only supported by Wizard's Works. Currently, MAST is trying to convince Computer Fitness and Electronic Boutique to advertise in the SPACE/MAST newsletter. If you shop at this stores, please mention that you are a SPACE or MAST member and ask for their support. We will give them a mention in the newsletter for user group discounts as well as their presence in an ad. On the SPACE BBS, there has been mention of a store in South Minneapolis called The Computer Station as well as Budget Computer. Hyou frequent these stores, please mention SPACE and MAST. We would like to place newsletters as well as membership forms in as many Atari locations in town. You can make a difference!!!! Also, is anyone interested in a shareware version of MYDOS with

El docs and source. I have recently obtained a copy and I am sure that Joe Danko would add it to the SPACE library if there was interest. So until next time, happy computing. -Jim in article <3916@ihlpe.ATT.COM>, daryl@ihlpe.A TT.COM (Daryl Monge) says: >It seems to me that once a piece of software is developed for the other 6502 machines (especially the C64) that the conversion to the XUXE machines would be fairly easy. Surely there are a lot of us professional types that would be interested in doing something like that.

On a conversion the original author and the conversion author will split the 10% royalty, usually 50-50. So each will get about $1.00 per copy sold. Depending on the program being converted it will take between 3 and 9 months to convert a program from one 6502 machine to another. Applications usually can be converted fairly quickly since they don't have any fancy graphics, games take longer due to the graphics.

I'll try and answer this since I used to

So to make a conversion worth doing the converting author must be able to make 114th to 3/4ths of a years income off the conversion, depending on the amount of work required. If he expects to make $30,000 a year he needs to make $7,500 to $22,500 off that conversion. So he, the publisher and the original author all have to guess whether the program will sell 7500 to 22500 copies on the Atari 8 bits. Right now there are *NO* 3rd party programs for the 8 bits that are selling that well so it doesn't make much sense to port a program from a C64 or Apple // to the

write programs (SynFile+, PaperClip,

Atari.

> The question I do not know the answer to is what is the pay back for converted software? How much would the original author get? How much would the converting author get? How many copies would need to be sold to at least break even for the effort?

BackTalk, and Sherlock) for the 8 bits. I also worked with a several people who were converting programs to/from the Atari 8 bit systems. As a general rule an author gets about a 10% to 20% royalty on software he writes. It varies based on market size, how well know the author is, past hits, is it a game or an application, etc. That royalty is on the publisher's selling price which is usually about 45% to 55% of the the retail price. So a program that sells for $39. 95 will wholesale for about $19.98. The author will get 10% of that or $2.00.

FEBRUARY • 1989

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER

NOTE: I'm completely ignoring the publisher's expenses in the above. Ads cost about $5000 for a full page in 4 colors. Boxes, disks, labels, etc. are about $2.50 to $5.00 per copy (depending on how fancy).So the publishers break even point may be higher or lower than the converting author's break even point. Software publishers base a lot of their decisions on what machines to support on the SPA's reporting of software sales figures. They break software sales down by machine and type of software

l J:

(business, games, etc.). According to the SPA the top 4 software markets are the IBM and clones, Macintosh, Apple // family, and the C64. All the other computers (Atari 8 bits, STs, CBM Amiga, Unix(tm) boxes, etc.) are lumped together as "other". The totals for "other" are less than the totals for any of the top 4 markets. There just isn't a lot of money to be made writing or converting program for the 8 bit systems. As long as the market is small you are going to see very few of the larger software publishers supporting the 8 bits. Small publishers or publisher/authors will support the Atari 8 bits since they can get by on smaller margins (no support staff, etc.). Dan Moore AT&T Bell Labs - Denver

