September 1989
Minnesota Atari ST SPACE/ MAST Newsletter September 1989
Now including Z•Net SPACE meetings coming up:
Fri.day. September 8th
Friday. October 13th Friday . November 10th MAST meetings coming up:
Fri.day. September 15th -- All about TOS 1.4
Friday, October 20th Friday, November 17th SPACE/ MAST regular meetings are at the Falcon Heights Community Center. 2077 Larpenteur Avenue West. St. Paul. Meetings start at 7:30 pm. MAST+ Pro~ammers / :MIDI meeting (First Minnesota Bank building on
Lexington Avenue near Larpenteur Avenue. Meeting starts at 7 :30 pm): Tuesday, September 24th
P~e num ber2
FROM THE EDITOR September has come upon us rather quickly! The newsletter is being put together over the lirst weekend, since the SPACE meeting is actually a mere 8 days into the month. In addition. I am getting ready for my own wedding, which occurs the evening of the MAST meeting - a mere 15 days into the month! And school is just around the comer... This issue is also something of a departure. The SPACE officers have decided that they do not want to indude the Z'Net articles. This is a shame, since they recently expanded 8-bit only articles to 2 pages (plus a full page ad from Innovative Concepts). There are rumblings of other methods of getting 8-M Atari computer news to the members of SPACE ... you may want to show up at the September meeting to provide your own opinion on the matter. Along Wf1h the Z'net articles this month, you'I also !ind the regular writings of David Cole and Jim Schulz. The only thing that's missing is an article lrom _you_, the reader. There are literally hundreds of soltware and hardware reviews wailing to be typed up •· and it's the usergroup member with experience who should pass along the message ' I like this, because...' or •1 don't like this, because...' See you in October! - Dave Meile
News from the Pres. By Jim Schulz Well, September is here and the end of a long summer has come lo an end. MAST is still here and we welcome you all back from your long summer vacations. We have a number of great meetings planned for the months ahead so don1 miss out. F11st up this month, comments on the BBS, then last month, this month, the future, member stuff and another visit to the envelope. Steve Pauley has resigned as sysop of the MAST BBS. This was told to me the night before the MAST meeting and discussed at the MAST meeting the next night. With Steve resigning, MAST also loses the BBS equipment as well, since we were using Steve's PC and modem. Steve's IBM PC with mucho graphics options is currently up for sale. If you are interested, give Steve a call. Alter much discussion, it was decided to take the offer of Tom Cook to be the next MAST BBS sysop. Tom has donated the use of his equipment. modem, and hard drive to the BBS. It was also decided that the new BBS software will be STadel as well. The decision to use STadel and Tom's ST has created quite a bit
SPA CE / MAS T • Sept emb er 1989 of activity on the current MAST BBS. A couple of points relative to the decision to accept Tom's offer need to be addressed. First, MAST does not have the monetary resources to buy an ST, hard drive and modem. Yes, MAST does own an ST. but even if we use the dub's ST, we still need to buy both a 2400 baud modem and a 20 to 30 meg hard drive. Second, Tom was the only volunteer that we had to both run the BBS and volunteer his equipment to the club. Even though MAST is quite big, we still are low on volunteerism. Tom was also the only volunteer to run the BBS. period. Next the software. It was decided to use the STadel BBS software. It was decided that this software would give the user group the best opportunity to expand the BBS and give MAST members a larger plate of BBS options to choose from. The downside, whrch has been pointed out a number of times, is that STadel is not always the easiest BBS to understand. To that end, both Tom and I are in the process of rewriting the menus and worl(ing to make the BBS more user friendly. Also, we will be educating the members on the usage of the new commands and providing documentation to ease the transition. Starting next month, we will having articles here on how to use the STadel commands and having demonstrations and question answenng times at the meeting. We are very open to suggestions and we want this BBS to be as user friendly as possible. We are also hoping to make the transition to the new BBS a gradual one. Our hope is that both BBSs will be up for about two weeks together before formally bringing down the current MAST BBS. The new MAST BBS number will be announced at the MAST meeting. Please work with us lo create the best MAST BBS yet!H! Before I complete this, I think we all owe Steve our thanks for all of the years that he has supported the group through the BBS. Thanks Steve for all of your effortl!fl! last month, we had another round of MidiMaze. We didn't have as good of turnout as in the past, but all who played had a good time. We also had a demo of some new graphics software as well. I didn1 get to hear most of the stuff relating to the demo, but what I saw of the demo looked quite impressive. We also had a goodly number of rather good OOMs this month as welt. Attendance was again down, but it should pick up a bit now that summer is over.
Now on to this month..... This month, I will be bringing along my system with the new TOS 1.4 and showing off some of the features of the new operating system. I am also planning on putting together a handout listing the new features as well. Also bring along your favorite software and see how ii works on 1 4 as well. Try before you buy. Generally, all
commercial software which doesn't play tricks should run as well as some software that doesn1 work on the Mega as well. In addition to this, I am planning a few surpnses as well. Also we will have complete details on the new STE computers, and the new TT computers as well. All this and the latest news, rumors, and DOMs as well. One member won't be at the meeting this month. MAST's VP and newsletter editor Is getting married on the Friday night of the MAST meeting so I will have to go ii alone. Good luck Dave!!!! Also we will be picking two members to head up a nominations committee for our annual elections in November. Yes, another full meeting at MAST1!!!! The future...... Next month we will look at the wonderful world of ST enhancers. Some of the programs to be shown indude Turbo ST, Universal Item Selector, Neodesk. and more.... See how you can make your system better for the price of a program. Coming in November, the translators are here.... Now that PC Ditto II is four to six weeks from shipping , it should be here by the then. I will also bring along the ST Xformer and show how the 8 bit looks on ST with an 8 bit drive as well. We will also have elections in November Wf1h formal nominations taken in Ociober. Also either October or November, we will have another MAST swap meet for hardware and software. More details in the newsletter next month. As always, MAST keeps rolling along...... Speaking of meetings, also don1 forget the MAST+ programmers meeting and the new Midi meeting which is just starting. We had more Midi interest this last month so keep ii comng. I had a call yesterday from a man in Mankato. He bought a copy of GFA V3.0 and can1 figure out the Atari resource editor. I gave him directions for the programmers meeting . I hope one of our expert programmers can help him through his problems. That's what the programmers meeting is for. The Midi group is just getting started. If you are willing to help, please contact Eric Hopper or Dave Meile. We can use your help'!! Also don1 forget the pizza afterwards ...... Member stuff.... First, the treasury... There have been a lot of questions lately about where all of the MAST money goes. Most of the money comes from memberships, DOM sales, and blank disk sales. Most of the money ts spent on disks for OOMs, BBS download time, room rental, BBS support payments, and the newsletter. Starting next month, we will try to start a breakdown of how much MAST and SPACE really have and actually have. The difference here IS the money from memberships should go for the newsletter. Nol other expenses. When you take out the money from each group from membership
SPACE / MAST • September 1989 each group is currently in the hole. Since there has been quite a bit of concern about whether the groups can afford to publish a newsletter, MAST is going to spend money based on the philosophy that membership money is newsletter money. What this means to the member is that if you pay your dues, you will get a newsletter for one year. SPACE is about to decide to drop the newsletter all together to save money. I don1 want MAST to get to that situation, ever, so I am taking these steps now. MAST is doing fairly well financially and the group should not be overly concerned. We have just survived another long summer of low attendance meetings and funds and attendance has always picked up in the fall ...... . Second, newsletter. To help promote contributions to the newsletter, MAST will give any member writing an ST related article one FREE MAST DOM of their choice. This offer used to apply with both SPACE and TAIG in the past and we are again reinitiating it with MAST. Yes, any MAST disk for one newsletter article. It is our hope that this will bring new blood and ideas to the newsletter. Elsewhere in this month's newsletter is this month's DOM article, a ST Xtra article on Midi Maze from our sister group in Fargo/Moorhead, a Z*Net update article, and a ST News article on the latest info on the STE, TOS 1.4 and more. Look for these elsewhere in this issue. Third, secretary. Steve Pauley is officially the secretary of MAST, but Steve has had some problems getting to meetings lately and other business affairs have conflicted with the MAST meeting. What we need is someone to take minutes and write them up for the newsletter in Steve's absence. The minutes of the meeting are important because they give another perspective on each meeting and also will free me up from recapping the last meeting each month. If you are interested, please see me at the next meeting. Fourth, blank disks.... We do still have blank disks. Blank double-sided disks are $0.80 each and we do guarantee them. If you find a disk that won1 format, we will swap for a good one. Also we have 3.s• over-the-top labels as well for 100 for $2.00. Just one more service of MAST. Fifth, Antic deal .... ANTIC has offered MAST $1.00 for every ST owner's name which we supply. ANTIC has guaranteed us that these name will only be used for one mailing on a START special offer and then destroyed. MAST has decided to send all MAST members names to ANTIC. If you do not want your name included, please see Allan or me at the next meeting. Finally, the freebies started to roll in. MAST now owns a copy of Word Perfect as well as a
V-ldeoKey. We will be looking for people to do a review. If you are interested, please talk to Dave or myself. Also we ha~e received_ th~ . Sierra Online video and we will be showing 11 in October or November as well. We have also got the forms for our free BIX membership and those should be active in the next month as well. This will provide both the newsletter and the MAST BBS another source for news and the MAST DOMs a free source for public domain software.
Well, that's it for September. The envelope _is a little down in the mouth this month and again look empty. But the future looks good so stay tuned next month..... So that's it!!! I hope to see you all at the TOS 1.4 demo and at the MAST SIGs on the following Tuesday and on the MAST BBS as well. Also congrats again to Dave and Ann on their forthcoming marriage.
