:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: Volume 2 - Issue 14 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE 8 August 1993 :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: :: :: ATARI .............. News, reviews, & solutions ............ ATARI :: :: EXPLORER ............ for the online Atari .......... EXPLORER :: :: ONLINE ................. Community .............. ONLINE :: :: :: :: Published and Copyright (c) 1993 by Subspace Publishing :: :: """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" :: :: Publisher ........................... Michael Lindsay EXPLORER :: :: Editor .................................. Travis Guy AEO.MAG :: :: News and Features Editor ............... Ron Kovacs Z-NET :: :: Assistant Editor GEnie............... Ron Robinson EXPLORER.1 :: :: Assistant Editor CompuServe......... Albert Dayes AEO.1 :: :: Assistant Editor Delphi........ Andreas Barbiero AEO.2 :: :: Atari Asylum ................... Gregg Anderson AEO.7 :: :: Unabashed Atariophile ..... Michael R. Burkley AEO.4 :: :: :: :: Contributors :: :: """""""""""" :: :: Charmon Haines :: :: :: :: Telecommunicated to you via: :: :: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" :: :: GEnie: AEO.MAG :: :: CompuServe: 70007,3615 :: :: Delphi: AEO_MAG :: :: Fnet: AEO Conference, Node 706 :: :: AtariNet: AEO Conference, Node 51:1/10 :: :: :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Table of Contents * From the Editors ........................................ Summer breeze. * Dateline: Atari! ....... Bob Brodie and some pizza in the office during his FREE GEnie Real Time Conference. * Atari Asylum ................ Falcon Screenblaster review, a Blue Ridge Fest wrapup, monitored choices, and more Falcon030 reports from Gregg. * How to get the best from MultiTOS ........ Efficient multitasking using Atari's new OS. * The Unabashed Atariophile .......... The best in PD and Shareware files. * EET's Atari Jaguar Report ............... An outsider's view of Atari's hot new videogame system. * Data Rescue 1.0 ........ Ron Robinson takes a look at this utility that promises intelligent realtime data recovery. * AEO Calendar of Events ................ Events, happenings in the World Atari, and elsewhere. * An American's View of Japan ............ Andreas sends the first of his reports from the Far East. * GEnie News .......................... New files & happenings on Atari's Official Online Resource. * Developing News ..................................... DATAlite from ORA Flash II Upgrade Notice Pacific Software's Author Hunt * Shutdown ............................................................... --==--==--==--==-- ||| From the Editors ....... Atari Explorer Online: The Next Generation ||| Travis Guy / | \ GEnie: AEO.MAG Delphi: AEO_MAG Internet: AEO.MAG@GENIE.GEIS.COM ------------------------------------------------------------------- Hot August Nights have arrived (plug not intended) and life continues its journey. Congress has passed a President's budget for the first time in over a decade. Some say it's a scandal. There's a(nother) scandal brewing in Hollywood. At least there's general agreement on whats going on there. Flood waters are beginning to recede in parts of the American Midwest. No scandal here... yet? So, what's happening at the offices of Atari Explorer Online? In comparison, not much. News and Features Editor Ron Kovacs has taken some time off for vacation (meaning no Z*NET Newswire this week), while Publisher Mike Lindsay has taken the week to tend to his family. So here I sit, holding the bag; manning the fort alone. I won't let all this power go to my head. I know it's not the bigwigs who make an issue; the thanks go to the writers. Y'all make it easy for me every time! There's an interesting issue of AEO here for you. First up is the transcript of last Friday's GEnie Real Time Conference with Bob Brodie. Following that is another look into Gregg Anderson's "Atari Asylum." (Ummm, Gregg, where do you keep the cheesesticks?) In the Asylum this go-around are notes on the Blue Ridge 'Fest, a review of Compo's Falcon Screenblaster (Times change rapidly- an update of the Screenblaster software has rendered this review inaccurate in places. There will be an updated review in the next issue!), and a look at expanded monitor choices for your Atari computer. Tim Wilson has some tips on using MultiTOS... Michael Burkley has found more really neat files he'd like to share with you... A reprint of the Electronic Engineering Times' story on the Atari Jaguar... Andreas took a spare moment in his tour of duty in the Orient to send a postcard.... Just go ahead and read it - it's waiting for you. Enjoy the issue. Enjoy the World Atari. Enjoy the season. Enjoy life. Enjoy. Take care. --==--==--==--==-- ||| Dateline: Atari! ||| The Aug 6 GEnie RTC with Bob Brodie, Director of Communications / | \ ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- ========================================================================= (C) 1993 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt.Type XTX99437,GENIE and press [RETURN]. The system will prompt you for your information. ========================================================================== Special Edition Real Time Conference Friday, August 6, 1993. Dateline Atari! with Bob Brodie Director of Communications Atari Corp. Host - Lou Rocha <[HOST] ST.LOU> Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome our 11th consecutive Dateline Atari! with Bob Brodie, Director of Communications for Atari Corp. Before we get too far along tonight, I would like to recognize the interest and dedication that Bob has shown to GEnie users by attending these monthly sessions. Over the past year Bob has brought us news of all the happenings at Atari - from the development and delivery of the Falcon to more recent news about the Jaguar. Each session has been thoughtfully prepared with detailed files full of the most recent Atari news. Obviously, Bob has worked hard to prepare that information for us. Bob has also been happy to answer all manner of questions from the guests who have attended each of the Real Time Conferences. His knowledge of the hardware and software for the Atari platform is vast and Bob is very skillful in sharing it with faithful Atarians. He has also brought along some special guests like CEO Sam Tramiel, James Grunke (Atari Music) and Eric Smith (MultiTOS author) to share 'the hotseat'. We have enjoyed their contributions on those occasions. The Dateline Atari! transcripts have been downloaded up to 750 times each as folks from all over gather these valuable sources of information. The transcripts are also carried regularly in Atari Explorer Online and, until recently, the former Z*NET magazine. These transcripts are also downloaded on scores of local bulletin boards and occasionally find their way into user group newsletters and magazines. Some of them even appear in such notable Atari magazines as Current Notes. Tonight promises to be another notable evening. For the first time, Dateline Atari! is a FREE Real Time Conference, courtesy of GEnie's Hot Summer Nights and RoundTable Sysop, Darlah Potechin. Thank you to GEnie and Darlah for making this possible. Welcome to the August installment of Dateline Atari, here on our official online resource, GEnie. As always, it is a great pleasure to have this time to spend with you. I hope that you have come to look forward to it as I have. I'm grateful once again to have my good friend Lou Rocha moderating the conference tonight...and without any further ado, let's get started. Much of our efforts here at Atari right now are focused on three primary products, the Lynx, the Atari Falcon030, and the soon to be released Jaguar. On the Lynx side of things, we have just released another game for the Lynx entitled "GORDO 106". The setting for the game is deep in the cavernous sub-basement of N. Human, Inc., trapped in cage No. 106, a poor, brutally exploited lab monkey named Gordo lives a life of lonely misery until an experimental nuclear potion gives Gordo the cunning intellect that he needs to free his