SPACE Newsletter

I NEWSLETTER Treasurer's Report by Greg Leitner August, 1998 What can I say? I thought free food would surely lead to an overflowing room full of Atarians. but I couldn't be more off base. Only about ten members, a fow spouses and no children shared the bountiful spread of Pizza Hut pizzas and desserts. Believe me when I say that even after eating more than we should have there was still plenty of leftovers for taking home. You tell me what it is that will get your attention and attendance at future meetings. I hope that the auction in August will peak your interest. I brought in some of the 16-bit items from L R DATA so that all the members could get an idea before--hand of ST hardware that will be included in the auction. Since not many members saw these things I am not sure \Vhat interest there will be next month. But you can be sure that these items will go even if the Club doesn't make out as well as I thought it might. If you're not interested in ST hardware I know that some members will be bringing some 8-bit stuff to sell also. Now for the actual treasury report. The Club's bank account took a beating in July due to all of the following: I. The second quarter room rental ($ 195.00) 2. The PO Box fee for the year ($104.00) 3. Two months BBS phone bill ($20.00) 4. Stamps for the mailer -I sent invites to all our old Atari friends to join us for the Pizza party-not one old member showed up ($12.80) 5. The expense for the pizza -pre-order of ten pizzas based on a minimum of thirty people showing up for the birthday bash($ I00.00) Our total expenses for the month were $431.80. Our receipts were $90.00 \\.-hich included five DOM's and one membership renewal. I also sold one of the 1040ST's to an outside individual who was really stuck when he dropped his 1040STE and it wouldn"t respond. He paid $50.00 for the I 040 I sold him and as it turned out later, I coaxed him into letting me take his STE apart and look at the insides. All it needed was pushing a couple wires to the disk drive and everything started working like normal. Needless to say he was a very happy camper as he is a musician and the STE is perfect for that medium. He now has his STE and a backup ST all for just $50.00. The Club's treasury now sits at $664.47 a far cry from the thousand dollar mark from the last two months. Now that all of our major expenses are out of the way

August, 1998 until our next room rental bill sometime in September. this gives us a great opportunity to work our balance bad, up to the thousand dollar mark. We did bring up the fact that our treasury shouldn't be allowed to get up much highe r than a thousand dollars because we don't know if we could remain a nonprofit entity. What better way to build the treasury than with our auction next month. Keep buying the DOM's and rene" your memberships when they come due and we will be talking again in November about the December Xmas party add maybe, just maybe the Club will have tt' kick in some money again to share the fruits our continued success. See you all at the auction.

- - -- ------------------------------------------------------

Secretary's Report by Brian Little August, 1998

Finally got the Meeting Minutes from our Secretary. Mysteriously. a bottle with a message showed up to tr., editor's doorstep one day. Opening the bonle. the editor found a wrinkled piece of paper inside with something called a Secretary's Report by Brian C. Little AKA Ange: Hacker. So. here is what the poor Secretary \\-TOie .... Well. what is there to report. Oh. Right. Anyhow. the July 1998 meeting started at around 7:30 PM as usual. The place, for the big birthday party v.·as Yery dead. EYer. with the deadness, \Ve still had a good time. The.re wasn'i really much as far as business to be concerned about at this point. the club is still doing great around that $1,00fi mark but after the pizza its going to be dropping a little ways here. But we had a good time, the pizza was plent~ and l even in the end walked out with a box full of pizza to bring home. That and a big smile from \'iatching one 0 : my personal favorite episode of Millennium on the TV. Just a reminder for everyone that we haYe an auction next month. bring what you need to get rid ofto the meeting and a big wallet for some of the great stuff we will have too. I suspect we will see quite a load of ST stuff. and I'm certain I will be walking out with a thing or two for my own ST. Later, Brian C. Little AKA Angel Hacker An Englishman In Minnesota

The following article was submitted by Mike Weist, I did not receive it in time for last month's Newsletter. Editor In memory of Don Langford