Last Nite by Dave Cole Well, another month gone, 3 to go! Time flies whenever it wants to. I won1 be VP of SPACE after November, I know that many of you will be glad, I know why. Anyway, there are some NEW games for the XE game system. Commando is one of them. It's certainly looking into, but when the ST Game System comes out, this may be the death of the 8-bit (which I love the Atari 8-bit very much, I'm serious.) rm working on 2 new letters which I'm going to send to certain people. 1 is going to ATARI.and the other to the magazine 'Atari Explorer". Both will deal with 'controversial issues• about the 8-bit, so once - or if - I get a reply, anyone interested will be able to see the reply to what I wrote to them (and a copy of what I had written to them.) I loved last month's meeting, didn't you? I really loved it when I took over as President for 5 seconds! I thank Mr. Nathan Block for taking over Mr. Howell's position. And I must say that Nathan was pretty good at the position of President, too! And there I was, as nervous as a newt! Oh well, at least nobody had a nervous breakdown!
The latest question about SPACE is this: Will the Newsletter be put on a disk? I think it's a good idea as it will undoubtedly cost less to produce, and you can skip some articles like mine for instance! Well, all-in-all, a disk version would be pretty nice. Well, see you at the next meeting!
Nomination committees should be fanning up this month -think about running for office or volunteering yourtimem,
Paue number 3
SPACE 8 BIT SOFTWARE LIBRARY NEWS September 1989 by Joe Danko, Disk Librarian There is a Disk of the Month in September. The DOM went on a little vacation last month due to the lack of suitable software and the effort required to properly organize the 6 disk PRINT SHOP compendium and get out the 4 sides required for DETERM 1.59 which is now my chosen modem program. It's close but it even beats BOBTERM. SEPTEMBER 1989 DOM: >SPACE DOM< 000 >09 89 - 1< 000 DOS SYS037 DUP SYS 042 AUTORUN SYS 001 035 MENU LIFE COM 249 KALEIDO LIF 007 KALEIDO2LIF 007 EXPLODESLIF 007 GLIDRGUNLIF 007 CONSTELLLIF 007 GLIDER2 LIF 007 BILLIARDLIF 007 LIFEDOCSTXT 119 DET BAS 046 DET DOC 012 DOS2 FIX 001 DOS2FIX DOC 007 DTABIN BAS 078 DTABIN DOC 014 LIFE.COM LIFEDOCS.TXT Most of SIDE 1 is occupied by what has to be the ultimate GAME OF LIFE for the ATARI 8 bit. The files with 'LIF' extenders are saved starting patterns. Yes, you can save and reload your patterns. The user interface is very up to date with windows and dropdown menus and the graphics are outstanding. The game has many options and executes very quickly. The author is Anthony Ramos, a new power in 8 bit public domain/shareware programming. DET.BAS DET.DOC A BASIC program to convert decimal numbers to English. DTABIN.BAS DTABIN.DOC BASIC program that will BINARY SAVE a machine language program with optional RUN and INIT vectors. This is especially useful with SPARTADOS and SPARTADOS X. DOS2.FIX DOS2FIX.DOC A short patch to fix the DOS to DOS XE file conversion utility, OOS2SYS.COM, included
SPACE / MAST • Septem ber 1989
Pyen umbe r4 with DOS XE. The version on the DOS XE that I tried didn't work.
rNet Update by Jim Schulz
SIDE2: This side of the DOM is a massive collection of DEMO programs called: DISC-SCAPE Another Anthony Ramos masterpiece, this series of linked BASIC programs cleverly shows a lot of your ATARl's capabilities and takes over 15 minutes to run. Here are the only non-menu instructions: During Phase screen >SELECT<:next phase >OPTION<:menu Other new offerings for September: DOS XE Since this new DOS is a bit mysterious to most of us and I have heard that the DOS software itself is in the public domain, SPACE LIBRARY will offer copies for a small price so users can try it out. So far there is no software released that uses it and I have seen no enhancements or utilities. Included with DOS XE and utilities will be the DOS2SYS fix files. If you need to know how to make maximum use of DOS XE you will have to purchase the ATARI copyright package for $10 or so as the manual IS NOT public domain for sure. DVC COMPILER A shareware 'C' compiler system complete with libraries, linker, compiler and editor along with examples of source and compiled programs. It is a demonstration version and the author wants money for the actual working release which is a much larger set of files and a large manual. This singlesided disk offers a way to take 'C' for a test-ride. ACTION! P.D. RUNTIME LIBRARY For ATARI users with the ACTION! cartridge, this 2 sided disk allows you to generate freestanding executable files to run on systems without an ACTION! cartridge. ANALOG #76 The ANALOG Disk of the Month for September. If you get ANALOG magazine, you need this disk. We need increased interest in this disk or SPACE may have to drop our subscription. As things stand, ANALOG is going back to a combined 8-btt/ST single monthly issue in November. Our subscription expires with the December issue and we need to sell disks to help support the cost of our renewal. We offer the current 12 months DOM's for $4 and previous years for $3. We don't require proof that the buyer actually has the issue of ANALOG.
This month, we will agan look at this month's Z"Net. This month, I wi1 fi'sl look at the SPACE/MAST and Z"Net status and then let you know where you can get hold of some of the public domain programs listed in this month's "Public Domain Report" column.
Starting next month the LIBRARY will be offering BEST-OF disks from the early years of SPACE for those that don't have a collection of the disks going back to 1982. There will be BEST GAMES, BEST UTILITIES, etc.
I
I
If you have an ATARI 8-bit machine and you need software, THE SPACE LIBRARY HAS IT.
First off, the z•Net Status. Last month, we published the costs of adding z•Net to the newsletter. From second-hand comments, I heard last month that SPACE decided to remove z•Net from the newsletter because of non-payment of funds by z•Net and lack of 8 bit material. Let's address these two issues. First off, Dave has receiwd in the last few weeks from z•Net compeete payment details. z•Net now will only pay the user groups after they have accrued $50.00 in payments. Dave had previously submitted for payment for the first issue and was waiting for more information before submitting for the second month. Under these new rules. we will get paid every two to three months for z•Net publication. Also z•Net has provided forms for better submissions for payment as well. Second, Z"Net is trying to address the issue of 8 bit material. In this month's issue, there are two full page 8 bit articles as well as one full page 8 bit ad. Z"Net is also hearing from other groups as well about the lack of 8 bit material. So our complaints are not alone and are being heard. In dOSOJ, z•Net is a new venture for the support of user group. It is having its growing pains just like any other new publication and venture. Since we jumped in in the beginning, we will have to live with some of the problems as they get them worked out. Both SPACE and MAST are continuing to evaluate our z•Net involvement and we will keep you informed. Now onto the "Public Domain Report"..... . HDCHEK12 from MAST's own Bill LeDuc is found on MAST DOM #406 from August, the second utility disk from last month. LGSELECT and PACKER 2.0 are found on MAST DOM #405 from August, the first utility disk from last month. PA CAL 11 was first found on MAST DOM #396 from July, the applications disk for July. Several updates have been made over the two months to this program so an updated version will again appear on this month's acplications disk. The other utilities, DCFMT302, BLRUT14, CACHEV3, FLAME J and STOPDRV will appear on this month's utiity disk(s). The BLRUT12 is a rather large collection of utilities and might not appear this month because of space limitations. The ADARDEMO will not appear on the MAST DOM. I do have a copy and I have tried it. Since the demo only plays itself and doesni give the user anything to try or use, I will not be published. My general
theory for demos is that if the demos doesn't give the user something beyond the demo of the software, it is very limited in its usefulness and also rather expensive. If there is interest, I will post the demo to the MAST BBS. Well, that's it. I hope you enjoy reading this month's edition of z·Net. Also check with Allan and Joe at the meetings for this month's selection of public domain software. Happy z•Net reading .....
MAST Disks of the Month By Jim Schulz Well, it's DOM time again. This month, I will start with a run down last month's lineup of MAST DOMs, followed by some MAST disk news, and finally what's in store for the month of August. This again may be a little fast as it is my last article after six hours of writing all night long. So here goes .... For the month of August, we had five normal DOMS, four special disks, and two ST magazine disks. #405 • MAST DOM #1 (Aug. Utilities Disk #1) #406 • MAST DOM #2 (Aug. Utilities Disk #2) #407 • MAST DOM #3 (Aug. Applications Disk) #408 • MAST DOM #4 (Aug. Games Disk #1) #409 • MAST DOM #5 (Aug. Games Disk #2 and Communications) #410 • Demo Disk #36 (Full running demos of Neodesk and Turbo ST) #411 - Demo Disk #37 (Full running demo of Bloodwych-Dungeonmaster-like) #412 • ANALOG Disk #30 (Programs from ST -Log Issue #35) #413 · ANALOG Disk #31 (Programs from ST -Log Issue #35) #1 • ST Reports from the month of August #2 - ST ZMAGs from the month of August So that's a wrapup of last month, the MAST utilities disks and applications disk, the two demo disks and the first ANALOG disk #30 sold the best this last month. The first games disk also picked up after I started showing the excellent version of Pacman on the disk as well. Now the news...... First up, Microemacs. Microemacs was again bumped last month when I started to put the disks together and found no documentation or macros. Chuck rebuilt me a new set of disks as well as adding some new patches as well. This will be included this month. Next up... surprises .... I am working on a number of new things for the DOMs, some promised and some not. So as not to disappoint anyone, you will have to come to the meeting to see what's in store. Finally....ST Xpress... ST Xpress now allows their disks to be included in user groups libraries. Is anyone interested??????