friends and escape from N. Human. In the game, you play the part of Gordo as he trys to escape from N. Human Labs, freeing his other animal friends and getting revenge on the wicked lab scientists as he seeks his freedom. This game is in stock now, and the suggested retail price for it is $39.99. Remember if your local retailer doesn't have the game, you can purchase it directly from Atari by calling our 800 order line number: 1-800-221-EDGE. This is a very enjoyable game. We will be in the next couple of weeks be uploading some screen shots of Gordo 106 in an issue of Atari Explorer On-line. The files will be GIFs created from slides. Thanks to Ron Kovacs of Z*Net News Service for his efforts in creating these GIF files. I'm sure you will all enjoy the high quality of these picture files!!! They will give you an excellent idea of what to expect from the game! The next title due up for the LYNX is Jimmy Connors Tennis. This is a terrific game, using lots of great sound effects. The game is four megs, one of our larger titles for the Lynx to date. For the Atari Falcon030, most of the product shortages on this product have been alleviated. We have a good supply of Falcons in the following configurations: one meg of ram, no hard disk, 4 megs of ram and an 80 meg hard disk, and four meg of ram, no hard disk drive. Most of the "hiccups" revolving around getting our software products out the door have been resolved...so Atari Works, Speedo GDOS and MultiTOS are now readily available to our customers that have not purchased an Atari Falcon030, but would still like to have these products available to them. We hope that you will take a look at these products. Remember that there are screen shots available of them in back issues of Atari Explorer Online Magazine, available here in the libraries on GEnie. If you haven't seen what Atari Works looks like, or have questions about how fonts are installed in Speedo GDOS, these picture files might just have the answers that you're looking for before purchasing the products. We are starting to hear of more third party products being created for the Atari Falcon030. One of the ones that I'm looking forward to is from one of the original ST developers, Migraph! Kevin and Liz Mitchell are close to releasing a color hand scanner for the Falcon030. We're working on a number of entertainment products for the Falcon030, including games that will be using the exciting new controller that will be shared by both the Falcon030 and the Jaguar. We expect to be marketing this controller in the Fall, about the same time as the Jaguar launch. Our projection is that we will be making the controller available for approximately $29, and bundle a game with it for an additional cost. At this point in time, the exact title is under discussion still, but one of the leading candidates to be bundled is Llamazap! from Jeff Minter of the UK. It's a terrific looking game, getting rave reviews from everyone that has seen portions of the beta versions of the game. Pacific Software Supply has announced that they are going to be carrying a product that will allow you to use the Kodak Photo CD with your Atari Falcon030. This is called PHOTO SHOW, and allows you to view the images while creating scripts for the sound files to be played at the same time with CD quality sound. PHOTO SHOW will work on RGB, VGA, or broadcast monitors, and you can even record your slide show to your VCR easily. Suggested retail price of Photo Show is $35 US. Later this month, we will be hosting a meeting with Video Game Publications to begin the roll-out of the Atari Jaguar. The amount of interest that we have had in this machine is nothing less than amazing! We've been getting a steady stream of callers that are looking to become dealers, and some of the brightest stars in the gaming world are lining up to become developers for the Jaguar. I will be speaking to Sam Tramiel to see if we can schedule him for an online conference in the next month or so. He is very excited about this product, and I know that he would enjoy having an opportunity to visit with you to discuss personally all of the wonderful features in the Jaguar. I'm hopeful that his schedule will permit us to do that next month. With that, I'm ready to take questions, Lou! Let's get started!!! <[HOST] ST.LOU> OK Bob.... our first question comes from Hydraxxus in Hawaii. <[Hydraxxus] J.GERMAN3> I noticed there are no Falcons on Oahu but there are on Maui ;) and that the stock went up to 4. Is this a result of the Jaguar announcement or Falcon sales? What games have you seen and how will they compete with current game machines? I believe that the rise in the stock price is due to the joint... announcement of the Jaguar, and also the manufacturing agreement with IBM. To me, it is a terrific validation of the product, and Atari Corp. to have such an impressive strategic partner as IBM. I have seen about 7 titles for the Jaguar, most of them still are using "working titles", except as noted in the press release which I've already uploaded here some time ago. They are by and large, breath-taking games! Some of the finest scrolling, speed, texture mapping, and real time effects that I have ever seen on the system. At some point after our media day, I will be uploading some screen shots of Jaguar games. They will most likely be 24 bit Targa pictures, or PCX files. <[Graham] G.NORTON> Hi Bob, Thanks for joining us. Most of my questions relate to the Falcon. The first being about service...what is Atari's policy on Warranty work? Why does everything have to be send to Atari? Also what advertising is Atari planning on in the near future... back to school stuff and all. Also how does Atari view Apple's new products with the DSP's etc. Hi Graham. Re our warranty work policy, on the Falcon030, we don't require that the unit be sent back to Sunnyvale for work. We recently had a revision in our return policy, which you should be hearing about very soon (it appears that you haven't already heard about it). Basically, for all in warranty machines the dealer will determine which of the major 6 components is defective: The HD, Keyboard, Motherboard PCBA, Power Supply, Ram board, or floppy disk drive. The dealer will be able to return the defective component to Sunnyvale, and exchange the defective component to get the customer out the door quickly. The defectives will still be sent to us, but I'm sure that you agree that is the logical way for the defective portions of the unit to be handled: send 'em back to the manufacturer!! Re advertising, we are not prepared to embark on an ambitious advertising program at this point in time that we had expected to be able to do. The continuing poor economy continues to wreak havoc on ALL computer manufacters, not just Atari. I'm sure that you have heard about the layoffs and losses at both IBM and Apple as a result from their reduced sales. We will review the evolving changes in the marketplace, and respond accordingly. In the meantime, we do have a market development fund program which is on a proposal basis by the dealers. Some use it, some don't. It's really up to them. No comment on the 040 machines, sorry. Re Apple...they've got an awful lot of problems right now, and I'm really not sure that the DSP units are a prime product for them. They are putting a lot of effort into Newton it seems. <[Bman] B.AEIN> Has Atari been looking at using the Power PC chips for future Falcons? Is there any time frame for a F040? Who will carry the Jag this fall? Has Atari been pushing Jag developers to make lynxing/multi Jag games? Any fighting games? How will the Jag games be priced? Yes, we have had some discussions about using other chips like the Power PC for our products in the future. We try to stay abreast of all the innovations that are occuring in the market in order to ensure that our hardware will continue to be a cutting edge product. However, we haven't made a commitment to using the Power PC for anything...it's just a topic of discussion at this point. Re the F040, sorry, as I told Graham, no comment on that product...Please remember that we haven't even announced