It was one evening that I received a call from our newsletter editor, Mike Schmidt. Mike informed me that our Space president. Don Langford had passed away, it seems he had a stroke. Mike informed me that there would be a v.ake. for Don would be Sunday, June 7, 1998 from 4 PM. to 7 PM. at Washburn-McReavy funeral home, Coon Rapids, MN. At the wake, Don's wife was surrounded by friends and relatives. All told stories about what kind of person Don was. Space club honored Don by sending some very beautiful bunch of flowers. Once again death has cleimed another Atarian. I can also remember when our past president Sherm Erickson passed away. what a great loss too. There laid Don Langford, so natural. It was like he was just taking a short nap. I too ha,·e good memories of Don Langford. I can remember when I first meet Don Langford. I was at a past meeting and when talking to other club members. I said it would be sure great ifl could find a copy of the game Pole Position from Atari. A voice from back of me said, " I think I can help you out, I have the game at home". It was the voice of Don Langford. That was one memory of Don. Other memories were of him being the master BBQ'er at club parties. He cooked some very delicious food ! Don was also our master auctioneer at many club auctions. •with his assistant, Greg Leitner. Did we have some very exciting auctions! !! These auctions raised money for the club treasury. The best memory of Don Langford I ha,·e is when he stepped forwards to fill the role of club president. Don did a very excellt:ntjob as club president. Thanks Don! In the next month the club is going to haYe to make some big decisions like finding a replacement for Don. I hope someone will step forwards to fill this position. It was a big responsibility for Don Langford and it will be for his replacement. I think if Don Langford could send a message from heaven he would say " Fellow Atarians keep the club going. keep Atari alive! Club members what are we going to do as a club to make this happen? In closing, I would like to remind members of the Space club's 16th birthday party in July at the club meeting. Hope to see you all and have a fun time. Instead of having a potluck party. it will be a pizza party.

Mike Weist

Space's 16th Birthday Party

Space's 16th Birthday party was held on July 10, 1998 at the Falcon Heights Community center in Falcon Heights. This year we a different kind of party. instead of potluck we had Pizza Hut Pizza. Along with he pizza we had other things like the Fitzpatrick's famous cake. Greg Leitner's famous ice cold pop. cookies. and plenty of fun. Although we didn't have more than 15 people at the party. we had a enjoyable night. I think those that didn't show up for the party, missed a good party. A thanks should go out to the Birthday party committee. for putting on a great party and fo r all the members who showed up. Remember it is auction night at the August Space meeting. So come, bring plenty of money, bid on things and have a fun time! See you all at the next meeting! Mike Weist

The follO\\ing articles are from Michael Current: From: Jeff Potter <jdpotter@worldnet.att.net> Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Date: Mon. 15 Jun 1998 21 :20: 19 -0400 Frank-Oliver Malisch wrote: > is there a document available containing all the > S10-level commands an XF551 drive understands > (including parameter options) or does one have > to reengineer that from the drive operating > under sparta dos ??'? Here's something I found (posted by Matthias Belitz. Feb I. 1997): $52

Read sector P Write sector W Write sector with verify $53 S get controller status. returns 4 bytes byte O drive status bit O - Command frame error bit I - Checksum error bit 2 - Operation error bit 3 - Write protect bit ➔ - Motor on bit 5 - double density bit 6 - unused bit 7 - Dual (medium) density byte I controller status, returned values are inverted bit O - busy bit 1 - drq bit 2 - lost data bit 3 - ere error bit ➔ - record not found

$50 $57

R

bit 5 - record type bit 6 - write protect bit 7 - not ready byte 2 time-out (format); $e0 byte 3 unused; always 0 $21 format disk (single for 8 10 and stock 1050) as defined by CMD $4ffor upgraded 1050 and XF 551 (heard, that they will give back 128/256 bytes?) $22 format enhanced (medium, dual) density ( 1050) This was the standard command set o f I 050 (8 10) drives $4e