ZMAGAZINE'S In This Issue Bomb Scare at Softlogik "TT" Officially Announced Virus Alert Portfolio Selling Well - In Europe 8-Bit Action! How to Give a User Group Talk MiGraph Hand Scanner Review Public Domain Shelf Vol. I
No. 7
The Future of AtariFests? by John Nagy
Glendale Atarifest: CANCELLED. San Jose World of Atari: CANCELLED. Atari owners are wondering what will happen next as charges are made of interference, failure to coor dinate1 insensitivity to user groups, and unrealistic ex pectations of vendors. ZMagazine/Z*NET and ST-IN FORMER magazines hope to help user groups get back on track with their own shows. The Southern California Atarifest tradition - the Glendale Atarifest - was cancelled this year by organ izer John King Tarpinian. This user group show set the pattern for successful fests nationwide in three previous years, but this year it was unable to generate enough vendor and developer support to make happen. Although a conflict in hall scheduling was perhaps the last straw, when John pulled the plug only a month before the scheduled show date, only four vendors of any kind had sent deposits confirming their participation. By_ that stage in pnor years, over 20 had been in hand. What was wrong? The problem may have been that STWORLD magazine publisher and World Of Atari pro moter Rich Tsukiji nad recently added a World of Atari show into his schedule for San Jose, two hundred miles up the coast near San Francisco, for only a week later. Some user group leaders called "foul", saying that this forced vendors to choose between the commercial and user show. While it might have seemed that 200 miles was plenty separation to avoid hitting many of the same likely attendees, a week between shows was much too little time for most vendors to attend both West coast shows. Worse yet, another show (WAACE in Washing ton D.C.) was the NEXT weekend. And with the World shows promising Atari backing, professional promotion budgets, and substantial discounts for vendors who at tend all of the WOA shows, those who don't have the staff and budget for a continuous road show simply had to choose... ano Glendale was losing fast The conflict in California was not new, but was
even worse than the MACE/Dearborn WOA conflict earlier this summer. In the case of Michigan, the World show (the second in the tour) was scheduled almost seven months in advance, and announced more than a month before the MACE user group of Detroit formally approved their show, to be held only miles from the WOA site and six weeks before it. That show brought a lot of pressure and attention to the professional show versus user group show issue. Fortunately, both Michigan shows were reasonably successful, and Tsukiji made commitments to only take future WOA shows where the user groups ASKED for them, places that would not otherwise have an Atarifest. Next, World of Atari moved to Dallas, Texas for a mid August show, the third in the s~ries. This was a site of successful locally produced multi-computer brand shows as well as several Atarifests in previous years, but the clubs in the area were not even contacted before the show was scheduled, let alone consulted. Attempts by Dallas groups to make suggestions or become involved went unanswered as ST-World and Tsukiji went phonesilent for two weeks in July, worrying eve~ Atari officials who could not schedule their own mvolvement. The last word we heard from area representatives was that Dallas groups were puzzled at being left in the dark getting more information from distant callers who assu~ed they would be involved than from ST World. Of three Dallas area user groups, the single one that Tsukiji identified as "involved", Atari Users of North Texas has no actual plans for any group involvement. Some of their members expect to volunteer to help the show now that a local dealer has passed them show fliersonly one week before the show. Club officers express concerns over the lack of local promotion, and say that the groups should have been given some options early in the planning. Tsukiji confirmed that there will be NO user groups having booths at the show. Press time has arContinued on page 7...
• Z'"Net is a monlhly newalettcr supplancnt produced by Rone Industries, Inc. h is available in newslencrs of regilla"cd Atari user grrups. Z"'Net and Rovac Industries, Inc. are not affdialai wilh Mari Caporation. . . • Z"'Net articles are Copyright 1989 by the individual audlon. Rqnnt pennissioo is available from Rovac ln~stnes m writing. Opinions and commmtary slated wilhin this publicatioo are lhose of the individual author and not ncccssanly lhoae of Z"'Net a RII. e ZJNet is produced 011 an Atari Mega ST4 using Cilamus Desktop Publishing software. It bas been printed OD the HewkttPackard DeakJet printer and reproduced by user grouJ)L Artwod and logos have been p-oduced OD the Mari ST using EasyDraw and Twch-Up by MiGraph. • ZJNet, Z"'Net Logo. ZMAGazine, SPZMAGazine, RII arc Copyright 1989 by Rovac Industries, Inc., formerly Syndicate Publishing Company, Middlesex, NJ, a registacd corporation. ¼lice line: (201) 968-8148.
ROVAC Industries, Inc. 00 Box S9, Middlesex, NJ 08846 R,u Kovaca Erlitorr___ _ _ _....,foh.n Nagy layout & Distribution-Bruce Hansf<rd Sccret,ry,__ _ _ Llsa Kovacs Publisl>er
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Atari finally announced their "1T" 68030 based system at a huge Atari specific show in Dusseldorf , West Germany. The Atari TT will run both Unix and TOS, but will be released with TOS first with Unix to be added in a few months. The TT will be available overseas almost immediate ly, with US distribution to start after FCC approval. Price? Under $2,000 - maybe. The Atari ST-Plus, a 68000 or 68020 system with 4,096 colors and stereo sound, will probably be introduced and shipped this fall or winter. [I"? Major advertising power CHIAT/ D'AY, the folks who introduced the MAC to the world with their "1984" ad campaign, are going to handle the planned fall blitz by Atari. There is plenty to tell the world about, as we all know. Meanwhile , Atari stock keeps a climb going, nearing $10 a share at press time. [I"? The $400 Atari Portfolio hand neld computer is already in release in Europe and selling well. It is in the final stages of U.S. preparatio n for market and may appear at any moment. The STACY laptop ST is not progressing as quickly and may be another month or two before distributio n. Conner Peripherals announced last week that Atari is buying a supply of their low-profile 20 and 40 meg 3.5 inch disk drives for the STACY fr'? SOFI'LOG IC, makers of PAGESTREAM desktop publishing software for the ST and Amiga, had a BOMB SCARE last month. A device was found and removed by police according to St. Louis newspaper s. The bomb arrived in the mail, addressed to a SoftLogic employee who had been fired a few days earlier. It was believed that the former employee may have been involved in sendinlS the bomb, and police were also seeking a third party who was thought to have built or supplied the bomb. IT'? What version of PAGESTR EAM oo YOU have? In what just could be a problem related to the employee disagreement, at least one copy of PageStream at a Southern California Atari Dealer was found to be version 1.58... odd, considerin g that 1.52 is the current commerci al version. SoftLogic representatives claim that this is simply impossible. Version 1.58 is an internal BETA version, and is not even [I"?
Vol. I, No. 7
planned for release, as 1.60 is expected to be the next public update. You might check with your local dealers and help find how widespread the version leak might be. [1j VIRUS ALERr. A mischief-v anety virus was making the rounds in Public Domain disks at the Dearborn World of Atari show. It causes the mouse to mix up for down every fifth disk swap... watch for it, it is being found in Canada too, and may have migrated here from there originally. When cleaning up this virus, some libraries discovered that they also had a "key virus" on some disks, which has potential for considerab le destruction . Take no chances, every time you trade disks or get anything but factory original unopened software, check and clear the disks of Viruses. There are several programs available in the public doroam to do this, and probably the best known is called VKILLER . IT'? All signs point to the end of the 510SI: In July, Atari sold a large number of units to PRICE CLUB, a national super-disco untei; in what has the earmarks of a factory close-out. Price Club is offering them at a mere $349 AND including a bundle of 20 (public domain) games, billing it as the "Super ST Game Machine". The deal has upset established Atari dealers who actually have to pay a dealer cost of over $400 for the same machine. Some price rebating arrangeme nts have put out the fire, but many are still questionin g the matter as a severe breach of dealer relation ethics. [[]. In Europe, if you buy a 520ST you will receive a free package of 18 popular commerci al ST games; Outrun, Pacmania, Gauntlet, R-type, Super Hang-On, The Black Lamp, Bombuzal , and more. The Euro-ST comes with 720K drive, Omnicron Basic, ST Basic, and the 18 games for only $500. The software sold alone totals $750.00. In' Keith Ledbetter has shipped the First batch of EXPRESS ! terminal cartridges. The stackable cart for the 8-bit Atari gives unparallel ed power in an instant-loa d package. A disk drive is not even required ior simple terminal use with any standard Hayes-com patible modem. It sports numerous batch transfer protocols at speeds up to 19,200 baud and will also work on Atari 1030, XM301, and SX212 direct con-
Z*NET
nect modems. Featuring windows and dropdown menus (although NOT using a mouse), it is quite easy to use. $69.95, Orion Microsyste ms, 2211 Planters Row Drive, Midlothian , VA 23113. in, Atari's recently hired User Group Coordinato r, Chris Roberts, was fired in late JulY: Problems grew from Chris's willingness to talk to almost anyone about things that were either sensitive internally or not ready for public release, as well as from his propensity for re-adjustin g stories between conversations. ... As we go to press, we have received word that Robert Brodie, President of ACAOC (a Z*Net group) in Orange County, California , has been hired as Atari's new User Group Coordinato r. Bob has been a regular contributo r for Z*Net and STZ*Mag over the past year. We think he'll do a great job and we wish him success. in, Also gone in July is Atari VP of Marketing , Joe Mendolia, who reportedly resigned for personal reasons. Those of us who talked at length with Joe will miss his enthusiasm and realistic approach to presenting the Atari line. No replacemen t has been announced yet. in, Shows: WAACE is presenting an Atarifest October 7 and 8 at the Fairfax High School in Fairfax, Virginia. Washingto n DC area Atarifests have a good reputation for success and crowds. Also, the Kentuckia na Atari Fest is81anned for Clarkesvil le, Indiana on ctober 28-29. A mile out of Louisville, Kentucky, the user group show will be at the Clarkesvil le Sheraton Lakeview. Atari is planning to send representatives to both shows. [lj ISO Marketing announced a new upgraded Calamus to be available this fall. Version 1.1 has many new features and is modular, allowing memory manageme nt in smaller machines by loading only what you need to use. Irregular text flow-aroun d, rotation of graphics, condensed and expanded font control, and transportab le clipboards highlight a long list of improvements. ISO afso declared positively that Calamus will be released for the IBM and MAC platforms sometime next year. ISO Marketing , Markham, Ontario, L3R 2W5, ( 416) 479-1880. •