that we are officially doing the machine, just that we've been working on one. Re the Jaguar: At CES virtually every major retailer indicated that they are very interested in carrying the Jaguar. We are finalizing our sales plans on the Jaguar, and are already in discussions with many of those retailers. The high end of the Jaguar games is about $69 at this point. <[HOST] ST.LOU> Next is Ron Whittam of the ABUG group in Idaho. Ron is a new GEnie user. <[Ron - ABUG] R.WHITTAM> Bob & Sam: With NO DEALERS in Boise, Idaho and no means to travel out of state how can the members of our User Group (ABUG) get a Falcon?? AND will Atari still produce fine software compatible with the ST, like Atari Works? Ron, I'm sure that the travel problem will resolve itself over a period of time. What we will do is refer members of your user group to the next closer dealer to them, and then permit that dealer to mail order a Falcon to them. Re other software, right now we are planning on an upgrade for Atari Works, but don't have any other projects on the burner at this time that I can discuss. However, the clock is certainly ticking on the standard 8Mhz ST. You really should be looking to the third party market for solutions to upgrade the machines to a better level of performance to ensure that the unit will continue to be serviceable. Or get a Falcon!!! :) <[HOST] ST.LOU> Well done, Ron. Our next guest is R.SATTLER from Illinois. <[Mr.X] R.SATTLER> Hi Bob. How many Falcons were sold in the US with 63 meg hard drives? And in the interest of customer satisfaction, will Atari offer an upgrade path to those who were unfortunate enough to get the 63 meggers? We never reveal sales figures, Rob. Sorry. And there are no plans at present to upgrade the 65 meg drives. <[Doug] D.DOBBS> Bob, I need to find a good Atari repair shop in north Jersey for my sister's 1040. Her monitor went "phzzt" but we can't find a shop to fix it. Any chance you could help us out? Thanks for being here tonight. Hi Doug, I am afraid that I don't know North Jersey from South Jersey...from where I sit, it's all New Jersey. How about this: Software Spectrum in North Plainfield 908-561-8777 <[HOST] ST.LOU> Thanks Bob. Charles Smeton from NewSTar is next! <[NewSTar] C.S.SMETON> Bob, has Atari reconsidered its policy of not releasing the authorized dealer list so that developers can make contact and send promotional literature to dealers? No, Charles. Garry Tramiel is very firmly against that. We will continue to be happy mailing that information on the behalf of the developers to our dealers, as well as continue discussions in a productive fashion with the IAAD as to how we can best handle that situation. I know this isn't the ideal answer that you had hoped for. However, I am confident that we'll be able to work something out, like referring you to our rep firms to fill out their product knowledge as well. The IAAD is a first rate organization, so I don't envision any difficulties in working with them at all. <[HOST] ST.LOU> Thanks Charles and now we have Eric Zrath-Smiley of the Gaming Digest! <[Eric @ STGD] ZRATH-SMILEY> Bonsoir Bob, I have 2 questions regarding the Jaguar: 1) A software developer friend of mine is interested in the Jaguar. He is already doing CD-ROM and 3DO development. He tried to get some info from IBM themselves, but got nowhere. Could you tell me who should be contacted at Atari for developer stuff, so I can pass the info on to him? 2) What is the maximum memory capacity of the Jaguar cartridges? You're friend is mistaken to be contacting IBM, their job is to only BUILD the units, and distribute them for us...they are not in charge of development issues. Have him contact Bill Rehbock at Atari, and I would recommend that he send a fax to him. He's a tough guy to catch on the phone right now, or try sending Bill GEnie mail. Re the Jaguar carts, :) let's save that for another time to discuss. The answer is very interesting indeed! <[Dale] D.ELLIS16> Bob thanks for being here! How is the Falcon selling as of today's date? And what is the status of the voice mail system for the Falcon? Who do I talk to about becoming a dealer? It's not just a computer, it's a future! Hi Dale, we have a rep firm that is handling all of our dealers in Florida. Send me email and I promise that I will provide you their contact information there. I'm afraid that I have CPUs and HDs spread all over the office tonight, so I can't readily get at the list. The Falcon is selling well, given the state of the economy. Re the DSP modem, there have been some delays in getting it ready by our strategic third party partner that we have, but we remain committed to the modem. We hope to see it by late 3-Q. <[HOST] ST.LOU> Sign him up! :-) Our next guest is Texas Atarian Greg Matthijetz! Was there any plan for the Falcon and Jaguar to be synergistic? Will there be the possiblilty of connecting the two in any way? Hi Greg, yes there are discussions about ways to have the Jaguar connected together. But I wouldn't look for that feature to be implemented in the first group of titles that will be available. Look for that a little down the road. <[Eric] E.JOLLEY> Hi Bob! Q: Are any of the Japanese game giants (Capcom, Konami, etc.) Jag developers? No specific names needed, just curious if Atari considers them important to third party support (I do). We consider them very important to the market, and while I cannot confirm on deny any of the names that you've mentioned at this point in time, we will be doing press releases later on as to who some of the strategic partners are that we have enlisted for software development on the Jaguar. <[George] G.IKEN> Any word on Houston dealers... Shirley Taylor says any TEXAS dealer can sell Falcons at the Houston show. How about after the show...Phone orders?? None yet specifically in Houston, George. Our policy is that if you don't have a dealer in your city, we will refer you to the next closest dealer. So for the purposes of your show, yes... we will be happy to authorize any dealer in Texas to attend your show and sell Falcons there. Please have them contact me in advance so I can give them written authorization for their files. <[Hassen] H.HAMMOUD> I just bought a Portfolio, and I love it. I'm showing it to all of my friends and co-workers, and they are interested in the unit. Where does Atari Corp. stand on the Portfolio. Are more available? Also, will Atari plan to use their 64 bit RISC chip in any computers...perhaps as an add on board for the Falcon's processor slot? Yes, we still have Portfolios available for sale. We have not pursued any additional peripherals for it at this time, though. Again, the hardware market is just not good for anyone at this point in time, and the Portfolio is no exception, unfortunately. Re the 64 bit RISC chip in the Jaguar, we are reviewing all of the options for using this chipset, including computers. <[sanjay] S.AGARWAL> I am interested in purchasing Atari Works, but if I purchase the Falcon later, with hard drive can I get a rebate for the software ? No, I'm sorry, that is not our policy. Atari Works on the Falcon is something that we provide free of charge to every Falcon owner. If you purchase it previous to your purchase of the Falcon, then you will have to discuss that matter with your dealer. It would be prudent to conduct both sales with the same retailer. :) <[Jeff] J.WHITE99> Since discussion at SIGGRAPH this week centered around 3DO by SGI,SUN, and their partners is it fair to assume they have not been addressed as potential Jag partners. Also there were some Falcon remarks made at Newtek's party that were reflective of consumer concern over expandability and audio performance. Remarks? It's interesting to note that a recent issue of Game Pro Magazine made note of the many MultiMedia projects that 3DO has announced, but the distinct lack of Shooters, fighters, etc....i.e. GAMES! As to the discussions that SGI and Sun might make re 3DO, I really have no comment. Newtek is a long time Amiga developer, and I would not realistically expect them to comment favorably on _ANY_ Atari product that could hurt their