N read drive configuration; returns 12 bytes byte O number of tracks [I for harddisks) b)1e I step rate byte 2 sectors/ track high (total number for harddisks) byte 3 sectors/track low byte 4 number of heads decreased by one byte 5 format (0=FM ; 4=MFM) byte 6 bytes/sector high b)'1e 7 bytes/sector low b)1e 8 drive activated bytes 911 unused $4f O write drive configurat ion; see above $3f ? get high-speed-index Happy, US-Doubler. HDI (Germany) return $0a Speedy (Gern1any) returns $09 These are supported by all double density dri ves. Special Speedy (Germany) commands: $20 format automatically. acts like $21 , but computer has not to wait till drive is ready $5 I stop write command. "rites all data from internal buffer to disk. stop motor then $44 configure drive/track d isplay configure slow/fost $4b $4c direct jump command for internal processor of I050 jumps to location stored in DAUX,$30a jump, as above. but drive sends a "COMPLETE" $4d before jumping $41 add/remove command to/from internal command table $68 get length of internal high-speed-SIO-subroutine $69 send high-speed-SIO-routine to computer write track. writes complete track $60 $62 read track US-Doubler: $66 format disk with special sector-skew (no guarantees)

Jeff Potter

From: "Sam Casas" <scasas@ix.netcom.com> Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Date: Mon, I 5 Jun 1998 17:32:53 -0500 DEUCE 98 The Atari Users ofNorth Texas (AUNT) Computer Exposition will be coming again to Dallas thi s November in conjunction

with the monthly DFW XChange Super Saturday activities at the beautiful Dallas lnfomart. ShO\\ date is planned for Saturda~ the 14th. As with the last three DEUCE sho\\ S. the actual sho1, date \\ill be finali zed 120 da~s prior to the exposition. The exposition, along with the Super Saturday activities, charge no admission fees and are open to the general public. The one da~ exposition is planned to begin at 8:30 AM and run until 4:00 PM. A Friday evening pre-sho1\ get together and a post sho11 get together are also being planned. November is still a great time to visit the Dallas Metroplex. The DF\\' XChange Super Saturday activities are a month I) computer extravaganza 11 here thousands of computer enthusiasts get togeth<!r. share their computer interests and enjoy some of the best computer and high-tech electronic buys in Texas. This November will again be special for us Atarians because so many of our finest developers and dealers wi ll be participating in the activities. The Dallas lnfomart faci lity. a replica of the famous 1895 World Fair C rystal Palace, is located in the heart of the Dallas commerce district at 1950 Stemmons Freeway (Interstate 35E ). The facil ity is leased by the DFW XChange each month to provide a community service to all computer users in the Dalla,Ft Worth Metroplex area. The Atari Users of North Texas is one of many participating user groups that help support this community service by sharing our Atari computer interests, general computer expertise and providing user assistance to our local Atarians and the interested general public. Vendors are being lined up. Systems for Tomorrow, chroMagic. Crawly Crypt Corp and Emmulators have alread~ expressed their interest in participating in the show. Vendors interested in participating can contact David Acklam at (972) 242-9655 or via email at d.acklam@genie.com. You can also visit the AUNT internet home page at http://11·1nv.startext.net/homes/aunt.

From: marksim~ bitstream.net (Mark L. Simonson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Date: Wed. 24 Jun 1998 22:53:54 +0 100 It took a bit longer than I expected. but the TrueType font base..: the Atari 8-bit character set I have been work ing on is finished. It will be on my 1\ebsite sometime tomorro11 (June 25) at this URL: http://\\ww2.bitstream.net/~ marksim/atarimac/fonts. html

It is actually three fonts: Atari Classic Chunky A pixel-for-pixel interpretation (think "stairsteps") Atari Classic Smooth A version with the jaggies flattened out (think "ramps") Atari C lassic Extrasmooth Similar to Smooth but with curves (think "sl ides") This is freeware and is available in both Mac and PC (Windo1, , formats. (Note: some characters will not be accessible. depending on your OS, since some of the A8 characters occupy special 1011ASCII locations which have special meanings to Macs and PCs Mark Mac/Atari Fusion: Atari 8bit Resources for Mac (and sometime; PC) Users http://www2.bitstream.net/~marksim/atarimac/ Mark Simonson. Proprietor