Page z•3
Suppo rting A-tori S-Bit Users
RATTY'S RA P b
Matt hew Ratc liff (Mot *Rat)
tion! cartridge are replaced by calls to in line assembly code. . Here is my latest experience with the Action! proThe ;-esultant progi:am file is no longer dependant up on the and gramm ing langua ge, the language I LOVE to HATE! cartnd ge for anyth~ng. These pr~am s may be loaded car! Action the of Take a look at this piece of code: nce assista the t run from DOS, withou BYTE ARRAY String Thing = "This is stuff" tridge, and may be exchan ged with friends. ACT" SALL. "04:SY DE I NCLlJ , Ac~on! needs a new. manua l. Maybe I'll write one. I Guess what happens when you compi le that? You haven t decided, ~ut somet hing needs to be done. Action! is ler bette:r than any disk based _C or Pascal compiler for the 8bit ALWN-£S g~t error 170. Why? Because the Action! compi looks on drive 1 for SYSA LLAC T instead of drive 4 as speciAtans (though I must admit to not having tested Kyan Pasmfied. Chang e it to: cap. If yo~ learn Action! and _pursue structu red prografew have will you style, stuff" coding is good "This and = mmg techmques BYTE ARRAY String Thing C problems movin g up to a "real" high level language such as BYTE FRED Atari or tosh MacIn IBM, an to on move you when or Pascal ;or other declar ations that aren't initialized strings in the ST and mor~ sophis ti~ted progrl!ffiIIling as~ignme~tsinstallINCLlJD£ "D4:SYSALL.ACT" ! more m future ActJ.on at g lookin be will I future. Voila! It works. Now, why doesn' t THIS work? ments of Ratty's Rap, apd ~ay provide a few tutorials along ord = [ CARD Points BYTE POINT ER X. Y ] the w~y. Analog doesn t think very many people are interM:,-Rec TYPE I ~ways get an error 6 on the BYTE POINTER? est~ m the language, and does not want a colum n on the , Ca_n t a _pomter be p~t of a record? What's the deal? A byte subjec t Well, I plan to get all you latent Action! gurus fired pomte r ts the same size as a CARD. So, I do this: up, and change that! I sug~s t that we start a revolt and a TYPE MyRecord = [ CARD Points, X, Y ] REFU S~ to use the exclam ation point after Action!, what is of seems instead It rs y? pointe anywa as Y name and the X in use . Now, how do I punctuat10n charac ter doing cardinals? like the language is_ YELL ING at you. Maybe that's why so the zed organi poorly bow many would be Actmn progra mmers are intimidated? Has anyone ever noticed . finally I here. insane going I'm is? n n;tatio The Septem ber issue _of Analog is out You may have ~~ume ! Action every of ing beginn the at tabs put and the letter from the publ~sher Lee ?appas about mergin g ~ook Craig s 3'=1V1ce secread and ST-Lo g once again. He pamts a pretty wim picAnalog i!11J)Or9Dt section of t~e manua l (exc~ t for _the error easmore thmgs find I Now that). rerrndy to GOT ve both the 8bit and ST. Of course Mr. Pappas is also in~ion - I k ture for ily, but golly - wh~re are the examples? I'm going berzerge ~lved in the publication of Video Game s & Computer Enterboth here. I'm about this close [l to runnin g my action cartrid tamm~ nt (VG&CI?) an~ Lap!OJ> Co~u ters magazines, their How. to Mac65 nson out ng compa m whippi fire and 1 wild like disposa e are s_ellmg throug h ~e garbag a of which ever, the size of my curren t project is a bit daunting from ROOf S magaz ines ST-Log and Analog. So, it's understand6502 assembly langua ge perspective. able that he _is a bit pe_ssemistic. _I guess we won't really know HELLLLPPPP ????? Where are you action gurus? for sure until the Christ mas buymg season begins. Atari has pr:omised a lot of pleasant surprises, but Where are examp les? Why isn't there an ACTION! topic in . the da~ li_braries here~ Arggggggggggggg...... <poof> (oops, will t!ley deliver? Will we see the Lynx (their portable game the my mmd Just went up m smoke) f!lachme) by the eI?,d of Septem ber? Will the Portfolio seeamthe TIMES gowas SEVEN I when deliver , Atan light of day? Will ... ~nd so iJ was last week on GEnie . mount of US advertising that they did last year? (Did you i l?-g nuts trymg to figure out how to load a large data file from it ever n~~ice how Atari always mentio ns MULTIPLES of their dtsk and create an array of pointers to each record. As Well, it SOUNDS t),lrns ou~ CARD s ~an be treated as POINT ERs any time you adverh smg dollars? Ever wonde r why? zero. So Atari still was is ICD, of zero . times Thom r ~Craig numbe any care. and much ! great, hke. Actton! ~oesn too! OKt serigot I money and !, saves Action and in ns makes_good publi(: re;latio very helpful m ge!ttng ~e up to speed popula r mside one But, bad. THAT t isn days. ly few a probab Just it m g <;>usly,_ runrun m my progra ng door is to revolvi Atari's ge. OUT langua way rated fastest the JOke ts that Action! is a superb, tem"bly underin the hallowed walls of with G purIUISIN people of ADVE lot a word the certain say I'm_ l_ _manua the Why? Fi~t, chased ActJ.on! with the tntent1on of learnin g a new "high Atari Sunnyvale!) What about the long rumor ed (say about 4 years or level" langu a~, only to be intimid ated and frustrated by the no is There n. entatio docum ing more) TT, Atari's answer to Ameri cas deman d for an affordpoorly organi zed and confus in able workstation. Hewlett Packard has licensed a compa nyless mdex. 'f!!ere is no ONE table of conents, but rather one for for logy, of techno listing ation etical wor~~ alphab r no is popula There their clone book. to the of Japan each sect10n te with that? al! the ~unctions and procedures for the 1anguage. I'm certhan $5000 per copy. Can Atan s TT compe l024, resolutio~ many 1024x for , ence G~L experi ME ing a g harrow _talkin rather a we're es {And becom ! Actlon tam but consider new ~rs. It drove me nuts, and f m fluent in more profo~s!) Atan mak~ a lot of notses at the shows, this: If a tree falls tn the woods and no one is there to hear it gramm ing langua ges than some software corporations! more? The other proble m is a runtim e library. What's .that? no sound is made. Is anyone listening to Atari any you ask. _Exactly. The man~ l doesn' t make it very clear thJ 63135. t the Mat4Rat, Ratware So.l'l'worh, 32 S. 1/artDdt Al'C., SL Louis, MO yoll! Actlon!. J?OOgrams aren t much good to you withou and letters coming. PJeac DON'T CALL I seldom luwc cards tbo6C Keep ~ accan you so or $30 extra ~ a IWI time Ac_tion! cartli08C tnstalled. fur an tune ID chat oa the pboae, with • wilt:, 2 lila, a do& a cat, co/JqJe qwre _a "run. time h"brary" from ICD or download a public (with ovr.rrime lately). and • bacillg of article ftri: ID the ct:iling. job you domam version from GEnie or Compu Serve When "INCL UDE" this file, all of the system calls m~ to the Ac-
e
Page z•4
Z*NET
Septe mber 1989
Actio n! - Mac /65, or Whe re Do I Go Afte r 8-bi t BASI C? by Ed Bachm an
So you are an 8-bit Atari BASIC program mer. Are most of your I?rograms full of USR routines? Is there somethin g 1ou re just itching to do that can't be done in "good ol BASIC"? You're most likely considering another program ming language . The purpose of this article is to discuss the ms, outs, and whys of what I consider to be the two best choices in a program ming language for the Atari 8-bit: Action! and MAC/65 . Using Action! Action!, currently distribut ed by I.C.D. Inc., is a high level, compiled language . By contrast, Atari BASIC 1s a high level interpret ed language , meaning it can run directly from the program hst. Action! (like machine language) will add an extra step to your _program developm ent, the COMPIL E. However, the improve d perform ance is worth the effort. First the good ~oints: The most attractiv e feature of Action! is that it s a high level language. Ideas/ function s can be easily expresse d in iust a few instructions, while at the same time Actionf maintain s a close tie to the machine level. That's importa nt in order to get the best perform ance from your computer. Data can be manipul ated an a wide variety of ways, and Action! supports complex math function s as well as logic level operations. This means you can handle numbers pretti much the way you did m BASIC with some "bitwise operatio ns that were unavaila ble in BASIC. A compiled Action! program will run up to 100 times faster than a basic ,rrogram . Action! program s, using a "runtim e library , can also be run without an Action! cartridge . When using Action!, you must learn to "structure" your program s. Action! has no "GOTO " instruc!ion. _You must "think _thru" _your program and arrange 1t so 1t can be accomph shed m subroutm es. The subroutine, and the similar TURBO BASIC and BASIC XE "procedu re" calls are very similar to the way one programs in Action!. It is also very easy to read an Action! program once you understa nd the langu_ag_e, a far cry from jumping through hundred s of GOTO's in a basic program . On the down side.. Being a high level compiled lan~age , you either need an Action! cart to run an Action! program or you must use a "runtim e li~rary" which you include in your program . This runtime library comes at extra cost (also from I.C.D.). The runtime library also increases the final size of your program. While there are many options available to the user during a compile, many of them are very poorly documen tea. Further, as your program s increase in size, you will need to make "adjustm ents" in the Action environm ent in order to handle more variable names and increase d program size. While on the topic of size, after a point you MUST compile from disk, since Action! holds the compile d p~am resident in memory . Also, the upper practical limit of an action program is approxim ately 20K of compile d code. Beyono that, you must make even more "adjustm ents" to both your program and the Action environ ment And fin~ly, reasonable tutorials are only now becomin g available.