News from the Pres By Jim Schulz

It's birthday timell!II Yes, it's that once a year time for a special MAST birthday celebration. There is a lot going on this month, so let's get going. First up, it's party time. This month, MAST is celebrating its third birthday. A lot has happened in the three years since Bob Floyd and I had our first MAST meeting with just ten people in attendance. To show the difference, we had ten new members and ten renew-

als last month. That's twice the number of the first meeting. MAST has grown over the years with your help and the help of the local dealers. This is the one time of the year that MAST thanks you for your support. On to the specials ..... First, MAST DOM's... All MAST DOMs from #1 through last month's disks are bargain-basement priced at $3.00. The lowest price of the year!!!! Also we will have free updates this month and the return of the ST News Disk as well and the final reorganization of ANALOG disks as well. Second, the party .... MAST will again provide cake and pop. A number of members have also volunteered to bring snacks as well. Anyone willing to bring snacks, all is welcome except popcorn. Third, the raffle. As in past year's, MAST has purchased a number of things and has sought donations for this year's raffle. The grand prizes this year are the Tweety Board, the new stereo board for the ST and Falcon ST, the best flight simulator game on the market today. As in past years, raffle tickets will be distributed one per each paid-up MAST member and one raffle ticket for each MAST DOM bought at the birthday meeting. All tickets will be eligible to win of one of the many prizes and one of the two grand prizes. In addition to all of this, we will have our standard news, rumors, and new DOMs stuff as well. We will also demo Falcon ST before raffling it and demo the new 8 bit emulator with an 8 bit drive as well. More plans are in the works so stay tuned to the MAST BBS for more information. This is the biggest MAST meeting of the year so

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER don't miss it and don't be late!!!!!! Now let's take a quick look back and look forward. I would like to thank Steve Murphy and Kent Schumacher for helping with the demos last month. Also I would like to welcome and thank all of the new and renewing members of MAST last month. Allan was a little overcome by the new signups and renewals. Everyone please check your labels for renewal status. Most of the MAST memberships come due in January, February, and March. And you don't want to miss out on what's coming in the months to come. Also thanks to all of the members who brought stuff to swap and sell. We are planning another swap meet in June so start cleaning your closets again. So what's coming in the months to come???? March's theme is modems and BBSs. We will demo the new BBS software as well as show and talk about some of the best communication programs available for the ST. Coming in future months are meeting on desktop publishing, ST emulators, and ST utilities to make your ST better. Also, don't forget the MAST+ meeting the Monday following the MAST meeting with the Dale, Chuck, John, Dave and Todd as well. If you have a programming question, these are the people who can answer it and this is the best place to ask it. And stay around afterward for pizza as well. You don't have to be a programmer to enjoy the MAST+ meeting. Other stuff.... I have ordered another 300 disks for the February meeting and they will again be $0.90 each for

Finally, Touch-Up by Migraph. This is picture conversion/editing program and more. Mine is on order so I will know more next month. Not that much new this month.

double-sided disks. I also have overthe-top disk labels for $2.00 per 100 as well. Come early. These disks sell out fast. Starting this month, I am going to try a

As the envelope close for this month, it says "Happy Birthday" as it closes. I hope to see you all at the MAST Birthday Bash and the MAST+ meeting for February. I hope to see you all there.

MAST suggestion box/disk request. A number of people have questions, comments, disk requests, etc. about MAST and the ST as well. This is your way to get a question answered or an opinion known. Questions will be answered here in the newsletter, on the BBS or by phone. We will try this for three months to see if we get any reactions or comments. If you don't use it, it will disappear.

MAST January Meeting Minutes by Steve Pauley

Also starting this month, MAST will have all of the current month's ST magazines available for checkout. In the future, MAST will getting these by subscription, but right now I am buying them at the local stores ..... Finally, starting right now all of the available ST Online Magazines are on the MAST BBS. Read elsewhere in this month's issue for more information. .. .. Also, MAST is still looking for a volunteer for sticking labels on postcards and mailing them once a month. If you are interested, see me at the meeting.

I believe the official attendance was 42 people. This is more than the past few months. Maybe now that the holidays are over we can get back to our computers a little more often. Anyway it was nice to see a nearly full room (we still could use even more members). There was a swap meet held in the back of the meeting room before and after the formal part of the meeting. Jim Schulz our president called the meeting together at 7:35 Jan. 20th. Jim then introduced the officers of MAST.