marksim@:bitstream.net Atari user since 1982 -- Mac user since 1984 From: keita@mindspring.com (Keita Iida) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit.comp.sys.atari.st Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 04:42:36 GMT A once in a lifetime gathe ring to pay homage the legacy of Atari and its products will be held at the Holiday Inn Casino Boardwalk in Las Vegas, Nevada from August 21-23. 1998. Although World of Atari '98 is geared 10,,ard the celebration of the historic v ideogame and computer company. it is far from just Atari. In fact, WOA'98 could just as easily be called "World of Classic Videogames And Computers." Practically any classic console and computer will be represented there. Keita Iida, Atari Gaming Headquarters (www.atarihq.com) co-editor explains. "World of Atari '98 is an event for all Atari aficionados to honor and celebrate the contributions made to the videogame and computer community by Atari and other pioneering companies and individuals. Atari's products have provided hours of enjoyment, and the company literally defined the concept of electronic entertainment. It was high-time to set a stage for its fans to gather and pay tribute to Atari's intluence on the world of technology and le isure. " Whi le the show is still two months away, World of Atari '98 is already attracting serious attention from both the industry and press. Videogame authorities such as Gamepro, Game Informer and Electronic Gaming Monthly (videogames.com) have ran stories about the event, and others are sure to follow. A large number of fan sites have also helped to support the cause by publicizing World of Atari '98 on their web pages. The event promises to oiler something for everyone. Many of the industry legends. old and new, \\ill be on hand including Don Thomas (customer support manager at Atari), Rob Fulop of hnagic fame (Demon Attack). Doug Engel and Stephanie Wukovitz of 4-Play (BattleSphere). Howard Scott Warshaw (2600 Yar's Revenge. E.T. and others). Jerry Jessop (hardware development for home consoles and computers), Dennis Koble (co-founder of !magic). John "Jawbreaker" Harris (formerly of Tigervision), Dan Kramer (5200 Trak-ball) and Andrew Soderberg (product manager for the Atari Computer Division). These guests of honor and several others "ill be giving speeches and providing workshops. as well as taking part in Q&A sessions. Many other surprise guests are slated to be in attendance and" ill be announced as they are confirmed. Vendors of Atari . classic videogame and computer products ,,ill also be in full force. Dealers such as Best Electronics, B&C Computervisions. Telegames. 16/3:! Bits. chro_Magic Software. Emulators, Inc .. Centek, O'Shea, !CD. Video 61 and Wizztronics Soundpool, Steve's Computer Technology, Systems for Tomorrow will be have a wide array of products for sale, as well as many private collectors who have secured dealer space to offer their items for sale or trade. In addition, an official auction ,,ill be held with a professional auctioneer, and you can expect that some valuable items w ill be exchanging hands when it's all said and done. Other show features you will not want to miss include gaming tournaments (with prizes!). an exhibit with rare and historic items and a welcome reception on Friday before the offical opening of the show. A French TV crew will be at World of Atari '98 filming the event. The show will also be the place where many developers show off their wares. Darek Mihoca of Emulators, Inc. will be displaying (and selling) his latest Atari 8-bit and ST emulators. An individual from France has completed Alfred's Challenge for the Atari 2600 and will be selling cartridges of his game for the first time at World of Atari '98. Bob Colbert of Retroware will

be unveiling his latest creation for the Atari 2600. BattleSphere. the highly anticipated tour-de-force for the Jaguar, will be shown by the folks at 4-Play. And several European design houses are set to show off their latest creations for the Atari 8-bit and ST computers. The event is promoted by Richard Tsukiji. who had previously been responsible for staging the wildly successful World of Atari s hows ,, hich caten:d to the Atari 8-bit and ST computer crowd. Atari Gaming Headquarters (www.atarihq.com) is the oflical ,,ebsitc of World of Atari '98. and is actively working with Mr. Tsukiji to help organize the event. For up-to-the-details on the ewnt. as ,,ell as information on show discounts and details on how to purchase tickets, please visit Atari Gaming Headquarters at w,, w.atarihq.com. WHERE: The Holiday Inn Casino Boardwalk, Las Vegas WHEN: August 2 1-:23, 1998. WHO: Well, you for one. but the list of attendees is over 400 names long at present.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Keita Iida keita@ mindspring.com www.atarihq.com - Atari Gaming Headquarters Fygar on #RGVC and #turbolist