Vol. I, No. 7
I know this should be Using the Mac/65 "machin e languag e", however, I feel if ~u decide to go the MIL route, get a Mac/65, since there is no better assembler/ debugge r for the Atari 8-bit. Mac/65 is also sold by I.CD. Inc. Machine langtµige is a "low level" language with each instructi on bemg an actual oeeratio n perform ed by the 6502 processor. One simple mstruction may contain hundred s of these "low level" instructions. The good points... Machine language (ML) is also a compile d language . It is even faster than Action! and another advantag e is its relatively small size. If there is somethi ng specific you desire the Atari to do, there's no better way !o do it than in the compu_ters native tongue. Using ML allows you access to ANY level of the Atari, even places where BASIC, and sometim es Action!, won't work. Further, the 6502 (~ur Atari's processo r) has in my opinion one of the easiest to understand mstructi on sets of any processor. There is no limit to the final size of your program , and unlike Action, it can be tailored to exactly meet a very_ _specific function . By using the MACRO feature of the MAC/65 , it is also possible to create a "pseudohigh level" environment , defming a series of ML instructi ons to a label, which then can be used like a high level command. An ML program can be used by anyone, with or without cartridge s. Further, there are fewer operating restrictio ns on an ML program than a compiled Action! program with runtime library. Summed up, if you want your compute r to "jump thru the hoop" tben ML is the way to make it do exactly what you want. The other side of the coin... ML, being a low level lan~e , often requires dozens of instructi ons to accompl ish even a simpfe operation. ML source code listings are also more difficult to read, since each ~ogramme r may choose to perform a task in a differing manner. Since ML operates at the "machin e level" or "system level", it is more difficult to debug. It's much easier to get an undesire d result, since a typo often looks fme to the compiler. ML therefore adds xet another step to program developm ent the "debug-- procP.rogram develoJt ess (noJ ,th!l1 this isn't true with ment, 1t s rust more necessar y, even a discrete ~ . with ML). The Mac/65 also has a few drawbacks of its own, the most notable, not being .able to compile from a SpartaD OS formatte d disk. Furthei; there 1s only addition/sub traction and bitwise logic available to the ML program mer, no hi~ level math operations are supported. You must write the routine to do it if you need 1t, althowdi you can use the floating point routines in the Atari 1lOM. In closing... If you're a BASIC program mer looking for more power and speed but not willing to skimp on mathem atic and string features, then perhaps Action! ~ould be ~ suited to your need~. If, however, you desue to get mto system level function s, or need the ultimate in speed or the smallest size, then you would have no recourse but to choose ML, and preferably MAC/65 .
Z*NET
ALL
Page z•s
nnn.r=tn.nnn_n_n_n_n_nn
Imitator Controlle r Happy 1050owners can now go from the Fast or Slow modes. with the flick of a SWJtch! Has anotrer SW1tch for write-protect. meanirg ·no more disks to notchr Also has a two-color LED for monitonng the wnte-protect status. Easy to install, NO so,denng required!
Onltf: $39.95
/C/050 Controlle r For ALL 1050 dnves - Similar to our Imitator Controller. except without fast/ slow SWJtch Onlq $.29.95
5/OPort Box /999 Antic Award Winner
Tre Grati1cs Image Scanner for the Atari 8-bttsl Now. Easy Scan II is ever better! SupJX)rts graph1Cs modes 8. 9. 10. 11. and 15. Saves Irrnges r the standard 62 sector format. Excellent for; User Groups. clubs. ctiurches. and others! Use with; Banners, flyers. posters. and more! Requires - XL/XE/XE-GS with 128K (or more) and Ecson graphics capable printer. Onlq: $99.95
Print Shop Drivers
Now you use your ·1ncompat1bIe· printer, with Print Shop and Prrt Shop Compan10n! Does NOT modify your ong1nal disks! Onltt: $14 .95 each. for your choice of the fo!iowing pr.nters: Atar 1020 Printer/P!otter (1n 1of 4 colors!), Okimate 10 (black orly). Epsor L0-500/800 (24-pin compatibles)
510 Switch Box
Aows you to control 2 computers with one per:prerai setup, OR. 1 computer with 2 penpheral setups! Has 3 SK) JX)rts and a switch for: 2-1n and 1-out OR I-in and 2-out. Also solves the problem of L.srg 2 devices that draw their JX)wer from the co'T:puter. (like the XM301 Modem. PR Connection. and rnost prmter rterfaces). NO :xiwer required .. Onlq, $49.95
ICX-95 Keqpod
F ra!iy. a numenc keypad for the 8-b1ts. that does NOT require the
/tlemorq Upgrades Merrory Upgrades are NOW affordable again1 All kits below INCLLOE RAMs and software! 128K & 192K upgrades are
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Has 4 SK) JX)rts to solve ti"€ weak signal problerrs. by allowing you to plug mutliple penpl"erals In one box. Also so,ves the "dead erx:f peripherals. like the 410. XM301. and most prrter interfaces. NO power required. Onlq, $39.95
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XF35 Kit Now. XF551 owners can cawert their drive to the newer 3.5" format. and have a MASSIVE 720K of storage! Works with MYDOS. SpartaDOS. and the SpartaOOS X cartndge. Excellent for; BBS use. Hard Drive backup. or use as a "mini hard dnver. i1cludes Upgrade ROM adapting cables and complete instrucbons. (3.5" dnve and cage not included) SALE Price: $29.95
Hopplf Doubler Happy 1050 owrers can now program their drives to be fuUy compahble with ICD"s US. Doubler. including formatting disks in the U.S. skew! Also allows you to re-program the drive numbers up to 08:! Completelty software based only 1needed for as many Happy 1050s as you you may have! Also includes FREE Happy and Doubler type ut,llties! On/q: $19 .95
use of handlers' Works with ALL your software1 Excellent for; programmers. spreadsheets. data base. and morel Deluxe version ifor XL/XE/XE-GS) has the 1200XL FunctlOn Keys (F1-F4) also. lCX-85 Kit (requires Hong Kong made CX-85) - 529 .95 CX-85 Keypad - 5-19.95: Deluxe CX-85 Keyoad - 569.95
Modem Mouth A s'llall device that ailows modems that do NOT rave an internal speaker (like the 1030 and Avatex) to "hear" what s going on! (busy s:grals. disconnects. recordings. etc.) Also works as a phone line --nonitor. Easy to use. Iust pugs 1n. Onll{: $29 .95
Xtormer Coble
Now. along with the Xformer Software (available separately from Darek Mihockai you can run many Atari 8-bit programs on your ST or Mega! Alows you to plug an 8-bit disk dnve or printer into tre ST or Mega! Also works for tranferring text and AMS mus1C files as well. Onlq, $19.95
Orderin g Informa tion USA - Add $3.50 for S&H. COD is available for S3.00 extra. APO/FPO - i1clude $3.50 for S&H. in US. funds. Canada/Mexico n;lude $7.00 for S&H. in U.S. funds. Other Countries Include $10 for S&H. in US. funds.
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FUTURE... continued from page 1 rived before the Texas show date, so we can't tell you yet how that show worked out. In California, the Glendale show was well publicised before any San Jose plans were solidified. In fact, early this yeat; Glendale manag,er Tarpinian even had discussions with Tsukijiabout Glendale s September date, and how.z if at all, the first WOA show in Anaheim last April might afrect it. Don't worry, said Richard, it's a long time between April and Septembet; you have nothing to worry about. But by JulY, the San Jose date was announced, and the damage was done. Under pressure of user group concerns, Atari appears to have asked Tsukiji to cancel his San Jose show in an attempt to make peace with the Glendale people, if not to try to save that show. It seems that the Glendale show was near and dear to the Atari Coryorate heart, and the likelihood of losing it was more than Atan wanted to QCrmit. Tsukiji did cancel his show, but it came too late to help Glendale for this fall. Some discussions are underway to see if a date later in the Y.ear could be arranged, but Tarpinian is wisely cautious, unwilling to jeopardize other committed shows. Throughout the fray, Atari remains on the side of HAVING shows, no matter who puts them on. They have committed to a~rin_g at any show that is sufficiently organized and publicised. WAACE is presenting an Atarifest Octo· ber 7 and 8 at the Fairfax High School m Fairfax, Virginia. Washington DC area Atarifests have a good fC?.!tation for success and crowds. Also, the Kentuckiana Atan Fest is planned for Clarkesville, Indiana on October 28-29. A mile out of Louisvill~ Kentucky, the µser grou_p_ show _will be at the Clarkesvtlle Sheraton Lakeview. Atan is plannmg to send ·representatives to both shows. Vol. I, No. 7
i*-li 1
Practical 5olutionJ~
There may simply be too many Atari shows being scheduled nationally, with little or no consideration for the vendors. Several developers have expressed to us that they can do three, perhaps four shows a year without seriously cutting into the time they need to run therr businesses at home. Rumors also abound of discontented dealers and distnbutors who complain that developers at Atari shows have been badly undercutting the dealer pricing to sell to users directly. While the users love it, some vendors say it unfairly depresses their market before, during\ and long after. a11y show. Proposals to remedy this include askmg developers NOT to sell, or to offer discounts to local vendors so as to allow their prices to remain competitive. Richard says not a single complaint has come to his attention directly, and that he sees no need to address a problem that has not yet been directly expressed. Contrary to rumors and even to statements attnbuted to him by several sources1 Richard now states that there will continue to be World of Atari shows, with at least three more already planned. Dates are not available at this writing. ST-INFORMER and ZMAG/Z*Net would like to see user group shows succeed, and to that end, we are offering to help any group that is planning a show of their own. We can provide references, contacts at Atari and developers., and advise m the coordination of dates. We can also help with publicity and reporting before and at the shows. With cooperation and communication user shows and commercial shows can co-exist without conflict or apizing decisions for vendors and developers. If your group is considering holding an Atarifest, contact our offices. ST-INR>RMER: (503) 476-0071; ZMAG/ z•NET. (201) 968-8148. •
Page z•7
T~E Club RooM - How by
oYu11lce cBOAST
10.