It was announced that the MAST club had 3 1/2" disks for sale at 90 cents each.

Well, that's about it for February. I'm keeping it short because of a number of other articles elsewhere this month. Also check out the ST News article elsewhere with the latest ST news and offers. The envelope opens with a couple of programs to watch for this month. First, a non-program, the Tweety Board, which will really make your ST sing. Second, Zany Golf, from cringe Electronic Arts. I haven't seen this, but initial reactions are good.

Jim then listed last months DOMs and introduced his selections for new January's DOM's. Several of his favorites were demoed for the group like Coke Wars, Mouse Changer DA, Mistie Formater, Dot Magic and several games. 11

FEBRUARY • 1989

There were no technical problems/

questions from the floor so the meeting was turned over to Todd Burkey and Jim Schulz who demoed some of the new commercial software offerings that they had brought with them like PacMania and Bubble Bobble. The meeting broke-up just before 1O p.m. after which some of the members met at Pizza Hut.

Programmers Sig Tuesday nights programmers Sig met January 24th at the bank community room. Todd Burkey demoed is "Folding Editor" -very nice, I sure hope it will work with Lazer 'C'. Dale Schumacher demoed is his current experiments with Image enhancement, which I found very interesting.

MAST Disks of ~ the Month By Jim Schulz Well, it's MAST disk time again and it's specials month as well. This month, I will be keeping it short and sweet because the newsletter looks a little long again this month. First some news and then this month's disks. Doc disks - The new and improved DOC disks is in the works. Because this is birthday month, a lot of other disk specials are planned. This is on the list, but a little ways down this month. Prices - This month only, all pre-February 1989 disks are only $3.00 each. All updates are free this month. ST News disks and doc disks are $2.00. All February/current

If.I

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER

month's disks are $6.00. Backorders I know of one backorder for a set of single-sided AIM disks exist. Other than this, everything is up to date. If you are waiting for something, please let me know!!!!

preserved, a new and improved version of Turtle with a multitude of new functions, a new version of the DC Format disk formatting program, and a mouse accelerator with source from Atari.

Suggestions .. Starting this month, there will be a MAST suggestion box by the disk sales table. If you have special disks that you want or you have ideas for future DOMs, please write them down. Clip art disks, GOOS font disks, and Printmaster icon disks are in the works based on your response.

Appijcatjons - This month is viewer month. First, we have an .IMG slide show program from Migraph, the authors of Touch-up. Second, we have a Metafile/GEM file viewing program for Easy-Draw files. Third, we have a new version of the 2 columns printing program. And finally, we have an ALTHELP screen dumper for text files.

Online Magazines. Starting now, three new online mags are posted to the MAST BBS each week. Is there interest in a disk with the current month's news each month for say $2.00??? Please let me know and I will work on it....

Games - The monochrome games have arrived .... This month's monochrome game is called Diamond Miner, a perfect monochrome clone of Boulderdash. Also we have a new color game called Super Repeat for Simon fans as well.

So that's the news for February and now on with this month's selection:

Specials - This month, we have a number of new special disks. First, we have a two set disk for a Modula-2 shareware language disks. Our trusty VP and newsletter editor, Dave Meile, is working on a review of this new language. Second, from France, we have a French animated slide show/ movie which runs over seven minutes in length. This is very well done. Third, we have a public domain flight simulator from GENIE which will allow you to take off and land your own selection of a number of different planes. Also in the works is a new AVS demo disk as well as a number of surprises as well.

