SPACE Newsletter - March 1992

March 1992

SPACE Newsletter - March 1992 Newz From The Prez - March of 1992 Wen did everyone enjoy th• extra day 1hat leap year gave ua? Hal I ended up working that day, 10 I hardly even noticed It.

Actually I don't have very much to aay 1hia mcntti. So far everything la 11111 iN THE WORKS". Michael Fitzpatrick and Sherm Erickson are in contaot with our poaaible apeakera and Earline Fitzpatrick la rclling right along with th• aoftware library. I think what I will do is rehuh a few thinga that have already been Hid that may have paaaed over ycur heada: SOF1WAAE LIBRARIAN: Earline Fitzpatrick la now In charge of all club aoftware fer rental. One of her dletin;uiahed accompllahmenta ia the availability cf the hundred• cf piecea of educational software that the club purchued from me. You can now borrow various titlea from the club with all necessary equipment to run them on any ATAAI. SPACE FAIR: The poaaibillty of a diatinguiahed member of the ATAAI e-err community apeakin; with the SPACE club hu put carnival wheela in my head. SPACE could really ahoot off aom• hworka around an event auoh u thia. Think of icleu 1hat SPACE could utilize in a fair with a apecial apeaker. All ATAAI enthualaata all over the country would be contacted for thla on•. SPACE FFIOGFIA."..iMiNG i'EA.lv1: \:v:-.•r? Y.r;, .:: j;,i"Cwra.,imin; team headed by Larry Serflaten la rtill hacking away at an ambitious project If ycu would Hke to volum.er ycur programming akllla and learn much In 1h• proo..a, contact • Larry or Sherm or myself at the next mHtin; and we•n point you In 1h• right direction. Alao 1hankl to Lance Rlngqulat fer continuing to provide SPACE with 1he newest Wld 1he flneat ATARI eoftware prcductal SH ycu all at 1he next meetln;I ANO 00 THE SURVEY IN THIS NEWSLETTER! Nathan

Next SPACE Meeting is March 13th, 1992

Friday the 13th !!!!

Febn.aary Minutlea - - - Submitted by Mike Cable The fflNting wu called to order by Preaident Nathan Block at 7:"°F)m. There wu a apecial gueat at thia Valentinea day mHting, it wu 1h• famoua movie star Steven Segal who atared in Hard to Kill and Out fer Justice, it was the Preeidenta underatanding 1hat Mr. Segal wanted to buy an Atari 8-bit, aome of ua could tell that it wu only cardboard othera were not 10 aure. The tee worth d . . . offered to the cub arrived, "Shrink rapped Md ready to b• acid." They were aold at $3 a piece ea vcteC'l tin by th• club the meeting befcre. Th• meeting wu r.lativ.~; chert cc ih:t ~~an, 1t'!9 minute: ~"'9 goin; to be . ahort. Meat rnrybody left at around 9:00pm to go out fer Pizza Thsr9 wu atill a little talk about Robert Puff, a really well known author of Atari software. Nathan requeata that you . plea• be thinking cf what you would like done to the Fan Fair Nathan mentioned tut meetin;. One peraon requested that Mr. Puff ahow the different techniquea he ueea fer writing thoae moat excellent prcgrama. The mHtin; wu closed by Nathan around 8:30 or 10.

1-tappy Valentines Dayl I

S ■ P ■ A ■ C ■ E•

Survey

Nue Please: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ 1) What

ATARI Coapuhr{s) do you 011n (PlHst includt 1t1ory sins) : _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

2) list any Printus, 1odt1s or dtvices you DNn that art 11std on the ATARI: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ 3) Your ATARl 1 s 1ajor usage is f o r : - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4) He•

■any

soft•art titles (co11,rcial, triginals) do you tNn? _ _ __

5) Ho•

■any

Copitd/PD/ShartNare titles do you ONn? _ _ __

6) What typt of sottNut art you inhrtshd in purchasing right no11? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ 7) ll~at is you FAVORITE part/fnturt tf th ATARI u1puhr? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

8) llhat is your FAVORITE uftNart title (spteific, plftst)? - - - - - , - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 41) ls tht ATARI coapuhr your eain 11ork

sysh■'r

___ .t_ · _ _ _ _- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

.Ju 10) Do you 111n any ether

co■puhrs?