BclfAlo ~EGJON Au111 Geoup foe ST>
[Does your club do something that others can team from? Some common problem that you have solved? Share if by sending it to z•Net!J
Participating in a user group can be a very re warding experience. One of the most exciting ways to do this is to give a talk or demonstration at a meeting. Having done this a few times myself: I would like to of fer some advice to avoid "stage fright" and to make your talk a successful one.
The first and most obvious, bit of advice is: be prepared! This is crucial to the success of your talk. If you are spending more time trying to boot your pro gram or read the instruction book. than you are talking, you will lose credibil.icy I've been unprepared m?re times then I care to think about, and always regretted 1t Start by considerin~ the topic of your talk. How can you make it appealing to the widest ran&e of people? We have a very diverse ~oup, and while it s al most certain that not everyone will be interested in your talk, you can try to make it as wide-ranging as possi ble. Is your topic of interest to most of the group, 8-bit or ST? A discussion of low-level packet drivers for the OSI data communications model can be interesting to some people, but I suspect your average Atari user would be more mterested in how to build an RS232 serial ca ble or how the XMOdem protocol is used to provide err~r-free downloads from GEnie or CompuServe. Once you have your topic set you can begin. or ganizing your ideas. Make sure your subtopics flow m a logical manner. If you digress too much, go off on too many tangents, or present a group of jumbled thoughts without structure or cohesiveness, you are sure to con fuse and lose the interest of your audience. Make your self an outline or some cue cards, but don't rely totally on them either; most people can read for themselves and hav; low tolerance for someone reading to them. Balance your use of written text with memorized or im provised speech. Next, make yourself a checklist Does your program require a joystick or other external device? Does it run in color or monochrome? Do you need MIDI cables? You can count on a one meg ST with a double sided drive, an 8-bit system, and a color monitor at most user group meetings, but anything else you might have to provide yourself. Ask your President if you are not sure. When you prepare your demonstra tion disk, turn off your entire system and boot from that disk. Does everything run, or did you depend on some thing from your hard drive or floppy to make it work correctly? Try to keep the talk brief, informative, .and to the point We generally allow fifteen minutes to a halfhour for a talk, again ask your President what your spe cific group will allow. The content of the talk of course will decide the length of time required. Don't use too much time or your audience will lose interest Also, PageZ-8
GivE A UsER GRoup TALk
please watch the clock and don't run over your allotted time slot, or you will be cheating the next person out of time for their demo. If you are showing a product, please give the publisher, price (list price as well as selling price, which are quite different), and information on where others can purchase it Ot~er points. of in~rest. in~lude: what hardware configuration does 1t require; 1s 1t copy-protected; what interest group does the product cater to; are there other programs similar to it and, if so, how do they compare; and a statement of price versus quality (is 1t worth the money?) Don't be distracted too much by people leaving the room, or by an occasional muttering from the audience. Some people will not be interested in your talk through no fault of your own, some simply do not know when to stop talking. Don't get discouraged If the audience ~ets too rude, one of the group officers will say somethmg. It is gracious of you to give your time to speak, they should be gracious enough to listen. If you follow these few pointers, your talk should be a success. •
The ToacfFile 44 The first WW PRICED Removable Cartridge Hard Disk Drive! We at Toad Computers wonder why good technology always has to mean high p~es and long wails. We have the Toadflle 44 now,. available in ~ configurations with ixed ciives upto 129 megabytes, ~ile oll)er" companies are stlU telling you to wait We also have the lownt pnce avalable. We use the same drive Atari"' wiU be LSl'lQ in their dme, and compatille cartridges wll be available at yo1.1 Atari"' dealer, or ttvough us. Anally, the capacrty of a hard disk v.m the convenience of a floppy. Only tom the lalels! Tcad Computers.
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-.pnma naecs.a 4~ dllc:aa■tllar _ _ , . - . . cerdAed.. er , _ . . . . i ~ . Weae,,opt Vlaa. MC. a■ d Dlamnr. 11D &114.,. _ _ _ .._call llJ'OIIMft_.,._.,
FR.EB;~:nva-rr September 1989
Z*NET PUBLIC DOMAI N DISKS
Beginning in October, Z*NET will be offering Public Domain disks. As we have been bringing you the latest public domain reviews in our feature "Public Domain Shelf" by Alice Amore, we will make the files we review available on disks. The first in our series of disks will contain the first 30 issues of ST*ZMAGAZINE, our weekly ST online magazine, and recent issues of ZMAGAZINE, our 8bit weekly online. Each month in this spot we will include the information needed to purchase these disks. The files included on any of our disks may be used on your BBS system, club library? or general sharing, unless otherwise noted in a particular file. Some may be SHAREWARE, and we encourage you to abide by the wishes and requests of their authors. All revenues collected as a result of our sales will go towards providing a better and more varied disk service. Our present library includes current PD SHELF material and VIOi-ST pictures from recent World of Atari shows and the demo disk we ran at the Dearborn show in June. We will also include our readers' VIOi pies and other programs offered from our participating user groups. Watch for full details next month in z•Net, ZMAG, and ST*ZMAG.
ZMAG BBS UPDAT E
As some of you know our regular weekly online magazines ST*ZMAGAZINE and ZMAGAZINE are offered on over 300 bulletin board systems around the country. There are even a few overseas. In an effort to get an accurate account of all the systems, we need your help. Please send us a post card with the name of the BBS you read our magazines on. If the system carries both or just one, please make a note on the card. As we get the numbers, we will try to list them here occasionally and in the online publications at least once a month.
THE ARCHI VE BIT 1 YEAR AGO - SEPTEMBER 1988 • Diamond shown at the Glendale Show,._ marketed by Merrill Ward. • Oasis IV to be released • 1eam Software releases "A Day at The Races". • Word Perfect Offers User Groups Special. • ST Xformer uses Atari 810 and 1050 Disk Drives. • Appearance at MAGIC show cancelled by Atari. 2 YEARS AGO - SEPTEMBER 1987 • SLM804 Announced for September releas~ along with Mega ST-4 • Sandy Austin and Neil Hams appear at MAGIC Show. • Atari CDROM announced for fall shipment. • Atari SX212 and XEP80 first shipm,ent amves at Atari warehouse. • Whitehouse Com~ter files for bankruptcy. • Atari XE Game System on it's way to toy stores. 3 YEARS AGO - SEPTEMBER 1986 -> PRESENT (September 18, 1986) • Atari announces J>Ublic offe~. of Stock at $13.00, Atari net worth valued at 350 million dollars. (September 4, 1987) • Jack Tramiel states, "Atari is ready to become America's Consectronics Supplier", after announcement of plans to buy out the 67 store Federated Group retail electronics store. (May 31 1989) • Atari reports 100 million dollar loss because of Federated and reports a net worth of 82 million dollars. • Vol. I, No. 7
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DCFMT3 02 - Double Click Software has released DC FORMATTER,?,. version 3.02. Long a favorite of many ST'ers, DC FuRMAT IER contains a variety of format ting options. You can set the number of sides, tracks, sec tors, to skew or not to skew, executable boot, and step rate. Disks can also be copied. Perhaps the clearest advantage of DC FORMATTER is its ability to format disks for use with pc-DITTO and SPECTRE 128. HDCHEK12 - Hard Disk Test and Analysis Routines by Bill LeDuc, will inform you about the performa nc; of your h~rd drive. Among the menu functions are: Boot sector mfo, Bad sector scan, 1ransfer test, Access test, !landom ~d test Identify devices . U~te bo!)t sector mfo, Set device and LUN, Set sector limits, Set dnve, Print error Jog, Get s~tor, Scan_ files_ f~r bad sectors, and Tog gle pnnt. There 1s a help file within the program with ex planations of all the functions. All operations are readonly. PA_CAL11 - Personal Appointment Calendar lets you ere ate a set of calendars that contain dates that are constant year after year, such as birthdays, anniversaries, tax pay ' ments, health che_ck-ups, etc. After your data has been en tered, you can pnnt out your calendar at the be2inning of the month and have a full-page schedule of dates to re member. Each date block can contain up_ to 11 lines of 19 characters. PA-CAL was written in HiSoft BASIC by Larry Mears. The program is shareware, and source code is available for a fee. LGSELECT - "The Little Green Selector" (LGSELECT) is an alternate GEM item selector. It has many of the fea tures that s~ould have been included from the start. LGSELECT 1s destined to become one of those share ware utilities that no one can do without. LGSELECT will install itself from an AUTO folder, or run as a pro gram from the desktop. Since there are basic similarrties between the ST's file selector and LGSELECT. learning to use most of LGSELECT's features will be' instinctual. However, there ar~ several new features, and new ways to access them. For mstance, both mouse buttons are active, so the left button will give you different results than the right button. LGSELECT is exc~tion al It is shareware from Charles E Johnson of CodeHe.ad Software fame.
teractive and work in any resolution. A sampling: a onetrack-at-a-time sector copier, a file copier, a text lister/ printer, a directory copier, another track-at-a-time sector copier which will copy from A: to B: without prior formatting, same as previous but will format while copying, a cop1er/renamer, a sector-com parer of any two D/S disks, a disk informatio n displayer, free memory calculation, ASCII code and scan code for any key, sector modifier, delete all files in root directory of A: or B:, directory lister for any drive, list or print all directories sorted by name or not, list or print the ASCII/he x representation for any file, list/print any directory sorted by name or not, ASCII/he x any sector, list any text file forward, backward, by line, by page. CACHEV3 - "Cold Hard Cache, version 3.2" is a disk caching program which works with hard drives or floppies. Disk caching is a method of storing the most-used disk sectors in RAM. This increases 1/0 speed quite a lot. CACHEV3 can be run from the desktop or as an accessorv. You may choose the drives you wish to be cached and the size of the cache (128K should suffice). CACHEV3 is shareware from Robert E. Owens, III.