Update pjsks - This month's update disks include a new version of the Gu/am UNIX-like shell, an updated ST Xformer disk with instruction and programs to hook an 8 bit drive to your ST, and finally an updated Sozobon C disk with some new GEM bindings files as well a single double-sided version of Sozobon C as well. Please note that all update disks are free in February!!!! Utjljtjes - We have a number of improved utilities as well as new this month. Some of these utilities include a new version of the multi-function DCOPY utility now with better ARC listings and copying with the date

ANALOG - This month, all of the ANALOG disks will be reorganized for once and for all. This month's disk has a number of interesting programs

FEBRUARY • 1989 including a DESKTOP.INF switcher program from Charles Johnson, a flag trivia program, a text analyzer program, and a super print spooler program. I will have a list of what's on each ANALOG disk at the meeting. Fill out your collection this month with all old ANALOG disks selling for only $3.00. Well, this is just a sample of what's in store for this month. Some of programs are so good this month that they have already found a permanent spot on my hard drive. Check out the MAST BBS the week of the meeting of the latest update on this month's DOMs. A number of these programs will also be demoed at the meeting as well.

Hyou can't make the meeting and would still like to get ahold of the DOM or would like to get ahold of the DOC disk, my new address is 5900 65th Avenue North #204 Brooklyn Park, MN 55429 That's it for February. It's short this month, but you still get the complete lowdown. Keep those comments coming. More good stuff is coming soon. Requests are always welcome. hope to see you all at this month's MAST birthday blowout and on the MAST BBS.

ST News

Compiled by Jim

Schulz Here are this month's latest news with a lot of new offers and deals ....

• ANTIC has now officially taken over distribution of GFA products including GFA BASIC. Over the next 30 to 60 days, ANTIC will be emphasizing the introduction of GFA BASIC V3.0 for the Atari ST and Amiga and will establish a technical support team for all GFA products as well. ANTIC seems very quiet about this announcement only sending this information to the retail stores and the computer press. No mention of their new GFA support has been announced by ANTIC themselves. • Reset magazine is all but dead. This has not been totally confirmed, but calls to their offices have not been answered. And no new issues have arrived in the US in the last six months. Reset magazine was one of the best new ST magazines to come on the scene in the last few years. If you can find an old copy at a Software Etc., it is worth a look. • The saga of ST Talk Professional continues .... Last, we heard that their new update 2.0d was done and they were having money problems and were afraid to release it. Today, the story goes that the 2.0d manuals are done and 2.0d is in the final stages of alpha testing. QMI, the authors of ST Talk Professional, state that the program is complete and only bug with option loading and saving exists. This point, many ST Talk Professional owners and store owners will disagree with. But all registered owne.rs of 2.0c will receive a free copy of OMl's new Disk Librarian program when it is released. The story continues ..... .

m • Megatouch is a big hit!!!! Regent Software has just sold its 500,000th Megatouch spring. Megatouch is a new product that adds new springs to your ST keyboard to stiffen your keys and get rid of the "mushy feel." The product sells for $11.95 and comes with 95 springs with installation taking about 1o minutes. I have not seen this product in action, but I know that there is a lot of interest in it locally. If anyone has any personal experiences, please let me know. • Turbo ST, the software blitter, version 1.4 is now available. Here are the new features of 1.4. The scrolling speed of GEM programs, on nonblitter machines, is now much faster. The text routines have been completely rewritten for increased speed and less space. The high res 40 and 50 line modes are now supported. The low and medium res 20 line mode is now fully supported. Turbo ST is now fully compatible with G+Plus, EZCalc, and PHA$AR.Finally, Turbo ST can now be removed at all times. Lots of new stuff. For upgrades, send $5.00 and your original disk to Softrek/ PO Box 5257/Winter Park, FL 32793. Now for an even better offer.... As a user group special, if three or more user group members buy Turbo ST through MAST, the price is only $35.00. Also if we have ten members which own Turbo ST and have registered it, MAST will get a free update disk for the current and all future updates. So bring your Turbo ST serial numbers to the next meeting and let's get on their free update list. More good deals from MAST..... • Offer Time I..... Softlogik is offering PageStream 1.5 which retails for

SPACE/MAST NEWSLETTER

FEBRUARY • 1989

$199.95 for only $129.95. This offer is limited to only Compuserve users, but I have a number of free memberships to Compuserve so this is not a problem. PageStream 1.5 is now a valid entry in the desktop publishing market. All reviews of 1.5 are positive and it is well worth another look. Offer expires February 28, 1989.

based PC emulator which runs at 4.77MHz of the IBM PC XT. To receive the coupon, you must register your copy of PC-Ditto before the official announcement of PC-Ditto II and the coupon will be good for six months after the date of announcement. New purchasers of PC-Ditto will get the next version of .PC-Ditto V3.01 free.