_ _ _ _ _ _.-r_· _ _ _ __

11) What kind of softNart do YOU fttl the ATARI nttds right

11011

and should bt developed? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

12) What type of ATARI hard11art do you fttl should h aanufacturtd right no11? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ 13) If you could change the ATARI, •hat aodifications Nould you aake? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ 14) Do you feel ATARI as a co,pany is doing a good job of pro1oting, servicing and stiling co1puters? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

15) Whtrt did you !tarn about S,P,A,C,E,? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ 16) Ho• ofhn do you attend the 1tetings? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ 17) What is your hvorih part of the club? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

18) What do you dislike about tht c l u b ? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 19) ShouU thtrt h changes Hdt in tht club? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

21) Do you plan to rejoin SPACE at _the end of your 1e1bership? _ _ __ 22) On a seal, of 1 to ten, ho• Mould you rate our DO"s? _ _ _ _ __ 23) What nuld you suggnt h i1prevt our DO"s? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ 2') llhat tind of DO" Hhriil do yn think

should hve lllrt 1t? _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __

25) Do you call our BBS? _ __ 26) On I Stilt of 1 to 10, half NOUld you rate our BBS?---Us, a stptr1te shttt if you nttd 1ort spact or have any other co11tnts about the club or BBS, Rttur11 to SPACE at the 1,xt lttting tr ■ail ta tht 1ddrtss 111 tht front of tht NtNslttt,r,

SPACE Newsletter - March 1992 Midwinter Madness '92 Weff looking back at the midwinter madnesa ahow that wu h•ld on feb. e,1982. it wu a good •xp•ri•nc• for m• and all th• p•opl• that manned the apace booth. I would Uk• to thank Mike Schmidt. who doH a lot of work tc mak• It poealbl• for th• apace club tc have a booth at thla event to repr9H_nt th• club. Mike hu to wake up very early, load the 1ruck with all th• computer equipment and other thlnga, come to ehow, and lugg everything to the booth. Thie time aherm erickaon and aon, ahcwed up to ;Iv• mike a hc,d. Suggeationa were mad• to upgrade our booth banner maybe thia can be diacuaHd at the next mering. ' Ma."lnin; the space booth were a ve.,;ety of people, th•re were th• young, middle age, and older folka. while th• younger folkt were not anewering the quHtlon, of the people that did atop by. they had 1h1 opportunity to fool around with • variety of diek program, that mike brought In. I 1hlnk U:,IY had a fun time, and found mike'a disk programa ecluolltional tool We took tum,, manning the booth, a few people would mann th• booth while 1he othera would look over th• ahow. Th• young folkt did great. Vialtora to the ahow from our club .w•re Ray Wafer, Bill Cotter, Mitch Mclaughlin, Joe Danko & Family, Mike Fitzpa11ick & Family, and othere. It waa nice to have a chance to talk wt1h 1h1m. 1h1r1 were bargalna to b• had, rachel 1hompaon picked up aom• bargain,, I picked up eo floppy dlaka for $2, Mike Cable picked up a 1200 baud modem Mike Schmidt bought (3) 386ax motherboards, along with th~ rest of the people who manned the booth. Wen th• big moment came at 2pm. When they announced 1h• wiMer of the grand priaO thought I wu going to win it)a brand new computer. I didn't win ltl oh well! there la always next year. Arryway there ia 1h• amateur ehow at aldrich arena.

1hia summer. Another thing I would like to talk to ycu about ie uain; your cable tv to help 1he apace club grow. Here ii what I mean. there are • lot of cable oompaniea that aerve the twin oitiH and the other areu. Each of 1heH cable compar,iea have a cable channel called • community event channel Since 1hia can only be uaed by cable 1ub1criber1, m•mb•r of 1h• apace club could uae their community event channel to poet CU' club meeting u a community event Jult think ol 1he p•opl• that thia could reach. People who want to know about an ATAAI uaer group(eapecially a good club Ilk• SPACE). How you would lilt thia •vent ia ...... th• event, time , place more information, and a phone no. for people tc call ~ furth•r informationQ uaume the preaident'a phone no.). I have talked to nathan about thia idea in 1h• put, and he 1hought It wu • good idea. Jult 1hink of all th• new people we could draw into the club. boy, we would have one hell of a big club. Just 1hink of it, it ia a litUe effort for 1he member to help with 1h11, but think of th• rewards for the club u a whole.