---------------------------------From: rich@cstone.net (Rich) Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 04:58:25 G\IT Atari800Win is a freeware emulator of the Atari 8-bit computer line for Win9X/NT. It is located on my web page: http://,,ww.cris.com/-Twist/atari8001, in Here are the new features in 2. 1: 06-28-98 Ver 2.1 * The SIO patch option is n0\\ configurable on the fly; it doesn't reboot the machine. Besides the hardware dialog you can flip it with F 11. * Hardware dialog ,,as reworked to display better on ModeX screens. Antic dialog is gone; its contents are on the Hardware dialog now. * Now using better artifacting code from Perry (text mode still doesn't work) * Volume will not be set on MMs~stems that can't handle it (what's up with Tl-IAT anyway? Seems to be true for ancient . SoundBlasters. Ugh). Volume s lider will be disabled on these systems. * Fixed SKSTAT handler (could cause missing keystrokes, missed reads of SHIFT) • Any nagging sound initialization problems people were having should be fixed * Added 48Khz sound output. Most sound cards probably don't support this; and the WaveOut functions can NOT check for this capability ahead of time. so be prepared for it to fail. It really rocks on my SoundBlaster PC164 though: makes a huge difference for disk access noises and high frequency stuff. • Joystick dialog differentiates bemeen "none" and "keypad". Keypad can only be assigned to one port, and should always work. On IOI keyboards the arro,, keys W ILL work as Atari arrow keys regardless of keypad setting. I'm doing it the pristine MSoft way now; so if it still doesn't work on your keyboard, well, sue Bill Gates or something. * Woohoo! Autoduel works! Use l 30XE, S IO patch on, and you'll want to have F8 (full speed) most of the time. One of the best games ever out of Origin.

• Took out the internal Atari Ul until it can be reworked. Too fugly with the first quicky attempt; and besides it doesn't do an)thing the Win U I doesn't. * Joystick button 2 (if available) flip s between full and regular speed (same as keyboard F8). Butto n 3 pauses/unpauses (keyboard F9). Button 4 tlips the SIO patch (keyboard Fl I). Yes, I will make these configurable later on. • Pausing the emulator now shades the screen 50%. • Reorganized CPU code for both (slight) speed and size improvement. * Fixed SIO bug in drive s tatus ( DCOMND 0x53).

SPACE Auction Items: 1200XL System, No Monitor ST Hardware

----------·---------------------------------------------Date: Mon, 13 Jul 1998 14:25:53 CST From: rich@cstone.net ( Rich) Ne,vsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit,comp.emulators.announce Atari800Win is a freeware emulator of the Atari 8-bit computer line for Win9X/NT. It is located on my web page: http://www.cris.com/-Twist/atari800win

8-B it Hardware and Software (2) 486DX(33 & 66) Complete Systems wNGA Monitors, The Monitors Are In Working Order (May Need To Be Replaced), Epson 9-Pin Printers, CD-Roms, Speakers, Loaded With Software, (Not Much In Way Of Game Software) The 486's Are Being Offered By The Newsletter Editor. (The Opening Bid On Each 486 Computer Will Be Low)