most important strategic alliance that they have. We take care to ensure that our development partners on the Jaguar understand _VERY CLEARLY_ how important non-disclosure is to us. We don't _WANT THEM_ talking about the system at a party at an industry trade show....today anyway. :) <[HOST] ST.LOU> Makes sense.... Sam Rapp is next <[Sam030] SAM-RAPP> Hi Bob! You are missed in the Tuesday Conferences over on that 'other' system... My question is one that is on everyone's mind around here... There has been a lot of frustration with Atari's supporters for some time now... We have lost a lot of good people to other platforms... It seems that although Atari has made some superior products, it's just never built the momentum to regain the market it once had. So, the big question is: Is this FINALLY going to be the YEAR of ATARI? Also, my Falcon has TOS 4.02, can I get 4.04 without having to pay an arm and a leg? Hi Sam, re that "other system" with the Tuesday night COs... they are having their own growth problems! GEnie might be slow at times, but I couldn't get on to Delphi because there wasn't an available node!! I was shocked. I've passed on my very, very frustrating experiences in attemtping to get online there to Gordie, and I'm very hopeful that he will ask them to address it soon. Re the year of Atari...I really hate that phrase. I do expect to have a very successful fourth quarter, although the balance sheet won't reflect it because of the heavy promotional costs asssociated with the Jaguar rollout. But it should set the stage for a very exciting 1994. Re TOS, when I last discussed the various different Falcon TOS's with Bill Rehbock, he told me that there were really no major changes from TOS 4.1 to TOS 4.04 that FPATCH doesn't handle. But if you really want to get the latest ROM, I believe that the cost of that is $59. Not even close to one arm! :) Hi Bob, What kinds of Video Digitizers/Frame grabbers are currently available for Falcons that will totally support True Color?? Are they all cartridge based? Is there any pricing you can give and will VIDI pro from Rombo Scotland be doing anything in this arena?? Also, can we expect any news on surprises for next month's Glendale show?? (At least give us one surprise??) Will there be plenty of Falcons to obtain by then?? I really hope and expect the biggest turnout yet this year and am looking forward to it. Hope to see you there!! Didn't we say one question???? :) :) :) :) <[HOST] ST.LOU> Pick a question! ;-) OK, re the frame grabbers, I recall hearing that ROMBO was going through a re-organziation some time ago, so I really haven't heard anything from them in a long time. The latest that I have heard is that Overscan from Germany is going to be doing a video frame grabber and selling it in the US via COMPO Software. As I indicated earlier, there are plenty of Falcons now, and our friends in Los Angeles are blessed with a number of really fine dealers in the area. I'm sure that they will ALL be looking to attend the Glendale Show as well. I always look forward to this show, it's like old home week for me. I will be speaking to COMPO very soon to see if they plan on having at least a prototype available at the show. <[D.A.K.] D.KAUFMAN> Will there ever be a hot Atari notebook for musicians? I believe there is a market for this since I've heard and read the Pow*rbook works poorly with MIDI. Greetings Bob from NYC, home of the Jaguar launch! We're really focusing on the Jaguar and the Falcon right now. The plans for the ST Book rework have been tabled until we have the Jaguar done. <[Randy] R.PERRY4> With the recent lowering of Apple prices, their Centris 610 4/80 is selling for about the same price as an Atari Falcon 4/80(after rebate), and the Centris is a 20 Mhz 68040 machine. Any plans for lowering Falcon prices to stay competitive? No, the Centris is pursuing a different market than we are with the Falcon. Even though they have lowered the price on their hardware, they still don't have the DSP chip onboard, so it is not truly comparable to the Falcon. Our dealers are not reporting any problems with comparison shoppers using the Centris as a comparison. Bob, Does Atari plan on getting a service rep. Also any word on a Canadian (non-music) rep firm. And finally I have to say the Jag. is looking awfully exciting from a sales perspective! Hi Graham, we have a Manager of Quality Assurance that will be assuming the mantle of the service rep. He will be the one that will be contacting you with the service policies that we discussed during your last question. :) We've discussed an non-music rep for Canada, but haven't been able to work anything out yet on that front. I'd certainly like to do so, personally. I'm pleased to hear your reaction to the Jaguar...it's even more exciting to see!! I'm really looking forward to uploading those Targa pics later on....really impressive graphics!!! Hi Bob, could you please make an educated guess on the number of... Falcons in use by XMAX 93 and also any comments on the rumor.... of a Falcon or Jaguar card for the PC's? Thanks Sorry, Dave. No comment on the number of machines sold. Re the rumor of a Falcon or Jaguar card for the PCs, we've said before that we feel that the Jaguar chipset is a good candidate for being utilized on computers, and certainly there are enough PCs out there to make a PC card something worthy of at least giving some serious consideration to. <[Glenn] G.GORMAN2> Bob, I'm being transferred to Nashville, Tennessee. How can I get a listing of dealers and user groups in that area. Glenn, I don't have the user group list on the system that I am working from tonight. For the dealer, try The Music Man in Nashville. I can send you the phone number and address in email if you drop me a line. <[/sen 21] C.CASSADAY> Hi Bob! (grin) We are still waiting on news for the proposed dealer in SA, TX. I must commend the patience of the individual trying to obtain an Atari dealership. Please help us!!!! Chris, we are trying to, but it would be inappropriate of me to discuss any problems with a particular dealer's application on a national forum like this. I have spoken to him a number of times, and he certainly seems like a fine man. I also recognize that our present staffing situation makes us difficult to reach and a certain amount of intolerance to delays is reasonable on his part. :) <[Neal-J&J's] N.BAKER4> Hi Bob! Quick question, with the announcement of the new Developer's CD Rom, and Walnut Creek's new Atari disk. Is there any plans for a new CD Rom Driver for the ST's? Meta Dos and even ICD's new driver have got some problems. Also, thanks for the great support you guys have provided over the last few months, you guys are getting it together! The developer CD will come with a floppy diskette with the driver software that you will need to use with it, Neal. That will most likely be a MiNT driver, and a MetaDOS driver. If you have specific bug reports, I know that Mike Fulton would really appreciate getting them. You can reach him here on GEnie as MIKE-FULTON. <[Steve] S.ELEK> Bob, I was disappointed that you did not appear, nor any saleable FALCON030's nor any saleable LYNex at the 7/31 MIST AtariFest. Will there be any near-term Atari support of substance for users groups? Steve, I apologize for the confusion about the MIST Show. I have yet to attend a single Atarifest this year ANYWHERE! I will certainly be at the Glendale Show, but only because it is a short drive (five hours) from here, and I don't need an expense account for something like that...it's home, and I can do a very low budget trip there. Indy and others are another matter. We have, as part of our expense trimming at Atari, curtailed most of the travel throughout the company. Re the Falcons and the Lynxes, I feel compelled to point out that we would NOT have sold those at the show even had I attended. This is a job of both the show promoters, and the retailers that are doing the show. I do recall that last year there were a number of people that commented on the presence at the MIST Show of the latest games, but the same people didn't purchase the games there. That