• Offer Time II.... Michtron is offering HiSoft BASIC and HiSoft BASIC Professional for half price. All you have to do in send a photocopy of the copyright page of any commercial BASIC program with $39.97 plus $5.00 shipping for HiSoft BASIC and $79.97 plus $5.00 shipping for HiSoft BASIC Professional to Michtron/576 South Telegraph/Pontiac, Ml 48053. HiSoft BASIC is the new alternative to GFA BASIC which is a compiler BASIC and in all comparisons faster than GFA BASIC. This offer expires March 31,

For more news, rumors, and offers check out this month's MAST meeting.

1989.

• Offer Time 111.... Michtron is also offering Fleet Street Publisher Version 2.0 for only $50.00 (List $149.95) to owners of any desktop publishing program. All you need to do is send a photocopy of the copyright page of any desktop publishing program along with $50.00 plus $5.00 shipping to Michtron at the address above. Fleet Street Publisher is the newest old entry in the US market. Fleet Street is the number one desktop publishing program in England and has been released for six months in Europe and is bug-free. This offer expires March 31, 1989. • Offer Time IV ..... Registered owners of PC-Ditto will be able to buy the new PC-Ditto II cartridge for 50% off. The new PC-Ditto II cartridge is a hardware-

Help Needed By Jim Schulz The following is the announcement from Newton's Apple that was posted to both the MAST BBS and TCCN. This is applicable to both SPACE and MAST members, but mostly to MAST. If SPACE members or 8 bit owners can upload in ASCII format, I am sure that Newton's Apple and KTCA would also be interested in your help. NEWTON'S APPLE KTCA's National PBS Science Series NEEDS YOUR HELP Volunteers with access to word processors are needed to transcribe our segments and interviews with scientists. We provide these materials on audio cassettes, so you can use any cassette player for transcribing. We run a small BBS on our office computer so you can upload the completed transcripts.

If you're interested in helping Publlc Television, please call NEWTON'S APPLE at 646-4611. Ask for Maureen Mcllhargey or Ellen Schwartz. - - Thanks for your help!

m New Modula-2 for Atari ST by David Meile Are you considering the purchase of a Modula-2 programming system? There have been several choices in the past - Jefferson Modula-2, TDI Modula-2, and now ana-systems has produced an Atari ST version of their popular Modula-2 Developement System. This version of Modula-2 comes from a company which has produced Modula-2 for a great number of systems, from IBM machines to Sun workstations and up. An evaluation system, composed of the M2/68 Compiler, Linker, libraries and Development Shell has been released for distribution to Atari ST programmers. Minimum requirements for the language system is a 520 ST with two single-sided drives. An ideal system would be a 1040 ST with a hard drive (or a double-sided drive). The evaluation system is complete. The compiler will produce an object file, the linker will produce a runnable program, the development shell works in much the same way as other Atari ST program shells, making full use of GEM. I tested the system using programs from a standard Modula-2 textbook, and the programs ran as expected. The ST-specific libraries (AES, VOi) are not complete - this is, after all, only an evaluation system. There are enough procedures to allow you to load a resource file (.RSC) and work