FLAME_J - "Flamethr ower Utility" by Tom Moore is a ?trange mel~nge of usefu_l and fun things. Its functions mclude: calling of the Umversal Item Selector II, showing amount of free memory, setting of screen colors, setting of sy~tem date and time, set-up of printer for Epson graphic mode (960 dots), runmn~ external programs , three moire pattern shows, and a fish tank." circle pattern maker (either round or ovoid). STOPDRV - Created by N. Weinress, STOPDRV eliminates the frustration on Mega systems of drives that won't stop whirring during warmboot s or coldboots. This program goes into the AUTO folder. It will tell your Mega to check your floppy drives during bootup to make sure they stop whirring once the boot is complete. ADARDEMO - This is a demo of the commercial program "A Day at the Races". Special praise should be bestowed upon Team Software for ~ving us a demo which truly is "self-runn ing". An animated mouse pointer moves through the entrre program from beginning to end, showing all features and now they're used. The program itself looks im~sive . It simulates the racetrack environment complete with digitized sounds and real-time animated horse races. Features include 9 types of wagers, 4 race types, and 4 race lengths. The database tracks up to 500 horses, 50 jockeys, and 15 players. The program is GEM-based and entirely mouse-controlled. The demo runs in low res only.
PACKER 20 - This could start a revolution. PACKER takes a .PRG, :ros, or TIP file, squeezes away about 30% of the size, then saves it to disk. The new file can be run just like the original Most programs will PACK. and only a few won't run p_roperly once PACKed. UNPACK, which retu.rns the PACKed fife !D its orurinal siz.e, is included. DRIVERS (Editors Note: After testmg the aoove file, I found that NOTICE: Last month Z"Net mentioned PRINTER error, and the drivin were We column. this in AI PRINTSHOP for increased. were files packec:l most on load times but rather commercia l products though file size is dramatically reduced on some PRG' s ers are NOT public Domain, ' of Innovative Concepts of ~nen, Ml (phone 313-293--0730). the speed you lose is noticable and annoying to me.) BLRUT14 - This _is a collection of 20 utilities written_ by Bud Rasmussen m 68000 assembly laimuage using the Assempro Assembler from Abacus. All 20 utllities are in
Page z•10
Programm ed by Jim Steinbrech er and selling for $14.95 each, they are a good ll'Cllue, but are NOr to be traded freely in the public domain. See Innovative Concepts· full page ad elsewhere in this issue of Z"Net. •
Z*NET
Septemb er 1989
•
The New Hand Scanner
·~-
~~~
Reviewed by Dr. Paul Keith
~A~~
IGRAPH;
Scanned art is no longer only a "canned" product for ST users. Although thousand-dollar flatbed scanners have been adapted for the Atari ST and MEGA, only now is a hand-held scanner available, and at a price that does not rule it out for serious home users. MIGRAPH has released a Hand Scanner complete with their TOUCH-UP .IMG editor software for under $500. Touch-Up itself is a $200 ,rackage, and current owners can buy the scanner "alone (although upgraded software is included) for $300
. '
~
direct from Migraph. Images collected with a scanner can really improve the content and variety in rq,orts, newsletters, magazines, anything you might make usi~ desktoP. publ!shing <;m the ST. The pictures with this reYiew were done with the Migraph unit, and edited and titled using _Touch-Up. This scanner is larger than the "standard" Logitech scanner that you see in countless IBM/PC ads for around $200, and is a new design. It has switches for 100 200 300, 400 dots per inch, a lighter:Jarker control, a start button, and a selector for grey scales. You can select pure black and white, or three levels of "screen" density in your grey scales. At the other end of the cord is a connector
Vol. I, No. 7
that goes to a cart to plug into the ST. It also uses its own power supply, one of those transformer-on-theplug units. Using the scanner requires running TouchUp, and that requires at least a MEG of RAM. A color monitor works fine, but a monochrome monitor is better. Also. larger memory means faster operation and · larger possible images, although the files made in a 1040 can, at their largest, already be too large for manipulation in a desktop publishing sys-
tem.
Performance is terrific and easy, and soon after plugging it in I was able to make great .IMG files out of almost anyt_hing I had laying around. A little green light warns you 1f you are scannmg too fast as you manually move the unit across the picture. With its four inch wide path, most images can be captured in seconds. It should be possible to splice several swipes of a larger picture together within Touch-Up, to maX:e a full page scan. The quality of the scans is outstanding, better than I have seen from hand scanners for the Intensely Boring Machine lines. Touch-Up itself is also upgraded now, with balding. rotations, and a number of ,. __ ~other improvements. Even though I /.· -- ·· .. , had Touch-Up for many months be}~: \ ~ fore I bought the scanner, I had never appreciated the editing power it \ holds. Since almost all the IMG files ' I had (til now) were all ready to use ' and had no real need to be edited, I didn't get much out of Touch-Up. Now, I use it a lot! It works great on a large screen monitor too, with tearaway menus. Full complements of editmg and "painting" features are ideal for use on fresh scans. Some critics are also happy to see that the printer port hardware "don_gle" is no longer used as a protection against piracy. It didn't help keep it from being cracked, anyway. Although it seems very expensive to occasional hobbyists, the Migraph Hand Sca~mer has plenty of bangper-buck for home DTP [fess1onals and senous amateurs. IBM users will like flock to this package once their version is made availa le this fall. A cheaper version for the ST (with Touch-Up scaled down to essentials) will be released later. Migraph, (800)223-3729 or ( 206)838-4677. •
Z*NET
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SPACE / MAST • September 1989 Now on to this month's selection ..... I thought last month's selections were great. but this month's selection are in some cases better. This month could almost be renamed update month with the number of new updates. Here is a quick rundown of some of the best new programs this month. This month's updates start with the new MicroEmacs, then goes to a new version of BSTAT, the business statistics program. Then both public domain spreadsheets are new this month with new versions of Opus and Sheet with lots of support files for both. Next for the gamers, we have a major update to HACK, the character graphics dungeon game. This game is really getting good. For other programs this month, we have a super animation program which is now shareware. The Aegis Animator program which was the first commercial animation program is now shareware and will be available this month. Also LZH, the alternative to ARC, is becoming more accepted and we have a new version of Arcshell that supports it as well as utilities to convert ARC files to LZH. And speaking of ARC, we also have a new version of ARC as well which fixes a couple of nasty bug which still exist. We also have a new formatter called Floormat which does just about everything a format program can do as well as unformat a disk and return it to its original state. And we have a new screen saver which displays fireworks while screen is inactive. For applications programs, we have a new picture conversion program which will convert DEGAS, NEO, Tiny and even Spectrum pictures to IMG format. There is also an IMG viewer as well. In addition to all of this, we also have a full disk telecommunication program with tons of options and the ANALOG and magazine disks as well. Well, this is a sample of what's in store for this month. My hard drive is filling up early this month and I still have two more weeks to go. These DOMs should again be something special this month. Watch the MAST BBS for updates!!!!
If you can't make the meeting and would still like to get hold 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 September. Again this month, the disks are special, especially when it comes to updates. I am sorry for being just a little short this month, but my fingers and brain are getting tired. I hope to see you all at the meeting and on the MAST BBS!!!!
Next issue out 6 October 1989.
ST News Compiled by Jim Schulz This rather infrequent article series is back with the latest ST news for the month. Since we now have Z*Net, special ST news articles are not always needed. But in the last few weeks, a number of new pieces of news have come forward that should be passed on to the members. Expect full coverage of these items at the next MAST meeting in September and in next month's Z*Net. The August 25th announcement has come and gone. Very little information is out now, just about a week later, but it is starting to tickle out little by little. A number of things were announced at the Dusseldorf Atari Fair in Germany. The following information was culled from a recent online conference with Sam Tramiel, president of Atari Corporation and from ST Report #102 from August 25, 1989. The Dusseldorf fair had 35,000 in attendance and included 145 third party software and hardware suppliers. At the fair, the new STE and the TT030/2 were introduced as well as the new Lynx game machine was shown. The new 1040 STE, which will be replacing the 1040 ST, has a palette of 4096 colors, 8 bit PCM stereo sound, hardware fine screen scrolling, and support for light guns, paddles, and extra controllers. Genlock is also supported with no internal modifications. A 4 meg version is also mentioned. The STE will be available in Europe in September and in the US in October pending FCC approval. The TT, the long awaited 32 bit machine was also announced. I will not go into the full specifications here since they are quite long. The TT will ship in the 4th quarter of 1989. More on this at the meeting. On other products, the handheld PC, Portfolio, is currently shipping in the US. And the Stacy, the laptop ST, will be shipping in October as well. The Stacy is an ST with a 640x400 backlit LCD display with a built-in upside-down mouse aka Trakball. It also does not include a Slitter chip. Initial models will include 1 meg and a double-sided drive. Future models in the works will include a 20 meg hard drive and 1 meg and 40 meg hard drive and 4 meg. The Megafile 44, removable hard drive will also be available before 1990. This is the latest information so stay tuned for more at the meeting. Now on to the continuing story of where is TOS 1.4..... Atari seems to think that 1.4 is available, but if it is, they had better tell those who deal with the dealers. Here are some of Atari comments: Sam Tramiel, President of Atari: 'Incidentally, I'd just like to say that TOS 1.4 ROMs are now available to your dealers. If you would like the upgrade, go to your dealer and request it. If he doesn't have it in stock, he can get it from Atari. Cost for the upgrade is up to the dealer; suggested retail for parts is $100.