tends to chill the interest of a retailer to return to a show if he doesn't have good results there. Had we been approached by a authorized Falcon dealer to attend the show, we certainly would have approved it. <[Jeff] J.WHITE99> I would just like to publicly clarify that it was an attendee, not Newtek, who was asking me questions at Siggraph. Also I would like to publicly commend you, Bob, as well as the portions of the staff at Atari that I deal with frequently, on the Herculean efforts you all have been pleasuring us with of late. Ah, ok...thanks Jeff! I still don't see SGI and Sun as big players in the home entertainment market, which is really where we expect the Jaguar to shine. <[Bman] B.AEIN> Will the Jag have a mascot? Will there be a 14 meg no HD F030 for sale? Not exactly, but there are plans for one of the games to have some "cat like" :) characters in them. No plans for a 14 meg no hd Falcon, sorry. <[token8bit] ANIMATSURI> Is Atari condering selling the rights to its now dead 8bit line? I'm sure they can use the spare change. ;^) We are still selling them (believe it or not) in some parts of the world. They simply refuse to die altogether. :) If you'd care to make an offer, I'm sure Sam would be willing to consider it. For the US, my personal opinion is that they are no longer competitive for new sales. I have an STe (4 meg) with TOS 1.6. Could I with MultiTOS run two or more GEM programs at a time and see them both in separate windows? For example, a wordprocessor and a drawing program. Would it be possible (in principle) to pipe info? Yes, it is possible. But you must remember that on a 68000 based unit has NO hardware based memory protection, so there is a much greater possibiliy of crashes than on a 030 based unit. It will also be slow on an 8Mhz machine, so I urge you to upgrade to a faster machine, perhaps with a Tiny Turbo, Turbo030, or one of the other fine products from Fast Tech. <[fugitive] E.LIN1> Could you list all the chips that will be in the Jag? Will it have a 64 bit graphics processor only or will it be a true 64 bit machine? I could, but then Sam would kill me. Unless Leonard got to me first. I can handle Richard Miller, though. :) Seriously, it is a true 64 bit machine, including a 64 bit bus. Later on this month, we'll be releasing more press materials on the Jaguar, I'm certain that they will also have that informatin in AEO. <[Tony @ Canoe] A.RIDLEY1> could you tell us who Atari is planning to sell Falcons to? Who is the future Atari user? Also would Atari consider licensing the Jag Chipset? or any other chipset? Tony, we have several different markets for the Falcon. We are of course, still very much active in the music world. Our systems are the preferred units by many professionals. I expect that their reasons to choose Atari will become even more compelling with the coming of some new, high end software later this year, like Cubase Audio for Falcon. This product will set new standards for musical applications. We also still very much believe that the machine represents an innovative method for personal multimedia applications, although some of the key products related to that have been slow to come to the market. As a rule, we don't necessarily say "This is what we want to sell to" but rather we look for alliances with key developers that have a vision for how their product can give people a reason to choose Atari over another brand. There are some graphic applications that do that on the Falcon now, but they are not available as readily as we would like them to be ....so to an extent, we don't control who the future users will be nearly as much as the developers do. At least in my opinion. :) Re the Jag licensing...we like to talk. We're always willing to discuss any reasonable proposals with anyone. Will anyone from Atari officially be at the Houston show & should the folks at Kodak's 800 number have known about the Falcon & Photo Show before I told them? Are you targeting the Cable TV industry? John L. ? Re the Houston Show, I'm thinking of using some of the frequent flyer mileage that I've accumulated and coming to the Houston Show. I love the city, and it's always been a very enjoyable visit for me. Re the Kodak 800 number....yes, they should know about it. They are not only registered Atari developers, they were asked about the Falcon MONTHS ago, during a RTC on another network, which shall remain nameless. :) Re Cable TV Industry, not necessarily with the Falcon, but with the Jaguar certainly. Could you give us an idea of what the Jaguar casing will look like? *slobber* :) Later on, like a month...maybe less, we'll be uploading some files that will show you all that stuff. Including screen shots from the games. <[Harvey] H.WOLFE1> Bob, I live in Toronto and I was planning on buying MultiTos from a local dealer. However, so far I still can't get MultiTos from Compuworld or Replay Entertainment. Should I just give up and order from TOAD by mail order or is it likely to arrive in Toronto soon? Secondly, if I ever manage to buy MultiTos or Speedo GDOS, is Atari going to be making minor upgrades available either free or for a nominal amount; or am I going to have to buy an entire new version each time there is an upgrade? This was annoying enough when I had to buy TOS 3.06 in order to use a 1.4 megabyte drive, even though in all other respects my TOS 3.01 was satisfactory. However, I do understand it being necessary when dealing with ROM's. But this would be completely unsatisfactory if it is also the way that minor upgrades to Speedo GDOS or MultiTos will be handled. Harvey, we sell to a number of sources, including distributors like Pacific Software Supply. There is nothing stopping your dealers in Toronto from ordering the product from them. We have it in stock, and have been shipping. We are doing NOTHING to prevent them from ordering it, so it's not like we are trying to boycott Toronto from MultiTOS or Speedo. I guess what I'm really trying to get across is that we have no control over their ordering habits/abilities/desires. There are plenty of people on line that have the products...I really am at a loss of what else to say about it. Re the upgrades, without knowing what the upgrades are...major or minor, it's impossible for me to give you a realistic assesment of what the cost might be. I'm not aware of any immediate plans for an upgrade to SpeedoGDOS at this point, <[Lee Johnson] L.JOHNSON13> Bob.. congrats on still being with Atari, and not leaving soon like other Atari execs. We in Champaign, IL appreciated your visit, too.. OK.. I can order a 1 meg no HD falcon right now, yes? Someone just told me that if I have a local dealer, I MUST go through them... but I don't know if/where my local dealer is.. can I use mail order, or how can I find out where my local dealer is? Also, what's the price of a 1 meg no HD falcon, and is it hard/easy to install a HD later? We have an abundant supply of one meg Atari Falcon030s in stock, so they are indeed readily available. The MSRP is $799 for the one meg units. The HD is readily handled by using the SCSI port and hooking up an external SCSI disk drive. Re the dealer.....you have an excellent VAR in the area, let me ask her to contact me, and we'll see what we can do to help you. (Pssssstt- Dorothy! Call me about this, ok? ;)) <[HOST] ST.LOU> Dale Ellis has the honor of asking the last question tonight, Bob. <[Dale] D.ELLIS16> Bob, Do you have a presentation date on the Jaguar? And a firm shipping date? In other words; When can I actually get one? Maybe a NLT date. Do you have the names of any dealers on the Space Coast of Florida? And any plans to market any hardware-software in the former Soviet states? Luv that Lynx!!!!! ;-) Dale, the plans for the Jaguar rollout are for it to be sold in NYC and San Francisco over the holiday season. The rest of the country will have them available in 1994, so if you're in the Space Coast of Florida...1994. We don't have a firm shipping date that we will release at this point in time publically, sorry. Re the Soviets, former Soviets...that is a task that we have delegated to our subsidaries