SPA CE/M AST NEW SLET TER

Ill with dialog and alert boxes. You can also write programs which use the simpler VOi procdures (opening a workstation, changing attributes such as color, line and text style, etc.) The Standard and Developer packages will have updated ST-specific libraries. The system comes with a public domain editor - MicroEMACS. You can replace MicroEMACS with your favorite text editor. ana-systems recommends (and sells) the Tempus editor. With some editors (including T empus), the editor may start the compiler, and return to the editor in case of an error. Fairly standard practice for those of you familiar with Personal Pascal. Installation is easy if you have a hard drive. H you do not, you will have to move files around, and, in the case of

a 520 ST with single-sided disk drives, you will have to do some disk swapping during the compile and link phases. All in all, this Modula-2 system looks professional. It's backed by a company with a lot of experience in Modula-2. Documentation included with the system is sufficient to get you started (I was programming and had a program which ran in less than 10 minutes of setting things up). H you don't already have a Modula-2 programming language system and are considering one, I'd recommend you tak a look at M2/68 from ana-systems. The M2/68 system should be one of this month's DOMs. The programs come on two double-sided disks. If you require single-sided disks, please let the DOM librarian know, and we'll try to accomodate you.

WIZARD'S WORK Complete ATARI Service Center We would be happ y to repa ir your ATA RI comp uter

equip men t

ice Wiza rd's Work - Authorized ATARI Sale s and Serv County Road s 18 & 9 • Plymouth, Minn esota (612) 559-4690 11 :005:00 Mon dayThur sday 11 :007:00 • Friday & Saturday

FEBRUARY• 1gag

s-. :>

AT ARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS & MINNESOTA ATARI ST

■

SPAC: .a-x. 11.1..5a.'1! '"ldependent user groups of owners of ATARI Home Computers. It has been o r ~ b:a owners of ATARI computers for the purpose of mutual self assistance and :or t is open to all interested computer enthusiasts. sharing :11 ~ ~ .: --eriberships in the groups include monthly newsletter mailed to your home, BBS acces.s. s:c-ore demonstrations, group purchases, public domain disk(s) of the month software a; ::r.c:es re!erence book library, educational software library (8-bit only) with over 20 titles, ~ a cx,ntacts/leaming, greater information and awareness on the world of ATARI, software at Cl.SCCKXlted prices from dealers, question and answer session, etc. Come to a meeting to find out more.

SPACE • 8Bft Group The SPACE meetings are devoted primarily to the 8-bit ATARI computers such as the 400, 800, 600XL, 800XL, 65XE and 130XE. There is other ATARI related news and some 16-bit news at the SPACE meetings, as well. The SPACE group meets on the second Friday of each month at the Falcon Heights Community Center, 2077 West larpenteur Avenue, at 7:30pm. Doors open at about 7:10pm. MAST• ST Group The MAST meetings are devoted primarily towards the ATARI 520ST, 1040ST & MEGA computers. There will be ATARI related news items covered, but not 8-bit news. The MAST group meets on the third Friday of each month at the Falcon Heights Community Center, 2077 West larpenteur Avenue, at 7:30pm. Doors open at about 7:10pm. MAST+ • Programming Language User Sig MAST also has a programmer's group meeting. This group has a more technical discussion regarding programming the ST computers in a variety of languages. The group meets on the Monday following the MAST meeting at the First Minnesota bank on Lexington Avenue near Larpenteur Avenue. Meeting time is 7:30, with doors opening at about 7:20pm. The entrance is in the back of the building and leads to a stairway to the second floor. For more information. or to confirm a meeting time and location, call Greg Howell (SPACE) 636-0381 or Jim Schulz (MAST) 533-4193

SP A C E / MAS T Me mb e r s h ip App li cat i on

-------------------------Name_________________ _ _ Date_ _ _ _ __ __

Address_____________________________ City_ _ _ _ _ __ _ __ __ _ _ __State_ _ _Zip_ _ _ __ __ Phone

Equipment/System Used_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

Area of Interest Check one or both: SPACE__ MAST__ Renewal?__ Address Change?__ Membership Card Given?__ Dues: $15.00 oer year - Please enclose with Application. Mail to: SPACE/MAST, P.O. BOX 12016, New Brighton, MN 55112

S • P • A• C• E / M• A• S • T P.O. BOX 12016 New Brighton , MN 55112