Pa~e number 5 Ken Badertsher, Atari R&D System Software Engineer: (Referring to TOS 1.4) Available now at a dealer near you. And if it isn't, please WRITE A LETTER to Atari Corp. asking why Rainbow TOS isn't available at your dealer. So this is what Atari says. According to WJZard's Works as of today, TOS 1.4 is not available. They are talking to Atari and they say no. Is there a problem here of communications???? Atari is also planning on announcing alternate ways to receive TOS 1.4 later this week. Currently TOS 1.4 is only available as EPROMs, not ROMs, and only in 6 chip sets. All new ST need a 2 chip set and have to modified to run a 6 chip set. Either way, come this month to the MAST meeting and see TOS 1.4 in action. Now to clutter this mess up even more.... This statement by Atari's former VP of sales, Mike Dendo was published in ST Report #101 in an interview with user groups in the Boston area. He said the following statement in reference to Atari support in the Boston area: ·1 know it's hard [because] we haven't done the things in the [Boston] marketplace like we've done in Houston or L.A. or, Minneapolis or Chicago or Miami or Washington, D.C. or New York City.' Yes, Minneapolis???? Atari thinks that Minneapolis is one of their big areas in the country. All of the other cities do deserve mention from comments that I have heard from others, but Minneapolis??? But Mike is no longer with Atari anymore. Also Atari has fired Chris Roberts, the Atari user group coordinator. He didn't last too long. His new replacement is Bob Brodie. I wish him luck and a long life with Atari. A couple of update reports.... I finally got my PC Ditto II update announcement in the mail. For current Ditto owners, it is $150.00 plus shipping and allow four to six weeks delivery. Avant Garde said that the cards would not ship until the parts were all available and ready to go. So it is only a matter of time before we see the new PC Ditto II board. Second, it looks like another Turbo ST update is in the works. Version 1.6 is being widely praised for its performance, but according to the Atari distributors 1.61 is very close to release. So if you are planning on updating, you might want to wait for the latest update. In either case, get Turbo ST, it is really worth the price for the additional performance!!!!! Magazines news ..... Lately, Atari magazines are again on the move. First, ANALOG is merging with ST-Log to become ST-Log. Reasons given for the merger are no advertising for the 8 bit and minimal advertising for the ST. The change is to take effed with the November issue. A full page letter from the editor is in this month's ANALOG and ST-Log. Second, ST X-Press is now published by a new company. I don, know if it is was sold, but I get that impression. The result of the publisher change means new offices for the magazine, additional staff, and
Pyen umb er6 a better magazine overall. They are currently doing two bimonthly issues and are returning to a monthly status in October. The last two issues are indeed an improvement and It again looks like they are back on their feet again. Third, ST World has abandoned their newspaper format for a magazine-like format. It seems like the last issue had more artides, but It also had fewer ads as well. I wish them good luck also with their new format change. Finally, ST Informer is offering a free issue of the newspaper just for writing. For a free sample issue, send a postcard mentioning ST*ZMAG to ST-INFORMER MAGAZINE/909 NW Starlite Place/Grants Pass, OR 97526/Attn: Free Sample Issue from ST"ZMAG. ST Informer is usually pretty good with free issues and you will likely get a smaller version of newspaper for a couple of months after the full issue as well. I will bring along a couple of extra issues of my own for free handouts for those who are interested in seeing the newspaper and subscribing. Well, that's It for this month's news. Stay tuned for updates on the MAST BBS and at the September MAST meeting. I hope to see you there .....
ST Xtra with comments by Jim Schulz Each month SPACE and MAST exchange newsletters with other user groups around the state and the country. Last weekend, I got the September issue of the FargoMoorhead Newswire, the newsletter of the FMAIG (Fargo-Moorhead Atari Interest Group) and UFFDA (United Friendly Fanatic & Dedicated Atarians). Cory Johnson from Wizard's Works had mentioned to me the month before that the Fargo group was interested in playing Midi Maze with us to see who was the best in the state. Now this month in their newsletter, there is the following article entitled "Midi Maze Championship" also called "the 1-94 series.• I thought that I would just pass this on for the members. In closing, I would like to say that both the Fargo group and Duluth area group produce very quality newsletters for their areas and they should be quite proud. Jim P.S. Is there an "l-94 series" in our future in Alexandria or how about an "l-35 series• in Hinkley?" You never know.....
Midi Maze Championship (probably by Curt Johnson) Once upon a time in the state of Minnesota. ESPN is calling It "the 1-94 series". MAST will travel 130 miles west on 1-94. FMAIG will
SPAC E / MAST • Septe mber 1989 travel 100 miles east on 1-94. The two interest groups will meet in the town of Alexandria, Minnesota to decide who has the best MIDI MAZE players in the State. ESPN is going to cover the competition live with reporter Bob Ley asking questions like: "what does It feel like to shoot a smiling face?• They will be analyzing each team and showing "super-slow motion replays of the "kils". They'll even have the latest Vegas odds, for states that allow betting. FMAIG players are heard saying: "they may be a larger group than us but Its going to come down to who has the fastest trigger fingers.• The MAST players are quietly confident they will have more "kills" al the end of the day. The ring is complete and both groups take a deep breath, you can hear a pin drop as the master machine clicks on YAH. The rest of the day all you hear is the dicking of joysticks and the shrieks of smiling faces and the day goes on and on... Could this happen? Hey, MIDI MAZE could be a major sporting event, someday. How about a demo sport at the Winter games? Let's get the letter writing campaign going? FMAIG/UFFDA Editors Note: Our apologies to MAST and ESPN. I was told this was written on a HOT summer day. MAST is Minnesota Atari ST, a group based in Minneapolis/St. Paul. ESPN is the sport network based in Connecticut.
Video Key - a preliminary review by Dave Meile MAST recently received the first piece of hardware for review from Practical Solutions. About two months back, the company began offering their hardware to user groups for review. MAST decided to take them up on their offer, and our first choice was the VideoKey. The VideoKey takes the Atari ST RGB monitor signal and translates it into both a composite television signal AND an RF-modulated signal (switch selectable for either channel 3 or 4). It has four output jacks - one for an RGB monitor, one for composite video, one for audio out and the last for the RF-modulated signal. I was fairly pleased with the VideoKey. Setting It up was simple and the only user-adjustment available wasn, necessary in my case (it requires a jeweler's screwdriver and about 5 seconds of time ...) The uni was molded from the same plastic as Pradical Solutions' other hardware offerings, and looked like it would last quite a long time. I first asked myself 'What uses could I find for the VideoKey?" The first thing that popped into my mind was that the VtdeoKey makes a good substitute for the ~ase of an Atari RGB color monitor. If you already own a
monochrome monitor, and want to play the occasional color game on your system, the VideoKey would be less expensive than to go to the trouble of purchasing a color monitor (I estimate it at about 1/3 the cost ...) If you want medium resolution, I would choose the color monitor, though, as the VtdeoKey is purposefully geared toward lores color graphics (medium resolution works, mind you, but I doubt you'd want to stare at a television set in 80 column text mode for very long ... ). The second use I would put the VideoKey to is as an inexpensive means to record Atari graphics. The composite video signal works quite nicely with a videocassette recorder. I spent an hour testing out various Cyber animation sequences I had, running them from the Atari ST attached via VideoKey to my VCR and color TV. It was very pleasing to see some of the animations on a 19" screen. A few of the colors appeared a bit washed out on my TV screen, but since my tests were not really in-depth, It may have more to do with my VCR than with the V'tdeoKey. We ARE looking for someone else to review the VideoKey in a future issue of the newsletter. Talk with Jim Schulz for more information ... One final thought came to mind while using the VideoKey - it makes an excellent system for demonstrating color games and other colorrelated software! I could envision, for example, some sharp player of OIDS or MIDIMAZE offering tips and techniques to win the game while actually demonstrating the moves on videotape. Perhaps in the future, some of the DOM software can be demoed in this manner. It would certainly be easier to see if a game were interesting enough to purchase if we could see a video of game play, along with •commercial". Something for the software companies (and Atari ST software stores) to think about ...
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SPACE / MAST NEWSLETTER
ST. PAUL ATARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS & MINNESOTA ATARI ST
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)-784-9667
Sysop: Carl Towberman. SPACE/MAST West (ST)• BBS Phone: (612)-560-9254
Sysop: Steve Pauley (Home Phone: 560-2917)
~So~ o A President Greg Howell Vice President Dave Cole Secretary Larry Vanden Plas Disk Librarian Joe Danko Paper Librarian Jim Scheib Membership Coordinator Bob Slade SPACE/MAST Treasurer Allan Frink
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o [E
776-8395 636-2415 777-9500 721-4185 489-3982 482-7911
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September• 1989
Mofo\ o $ o T
President 533-4193 Jim Schulz Vice President 823-1276 Dave Meile Secretary Steve Pauley 560-2917 Disk Librarian 533-4193 Jim Schulz Paper Librarian Neil Palosaari 646-1272 Membership Chair Allan Frink 482-7911 SPACE/MAST Newsletter Editor Dave Meile 823-1276
SPACE and MAST are independent user groups of owners of ATARI Home Computers. It has been organized by local owners of ATARI computers for the purpose of mutual self assistance and sharing of information. It is open to all interested computer enthusiasts. Benefits of memberships in the groups include monthly newsletter mailed to your home, BBS access, software demonstrations, group purchases, public domain disk(s) of the month software at low prices, reference book library, educational software library (8-bit only) with over 20 titles, personal contacts/learning, greater information and awareness on the world of ATARI, software at discounted prices from dealers, question and answer session, etc. Come to a meeting to find out more. SPACE • 8Bit 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, 20n 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 Larpeoteur 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 informat1on, or to confirm a meeting time and location, call Greg Howell (SPACE) or Jim Schulz (MAST) 533-4193
SPACE / MAST Membership Application
-------------------------Name_ __ _ __ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ __ Date_ __ _ __ __
Address:,___ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ _ _ __ __ City_ __ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ __ _ _.State_ _ _ Zip_ _ _ __ _ Phone_ _ _ __ _ .Equipment/System Used,_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ Area of Interest Check one or both: SPACE_ _ MAST__
NEWSLETTER ADVERTISING RATES: 1/2 page - 5 1/8" vertically x 8" horizontally - $ 15/mo., $140/yr. Full page - 10 1/4" vertically X 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
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Dues: $15.00 per year - Please enclose with Application. Mail to: SPACE/MAST, P.O. Box 12016, New Brighton, MN 55112
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