overseas. Which I will gladly allow them to embrace without any interference on any kind from me. :) Seriously, our Germany office handles that area, and if it will make sense, and sales, then I am certain that they will pursue it vigorously. <[HOST] ST.LOU> Bob, just a short thank you and goodbye tonight. You must be exhausted. Let's chat about something special for the anniversary edition of Dateline Atari next month. OK? Goodnight and thanks again. GA Thanks, Lou. Has it been a year already???? Amazing! I really do enjoy these times where we can all come together on GEnie, and think that it's just wonderful that it was a FREE Conference tonight! Thanks to everyone for attending. We are looking forward to next month already! Goodnight!!! ================================================================= Ed. Note : The September 3rd session of Dateline Atari! will feature some nice prizes from Atari Corporation. Be sure and watch the ST RoundTable bulletins for further news. --==--==--==--==-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- --==--==-- Delphi Sign-Up Information --==--==-- -- -- -- -- To enroll as a Delphi subscriber, modem call 1-800-365-4636. Press -- -- [Return] once or twice, and type IP26 [Return] at Password: -- -- -- -- Answer all of the questions, and you'll be cleared for Delphi -- -- access in a few days. If you have questions about Delphi services, -- -- give a voice call to Delphi Member Services at 1-800-544-4005. -- -- -- -- --==--==-- Delphi Sign-Up Information --==--==-- -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --==--==--==--==-- ||| Atari Asylum ||| By: Gregg Anderson / | \ GEnie: AEO.7 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Greetings, oh deranged ones, and welcome to a somewhat abbreviated Atari Asylum. As I mentioned last week, I'm going to be out of town for a while so the Asylum may look a touch "puny" or even invisible until I get back in early September. Of course some of you may even prefer it that way, short . Don't panic though, we'll endeavour to provide you with at least a few titalating tid bits of aTari Trivia with enough salient solid facts to keep at least some of you awake. One of the true pleasures of being a regular on AEO (or any major publication for that matter) is being allowed to introduce new talent. It's not something you get to do very often but I have that distinct pleasure now. Last issue I mentioned that I'd not been able to run the tests I'd wanted to do on COMPO's new Falcon ScreenBlaster. Someone went and did the unthinkable... they bought it before I could get my hands on it! How shocking . All was not lost though, the individual that bought it proved to be an honorable fellow and has submitted, for your approval and edification, a short review of COMPO's brand new ScreenBlaster. I think you'll enjoy reading it as much as I did. So take it away Charmon Haines! //// Falcon Screenblaster - a first look //// by C.G. Haines (HAINES) This is how it happened. The day before the Blue Ridge Atarifest, I walked into Computer Studio, to see what the deals were going to look like during the show. Behold, there on the wall behind Sheldon it hung: Falcon Screenblaster. One copy. Sheldon saw me drooling at it, and explained that there was only one, as this was the first production run, hand assembled, and it had only just arrived, special shipping for the show. I always like being the first to have anything, so I put my money down, and got it, on sale for only $99.95. For those of you who are lost at this point, let me explain. If you have a Falcon030, and would like to have larger resolutions in your video modes, this is the product that you have been waiting for. This production run looks like a null modem plug. It plugs directly into your Falcon monitor port, and your monitor adaptor plugs into it. A small ribbon cable runs from the adaptor around to one of the analog joystick ports. That is it for the hardware. Plug in takes half a minute. The software consists of a small program that goes in your AUTO folder along with an info file. A CPX is copied to your CPX folder. Another small program and info file goes in a folder that is copied anywhere you want to run it from, like your utility folder. This is only for your convenience. Run the program in the folder and it will detect the type of monitor you have hooked up, if an Atari monitor or VGA. You can then select from a file list the type of VGA or Super-VGA attached, or else the Atari monitor. Select the joystick port you have it plugged into. Save the info file into the AUTO folder. Reboot. Now it's magic time. If you have a VGA monitor hooked up, when the AUTO program runs, you will get a list of physical resolutions to select from, starting at the standard 640 x 480, up to about 1152 x 832, depending on the monitor you selected earlier. You can select between interlaced or non-interlaced modes on VGA monitors - or you can press UNDO, and disable the Screenblaster software. If you select one of the modes, then bootup proceeds as normal. When the desktop comes up, you will be very surprised at the increase. If you have a generic Super VGA monitor, you can get up to about a 275% increase. That is the equivalent of having three normal desktops side by side, and taller to boot. What is the CPX for you ask? If you notice that the screen is wrapped around on the edges, the CPX will allow you to adjust this, and save the results so that a correction is made when this mode is loaded. You are not locked into a screen mode, you can change modes just like before, with Set Video under Options. When you select a change here, you will see the screen pop, and a menu will come up with resolutions that will run under the options you changed to. It will not allow you to exceed the hardware, like running True-Color 80 column on a cheap VGA monitor. But it will expand your desktop very much. If you have a VGA or Super VGA monitor, then the Screenblaster is a very good bargain. It seems to work with anything that works with GEM on the Falcon in the regular video modes. The only things I have found that do not work are things that go directly to the hardware; like the Falcon slideshow, and any other things that do not use GEM. If it runs in a window, it seems to run here. Other features include selection of a virtual screen mode, instead of a physical size. You can have a 2000 x 2000 16 color screen, with a 640 x 480 window into it. Scrolling is very fast and smooth over this screen, and the same capability seems to apply. Using an interlace mode with a high hertz rate minimizes flicker. There are a lot of selectable resolutions. Now for the down side. If you have a SM124, you can only get the 640 x 480 screen, at least with this version of the software. That gives you an extra 80 pixels tall, but nothing more wide. The menu does not come up when loading to set the screen size. On the SC 1224, there is no improvement at all, at least on this version. You do not get any menu on loading, or when you change resolutions. I was disappointed in this. Perhaps when the software is worked on some more, it will be possible to change this. The description on the back of the package states that a resolution of 800 x 496 is possible on a SM144, but I did not have one to try it on. Monitors I did try it on, EMC VGA, KFC Super VGA, SM124, SC1224, Packard Bell VGA. All of the VGA monitors worked with the base resolutions, and most worked with the higher ones. No change on the Atari monitors other than the extra 80 pixels on the SM124. In summary, if you have a VGA monitor, and want a much larger desktop that is very compatible, then this is much cheaper than trying to use a graphics card. The virtual screen is very fast and smooth. If you only have Atari monitors, you might want to wait on an upgraded or newer version. Remember that this is the first version, and there should be upgrades down the line. I am happy to have almost 3 times as much screen to work on now. //// Editor's Note: As of the time this review was written, the //// software available did not permit the choices of extended //// resolutions when used with