Another 1hlng I would Ilk• to talk about la the klndneaa of a SPACE member, juat one of many. back a while ago my computer atarted gMng me trouble, 1hia wu a crlaia tc rM becauae I love working on the computer and alto bba'lng. My keyboard wu gMng me trouble. I aald to myaelf, ohl nol my 800d la on 1ta lut lega. I love thi1 computer over other1 I have had 1he opportunity to uH. I bOught It at 1he amateur ahow laat 1umm•r for $'1 !5. I talked to Mike Schmidt about it and I found myaelf out tc mike'a houH with ll hi tore It apart found it needed • little cleaning and put It back together and It worked. It waa ln19reating to ue what a computer looked Ilk• lnaide. I really never knew. What a •xp•rience I I would like to thank J h Schmidt from th• bottom of my heart for hia help. Laat of. ~i I would like to give ycu one of my favorite cookie recipea, eo when you get time you can make aome for ycur kida, hubbl, or wife. Here it l a - - - - - - - - Computer cookiea with • lot of chipa (chocolate chips) 1 cup margartn• 1 cup brown sugar 1 oup white auger 1 teaapoon vanilla 1 /2 teaspoon w~r

Siar;• egga 2 cupa flour 1 teaspoon baking aoda

1 teaspoon aalt 1 cup chopped walnuta 1 /2 cup chocolate chipa Mix lngredl•nta, chill batter, preh•at oven 350 degree,, grease pana, bake till light, light, brown(don't over bake), cool, •at. and enjoy. you can add aome coconut tc batter It you want . W•R that ia about all ••• you at th• march mering. MikeWeilt

••ch

.. -

,........... "'••··

S ec er t§ . o f Ata ri W ri te r J) IU § Get mor e pow er from ~his wor d pro cess or

--- --- --- --- --· BY CA RO LYN HO GLIN

(Th is arti cle is re-p rint ed from AN TIC - JULy 198 7) (Part one of two) After you auccee d at getting AtenWr iter Piua fully configu red to 1h• apecific needa of your own hardware ayatem, using 1his fine word proceaa or becom e, a real joy. Everyth ing worka exactly aa it ahould, charactera are never droppe d,

and Harch-and-replace ii 10 vutly mprove d over 1h• original Atar1Wrtter 1hat It alone is almoat reaaon enough to ~ purcha e 'ih• new Uling the not ffle alze ii limited f you're 13CIXE computer, but 1he chaining fea• 1ure woricl very weA and pretty much make• up fer thia Here are the most

•eftw.-..

inporta nt 1hing1 I nHded tc learn about AtarlWr tter Plua 'through my own peraonal experimentation. (Pleaae note 1hat Antic doean't have 1he hardw. ,,. lnhouae tc teat all these apeclalized tlpa prior tc publication. L.t ua know f you find 81Tf flixH neceaaary. -ANTIC EC)

DOUBLE DENSITY I wun't eo exoiwd about AtanWr iter Plue when I firat Vied It. I WU diaappoin• tied tc find It WU on • copy-p rotect.d

Get the moat out of Atar iWri ter Plus diak wi1h Atari 00S as. Since I have doubleeided/d ouble-d enaity drivel, I naturally like to UH 1hem 10 'their fullHt ~~~- Whftt • drag to ~ al text filH In 1ingle-den1ity only (My drive~ don't work in enhanced density) Worae yet. none of my old file• In double or quadrup le denalty could be acceaaed from 1he new program. Then I loaded TOPCO S (configu red to be denaltywlle), put Atar1Wr1ter Plue back Into drive 1, and blnary~ aded (option L) the AUTORUN.SYS file. Voffa - the program ccne up u ueual and ceud now read alt my diaka. I Uked It a lot better already.