Here are the new features in 2.2: 07-12-98 Ver 2.2 * A disk indicator is drawn at the bottom right hand comer of the display when sector 1/0 occurs. The small block drawn contains the number of the drive being accessed, and is red for writes, green for reads. * 5200 controllers work. F5 is reset, Shift-F5 is coldboot, F4 is the start button. Keyboard 0-9 are equivalent to the 5200 controller 0-9 (you can use the keypad if you aren't us ing it for a joystick). Keypad • or regular • work as the 5200 • key. and keypad - or regular - 11ork as the"#" key. When running in 5200 mode with a joystick triggers 2-4 operate as 5200 triggers 2-4, NOT as functio n shortcuts like in Atari computer mode. WARNING: At present several 5200 carts fail. This will have to be worked on for a while. • Found the (atari side) bug that was keeping multiple stick inputs from working. You can now play with at least two sticks; I don't have four to test but that should work as well. I HA VE played a full game of MULE with j oystick on one port and keypad on another. It 11 orks. • ModeX was abandoned in favor of simple linear modes at 320xXXX resolutions. Some cards will support these modes, some won't - but at least when present they work re liably. If you have "use ModeX for 320 resolutions" set in your DirectDraw control panel you might want to tum it off(d efault is off). * Switched back to DirectDrawSurface revis io n one interfaces, since it's obvious some cards that claim to be DirectDraw 5 compliant are not, and do not s upport DirectDrawSurface2 or 3 . Iffull screen wasn't working for you. this was probably the reason (and it should work now). • Shift-ctr! + keycode is sent properly to Atari machine now • Fixed a potential Wi ndows crash condition when the Atari crashed * Fixed a bug that could cause some cartridge optio ns to not be saved out. • DirectDraw mode trans itio ns a re a little smoother (one screen size to other) • Sound is not restarted on mode changes, but it will still get a little garbled (unavoidable). • Various small tweaks and refinements. * Source code released (this does n't imply it is done).

So, Plan on attending and bring something for the Club to Auction Off and also bring your Money for Bidding on the other Items.

_,,..

PrP.;;ioP.nt. :

GrP.g l.r.it.nP.r (TP.mp) 4:'i:'i - fifi:'iO XXXXXXX

Greg Leitner Briun C. Lilllc Vacr.nt.

Vice !'resident: Sec;n:Lur·,: D01{ 1.ibrilriiln: Paper Librarian: S<Jflwan: Librdri,m: ~!embershio Chairman: SPACE Treasurer SPACE New::;leller Editor:

.lCO(- XXXX XXX-XX)C(

Vacant XXXXXXX Vacaul XXX-XXXX Glen Kirschenmann 7864790 Greg Leitner 4556550 Michael Schmidl 75?-4192

Published by the Saint Pnu: ,\t;1ri Compute r Ent.husi,,;,· (SPACE), un indcpendenl or5 .1ui1.a l10 n " ilh no bus i,w-- affiliation with ATARI Corpora:ion . Permission is gra nt: ·,tc any similar organizatior. w:lh which ~PACE exchc.r: ~ :- · n~w;:;lt=:t.t~r~ t.o r~pririt n:;::.t.~r1~! r,·f1n1 Uii:-s r.~w:-:1 eU.t:r. Wr-: , .. however a5k thal cr~ciil be givt--!: lo lhe

Saint Paul Atari Computer Enthusiasts (SPACE)

ft 1 J!i":o '"s

and to ~?.:.. -·

Opinions expressed a~e lhc~ t~ o! Utr:· c :.:. t.!~D~-s and cin =~'. · necessarily reflect the views of Sf'ACE, the club officc:-,dub members <>r AT.-\Ri Corp,,r;i ~ion

meets on the second Friday of each mont.h at. 't:30 Pl{

in the Falcon Heights Community Center at 2077 WP.st Larpent.eur Ave . Do ors open at 7 :00 PM

rr: l r:on HP.ight.i=:

Community Center 2077 W. Larpc;nlcur Ave. iJ

Gibbs

'

C

!

,,:

~. !useum'. c; ,____;

__

__ _ j

r -·1

'I

!

i:: 'i l' ·-

'

'

I

'

b_Q l

!~

> '' a., u L_ ___ i

:c l en

• - • - - - - -• - - - -- •- • - -- • - -- -- - - - - - -

l~rpenleur Avenue

BBS

1~ i< u u DD

S

' ru none:

~,) ') - 4_6'e,~ - 3 6 u 0 ,' uc:. ."1 ~

!_

Co-sysop: Open Posi.tion Supporting:

SL

C of ~.{ Pdul C;:unµu::;

ATARI 8-B1L Go rnpulers

ATAR1 ST C 01B n1J t. P.rs

-

P.O . Box 120016 ?--; evY Brighton, MN ',

.l.

55112

hl,l,,l,l ,ll,,,,1,1,l,,,ll ,,l,I

1,1,1,1 .. ,1 .. 11 ... ,11, .. 111,1,,,111II J