a SC 1224 monitor. Compo has //// began releasing updates to the software to correct this (an //// update has been EMailed to Charmon), and we will have a //// revised review of the Screenblaster in the next AEO. Thank you Charmon, an excellent review and much appreciated. I would like to extend the same offer to all readers of AEO. If you've written a review on an Atari system, great game, utility, application, hardware item, or unique hack and would like to share it with others then please EMail it in. We'll look it over and get back to you if we can use it. Who knows, you might end up taking my place as chief inmate in the Atari Asylum. Be warned though, I know where at least some of the skeletons are buried and have been known to fight dirty when cornered . ~*~ By the way, and this is for everyone out there with the new Falcon or any other Atari computer system with an expanded video display system. When you write anything for upload as an ASCII text file please remember that the Falcon and TT030 can give you a slightly wider screen then most ST systems can manage. This can result in your ASCII upload being wider than a standard screen can display. Please, try and keep your text to 65 or 70 spaces, anything beyond that may get lost when your reader tries to read it. Thanks.... =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Blue Ridge AtariFest Report =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As some of you already know, I have a part time job helping Sheldon at Asheville's Computer STudio. What this means is that last week I had more than the normal amount of fun.... I got to help out with this year's AtariFest! Fun? Well, yes as a matter of fact. With the cavet that it was also exhausting, frustrating, educational, informative, entertaining, and exhausting... or did I mention exhausting already? I've had the pleasure of attending AtariFests in Denver, Glendale, Washington, and now Asheville. WhileI did a little helping at other shows, Asheville's Fest was the first time I was on the inside from the very beginning. What goes into an AtariFest? a LOT of planning, meetings, phone calls, GEnie/US Mail messages, and not a lot of sleep. Sheldon Winick and Cliff Allen were the primary contacts for the show and did far and away the lion's share of setting every thing up. Though the plans for the Fest were started shortly after the '92 show everything really came to a head the night before the show. At Six PM everyone from the Computer STudio and much of BRACE gathered and spent the next six hours setting up tables, chairs, running wires, hanging signs, and generally praying that no one had forgotten anything. By Eight AM the next day everyone was already in the mall and hard at work, connecting their computers, setting up their displays, and generally bracing themselves for a flood of happy Atari fanatics. Cliff, Sheldon, and I spend most of the morning trying to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything and trying to help everyone else get set up. Amazingly enough, even with all the last minute glitches and problems, everyone was ready and waiting when the gates opened at 10:00. When they opened, the flood began. The crowd was FANTASTIC!!!! The first day there were at LEAST 1,000 visitors to the show and a good two to four hundred wandering through on Sunday. Now, I've got to be honest and admit that not ALL of these were confirmed Atari folks. Many of them were at the mall for the Bele Chere festival and were no doubt surprised to stumble onto a Computer Show. But that was all for the good as it exposed a LOT of folks to the Atari computer line that would have never dreamed of going to an Atari show otherwise. How many of the visitors were solid Atari people? We may never know for sure since sales of Atari software/hardware and attendance at the various display booths were FAR in excess of the confirmed "pre-sold" registrations could have supported. How were sales? I can't give any specific numbers, that's up to the individual venders. I will say that Computer STudio's Sheldon Winick didn't seem unhappy with the shop's numbers by the show's end. Though I didn't get to do any real sight seeing or do any "hands on" during the show, I was able to make some VERY fast circles during my two, twenty five-second breaks and will list a few observations Though not present for the show in person, Electronic Spinster Graphics and Oregon Reasearch sent in a number of their products for the show and at a special price to boot. The raster and vector graphics packages (clip art) from Electronic Spinster were FANTASTIC! Even with my scanner I could never match what they've managed to put together in any of their many packages. ORA sent in a dozen of their newest product, DataLite. This data-compression utility almost doubles your available disk space and is rumored to be just about idiot proof. Also available at special show prices were Diamond Back and Diamond Edge. A special surprise was the arrival of the newest revision of EdHack at special show prices. This new version is even better than the original and there were a lot of folks that took advantage of the special upgrade offer for EdHack. Gribnif was present and demoing their new CrazyDots II board, a one- piece plug-in VME board with impressive speed, colors, and resolution. Rick quickly sold out of STalker and took orders for almost 50 copies of Geneva (a new multi-tasking OS that will compete against MultiTOS) before packing it in and leaving to catch his airplane Saturday night. There were two separate MIDI rooms this year, one for Barefoot Software's Rick Ladage and one for Applied Audio Marketing (Atari's local Reps). Traffic in and out of both rooms was heavy throughout the show. The Codeheads were well represented by John Eidsvoog and his wife who decided to combine a short (& well-deserved) vacation with the trip. Both demoed a host of utilities, Calligrapher, and AvantVektor. John also hosted a unique "What World" seminar and was even seen showing off the new (and unreleased) VGA-Grade screen saver for Falcon Warp 9. Mario Georgiou of DMC Publishing was demoing the newest Calamus SL (a HUGE upgrade from the already impressive 1.09n) on a TT030 and a new Windows/NT machine (sigh, even the best gotta go where the money is). The TT was equipped with DMC's new CyRel Sunrise video card and was producing incredible graphics at an excellent pace. I strongly suspect that the Sunrise may be the most powerful graphics card available for the Atari line.... Sadly it's also far and away the most expensive. John Cole of Lexicor fame was at the show as well and ran a constant demo of Lexicor's fantastic graphics & rendering software on their Super Nova graphics card. An awesome combination. (From what little I could see, I was only let out of the shop for a few minutes at a time.) Missionware's John Trautschold was present selling massive numbers of his new Flash II (even I bought one ) and other software packages. Also being demoed was a new (and soon to be released) interactive Tank/Maze/Puzzle game. Very impressive. GEnieLamp's John Gniewkowski and his wife were present as well and ran an almost constant GEnie demo for the heavy crowds. Fortunately for John, his wife is also well skilled at GEnie and handling questions or John wouldn't have seen any of the show. Not to be outdone, Joe Mirando of STReport and his wife were present as well. He showed up early and pitched in to help us with some of the final setting up; thanks Joe. I got to sit in with Joe and John for a brief seminar on the Electronic Media and the three primary Atari BBS magazines; Atari Explorer Online, GEnieLamp, and STReport. A surprise vendor "Paper Plates", an overlay template for Calamus. Paper Plates was represented by Jimmy P. Carter ("J.P.C." on GEnie) who drove down from Washington DC for the show. We were really surprised that he was able to find a nice hotel room so quickly when the Bele Chere festival had taken every room within 100 miles. But then again, if you were a desk clerk and a mature gentleman with a slightly Southern accent calls and tells you he's "Jimmy