9ut 1hill m.thocl b•cam• a nuiaano • m,d

took a long 11me to get n.innlng. Even1Uelly I WU brave •nou;h to write • new COS fli. tc my program dial<. (Thie, of courae, voida your Afar! warranty, 10 be

warned.) I'm a little suapicioua about 1he CUP.SYS tile on 1he diak, 10 I didn't replaoe it but inl'tead wrote 00S.SYS only. In TOPOOS you must also rename AUTOR UN.SYS to AUTORUN.AUT. Now everyth ing workl u intended, wi1h one exo•pti on • I muat make oertain that my 9!0 interface ii 1umed off before booting AtanWr iter Plua. Appare ntly 1he builtIn code Included In 1he AUTORUN. SYS ~• to boot the RS232 handler ii incompatible wi1h other diak operatin g · tya• tema • no big deal after you realize it

MARK OF ZERO

I have heard compla lntl about a bug that makH A'tarlWriter Plus print a zero In the upper left comer t:lf each page. TI:,la l1n't really a bug. If you have an Epeoncompat ible printer 1hat doH not have a proport ional print opiion (or UHi • different Heape code for It) and you UH 1h• FX.aJ printer driver from the program dial<, your printer wiH

rtctlv• th• cod• to canctl propor1ional print for each font except font 3. The FX-80 code la [ESCJ-(p) [O]. Your prin1-r may discard 1h• tlm two charact era

m1aningl1aa 1acep1 code and then print th• O u ln11ructed. If you chooae Font 3, you might g.t • 1 at th• top of each page. Th• solution la 10 cr111ta and uae a custom printer driver tailored np1cially for your prtntar. My driver for 1he Epaon FX-815 detinea all nine fonta and !eta me write auperacrlpta and aubacrlpta with [SELECT] [UP-ARROW] or [SELECT] [OOWN-ARROW], aa well aa with Fonta 4 and e, In addition, two-column printing la now acoompliah1d by printing on• column and then backrolling the paper for the aecond one. Thia do•• •wfff with certain limitation, lmp011d when both columns are printed 'together • aa ia neceaaary with many printlra.

u a

fftrt i1 t~, 111wtr to the Ftbru1ry Word St1rch: Titltl Cuhn - • - C A S P £ R- - - - - - - - - - - - - £ L ft £ RF UDDUI S YL VES T £ R - - 0 - - £ - -

AARC HI E P - - - N- • N- • £ - - - Y- - 0 - - - - A - - D- -

H- - - • RO- - - - - LBYG- - - - BR- - - - - DU- - U- - - Y- - E - - - - DG- - J - - T - - - - J - - - US- - - - T Y- - - - - D- - C8 - - D - £ - T - - - - - - NK - U - - A

MARGIN MIXUP il1:1 ~ft and right margin numb1ra on tho C31obat Fermat 1cr91n aaaumea that the firat printer column ia O and thii lar. . one (in picu) la 79. For r9aeon1 known only to Atari, the Print Pr9view feature numbers these coiumna beginning with 1. f you cnooae a::i u your right margin, your printout won't be what you expect. Th• rule ia: Your right margin aetting muat not exceed on 1111 than the maximum number of columns available with a particular font If your printer offers elite apaclng (1 2 characters per Inch), chooae that font and Ht margina Le, A4e, Meo, and N89 for an ideal two-column printout.

STRING TOO LONG The AtanWriter Plue manual doean't mention an error that pope up every 10 often: STRINCl TOO L.ONCl. Thia aborts your printing or Print Preview with no other explanation. What'a happening la that a wing of charact.ra eomewh,,.. In your fll• la 'too long to flt on 1he Hne you have defined with your margin aettinga. Th• program conaidera this atring 10 be a very long "word" and la reluctant ~ ak It up. The string_ ott.n tum$ out to be a e•r!ea of daa~Wor undertlnea uaed In a form of aome kind. Th• aolution la to break the l'trlng at the end of 1he Hn,a with a ep119e or a [RETURN). You can u11 th• Print Preview 10 chick that you did It rl;ht lncld1ntally, It you nHd a continuoua blank u~d•rilnt In a form, prtaa th• lmfera• key [) before and .rter typing the underline. Then Vol.I' printer wlH not pl'C)dUCI indMduil underline charactara. And don't forget that you can extend 1t"I• default of 319 1crt1n colurnna In the edit mode up to 249 column• with [OP'TlON)[C). Thie Itta you eet rHI TAB atope for a chart, for lnltance, and acroll acroee the ecretn while you enter or edit text and make IUl'I 1t"lat your column, are llntd up prop1rty. Thia 1ort of editing le almoat lmpoaaibl• with a flx•ct 38-oolumn ac,..,n, auch u th• original AtarlWritar had. Howev1r, the ecromn; mak•• for • rather jerky acreen, 10 I uee extended column• only when needed. Otherwlae I uae 40 column• • and alwff/1 when proofreading.

B- - E- - - - - - - A- - N- - G Y- - E - - - - - - - - NN- - U F - - UY£ UHYB AB OY- - 0 \

0 - - T- - - - - - - - - - T- - 0 -~ 0 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - D GHC I R £ I HC I R- - - - - - -

TON AND JERRY BETTY BOOP ELNER FUDD JUGHEAD TWEETY

DONALD DUCK BUGS BUNNY BABY HUEY CASPER WENDY

RICHIE RICH SYLVESTER DAGWOOD ARCHIE GOOFY

Htrt i1thi11onth1 inst1ll1tnt of Word Starch, Tbis 1onth it is C1ttood, Good Luck! Titltl C1ttood KL F YNNI AQ S YWOHCB F Y P COGR U8 T OE S I B N I ROT YUJ B OOJ I f L UWS f NOS V ft J Q HL I A D YB S N B Z E ROG L J E Yf VDB S I T NUCA J NX KVDT US i ft 8 DE ORYLHF 8 SI I AT AK UD£NU .QB SJ GJ HE T AT L Z GQ S AS VVF ARE ff £ L TN I AUJ f N £ Q S Vft S D DNUBE DDXQ UC RE E XS L V L I C L I N S S BJ E Z F ff YN N L R L I YXT P N OZRT Q D N L J l LE WNGRS C Q UZ HAT E E HC CF V-0 DI Q_ELG NA SI ft VVE I J T ONC AT NWYNP E T P Z N NF Z U S GQ U GOYS XQ LS OV KZKG8 V8 UI J C A ft T C J VU 0 UAF I L S NOI T ARVL L WC

CONESTJBLES EDIBLES KITTEN LION

SUSTENANCE FELINE

VIANDS GRUB

RATIONS

TONCAT TABBY CHOW

CHEETAH NOUSER NEALS

OFFICERS Sherm Ericbon

Mike Cable loe Danko lim Schieb Earline Fitzpatrick

Software Ubrarian: ·Member~ Chairman:

922-8012 434-6254

Glen llrschenman

Treasurer:

SPAct\

DISCLAIMER

Nathan Block

President: Vioe Pruident.: Secretary: DOM Ubrarian: Paper Ubrarian:

Allan Frink

SPACE Newalet.t.er Edit.or: Michael Schmidt

m-nxx '7"1''7-9600 721-4185

Published by the Saint. Paul Atari Computer Enthusiast.a (SP.AC!), an independent oraan.lze.Uon Yith no business affiliaUon wi.\h ATARI Corporation. Permission ls arant.ed

m-x:zxx

788-4'790 '29-4909 757-4192

to an:, aimilar oraauisaUon with which SPACE

exchaqe■

n.wslett.en to nprint. materiel from this newal•t.ter. We do bOW99C' uk that oredit be 1m11 to th• authol"9 and to SPACI. Opinions expressed are tho■e of the author■ and do not. neceuarily reflect the ne,r■ of SPACE, the club officers, club

Saint Paul Atari Computer Enthusiasts (SPACE)

memblll'■

or ATARI CorporatJou.

meets on the second Friday of each month at 7:S0 PW

in the Falcon Hei&hts Community Center at

2077 West La.rpenteur J.ve. Doors open at. 7:00 PM.

"' Q>

~ Gibbs

Museum \..,

""cs=

-t Q)

Falcon Hei&hts Community Center 2077 lr. Larpent.eur Ave.

□

North

Larpenteur Avenue

' ,

SPACE BBS BBS Phone: (612)-488-5973 Sysop: Lar .. > Serflaten Co-sysop:-: Sherm Erickson

Supportin~ St..

U of N

Paul campus

ATARI 8-Bit Computers

S.P.A.C.E. P.O. Box 120016 New Brighton, MN

55112