Carter" and "I'm calling from Washington DC for a room reservation," what would you do? Needless to say he got a room, fast. JV Enterprises was also present selling their own brand of ST compatible software. In fact they, like Gribnif, sold out before the end of Saturday. MajicSoft was also crowded and seemed to be constantly handing out software boxes (and graciously accepting cash in return ). In fact, I don't think I saw ANY of the booths suffering from boredom during the show. Even Sunday, which was much slower than Saturday (as usual) saw enough traffic to keep everyone well awake. ~*~ C.ALLEN17 [Cliff Allen] Posted a list of the various representatives and developers that came to the BlueRidge AtariFest along with the show's door prize winners. Thanks Cliff, I know how much work this took. I would like to take this time to thank: Mario Georgiou.......DMC Publishing Rick Flashman........Gribnif Jimmy P. Carter......Paper Direct John Gniewkowski.....GEnie/GEnieLamp John Eidsvoog........CodeHead Joe Mirando..........STReport John Cole............Lexicor John Trautschold.....MissionWare Robert Dytmire.......Majicsoft Kevin Scott..........JV Enterprises Rick Ladage..........BareFoot Software Bob Edsall...........Atari/Applied Audio for participating in the 4th Annual Blue Ridge AtariFest. From all of at BRACE and the Computer Studio. Winners of the Door Prizes: Dale Coggeshell Paper Plates from Carter's Creative Computer Ron Moore XENOMORF Object Rendere from Lexicor Sandra Keil GFA Basic & GFA Draft Plus from Micro Computer Depo Don Chaney Cardfile 4 from Gribnif Software Eric Riddle The Cryyptographer from Fair Dinkum Technologies Karl Counts Hot Wire from CodeHead Software Bryan Edewaard Buttonzbasic from Majicsoft Alberta DiCillo EdHack from Clear Thinking Frank Cucei PAC 520 from JV Enterpris Doug Phelps Subscription to Processor Direct from Two Worlds Publishing John Briggs Outline Art from DMC Bobby Dart Flash II from MissionWare Paul Plants Subscription to Processor Direct from Two Worlds Publishing Robert Glover $25 Gift Certificate from Electronic Spinster Michael Godfrey EditTrack Platinum from Barefoot Software Congratulations to the winners and thanks to the vendors for the door prize contributions. If I have misspelled anyone's name or company, I want to apologize. My computer has watched to many reruns of 2001 and 2010 and has a tendency to go off on tangents. Cliff (Ashevillite) Computer Studio =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Atari Compatible Monitors =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Over the past few years we've seen the number of ST-compatible multisyncs from the major players shrink down to almost nothing. Three years ago there were almost a dozen different and well known models that could display (with various levels of quality) all three of the ST's video resolutions. Sad to say, almost all of them have abandoned the old CGA/EGA frequencies and moved upscale to the newer VGA frequencies. All is not lost though as there are still a few units available that should work with the older ST line (and the Falcon). Why bother? For convenience (easier than swapping cables and the monitor is always right where you need it), weight (almost any multisync is lighter than two Atari monitors), and future expandability to a TT, Falcon, or whatever. The availablity of a single "one size fits all" monitor has been a sore point for me for a long time. I've always hated having to have two monitors on the desk to use all of my computer's software. I have to admit I can see why Atari chose a dual monitor concept when the ST was being designed. Back then EGA was the best display the DOS market could offer and even with two monitors, the ST was able to pretty well match or exceed it in colors, resolution, and for less cash. The TT came along later and used a modified VGA display for its color modes, a move welcomed by almost all Atari owners. Just the VGA display wasn't enough though as a serious high res mode was felt vital for the TT's success. Rather than stay within the VGA standard Atari chose to use a unique ECL-based monochrome display. Why? I suspect it was because 1) most Atari owners were used to and prefered a monochrome high-res display, 2) both Atari and 3rd party software & hardware supporters had experience with the 1280-960 res Moniterm display and finally, 3) though far from cheap, the ECL monitor and display system were less expensive than an equivalent high-res VGA system AT THE TIME OF DESIGN! That's the key, I think, as to why Atari chose the dual monitor design for the (then) new TT. To save everyone involvded money. There is also the thought that most serious productivity types would settle on a single monitor from the beginning and stay with it, not caring to switch from one to the other. This philosophy appears to be changing though. With the release of the new Falcon, it seems that Atari has re-committed itself to a more "industry standard" approach in its video and hard drive systems. Hopefully we'll soon see new Falcon-based computers offering the more detailed (and demanding) 1024 x 768, 1280 x 960, 1280 x 1024, and higher resolutions without leaving the VGA standard. Why am I so optimistic? Because of the built-in (though largely undocumented) flexibility of the Falcon's video hardware. This becomes obvious with the ease and success utilities such as FalconScreen and COMPO's ScreenBlaster have increasing the Falcon's base resolutions. //// Monitor Frequencies Vertical Refresh Horizontal Sweep ST LOW & MED: 60 Hz 15.7 Khz ST High: 70 Hz 35.1 Khz Falcon: 60 Hz 35.1 Khz TT High: 71.6 Hz 71.9 Khz (note:ECL not VGA) TT Color: 60 Hz 31.5 Khz Anyway, according to their printed specifications, the following monitors "should" work with the base ST's three resolutions. Keep in mind that you'll need an adapter to switch between the resolutions. I believe Toad Computers still has such an adapter available. This list is based on the claimed specifications in ads, reviews, and a guide section in a back issue of Computer Shopper. Be warned that I've not tested any of these units and can not promise full compatibility. To avoid confusion I did NOT list the monitors costing over $2,000 or units with specific applications that happen to match the needed specifications but would otherwise not be desirable. Brand Name Model Size Horz Vert Dot MAX MSRP Manufacturer " Khz Hz Pitch Res. $ Amazing Tech MS-8431 14 15-36 ?? .31 10/7(I) 399 Adara Tech AML-1402 14 15-36 49-90 .28 10/7(I) 650 AOC Internat. CM-326 14 15-38 50-90 .28 10/7(I) 649 Conrac 9213 13 15-38 50-80 .28 8/6 695 Falcon Data FMS 14 15-38 47-90 .28 10/7(I) 750 Electrohome ECM-1410/11 14 15-40 45-90 .28 10/7(I) 1195 Idek MF-5015A 15 15.5-38.5 50-90 .31 8/6 695 Idek MF-5017 17 15-40 50-90 .31 10/7(N) 1195 Idek MF-5021A 21 15.5-38.5 50-90 .31 10/7(N) 1995 Intra Elect. CM-1403 14 15-38 40-100 .28 10/7(I) ??? Leading Edge* CMON M 14 15.8-39 50-90 .28 10/7(I) 599 Sampo* AlphaScan 14 15.8-36 50-87 .28 10/7(I) 649 Scepter Tech CE-8 14 15-38 50-90 .28 10/7(I) 995 Scepter Tech CM-3 14 15.5-36 50-70 .31 8/7 795 Sony* GVM-1310 13 15.8-36 50-100 .25 10/7(I) 1295 Sony* GVM-2020 20 15.8-36 50-100 .55 10/7(I) 1595 Taxan MultiVision 770+ 14 15-37 50-90 .31 8/6 895 TVM MediaScan3+ 14 15-38 46-100 .28 10/7(I) Ultimate Disp. Ultra 1200 12 15-38 45-100 .28 8/6 450 Ultimate Disp. Ultra 1400 14 15-38 45-100 .28 10/7(I) 899 Ultimate Disp. Ultra 1600 16 15-38 45-100 .31 10/7(I) 775 Note: 10/7: 1024 x 768(N or I) 8/6: 800 x 600 6/4: 640 x 480 (N): Non-Interlaced Display (no way to verify this here) (I): Interlaced Display * : 15.8 Khz horizontal freq may or may NOT work with the ST. Other Atari System Monitors IMHO the "king" of ST compatible multisyncs has to be the original NEC-3D, which combined an excellent monochrome display with a "memory" that reduced the need to adjust the display when changing resolutions. Sadly, this outstanding unit is out of production and only a handful are still available in a few mail order shops. Its replacement, along with most new multisyncs, has dropped support for the once popular 15.7 Khz horizontal sweep. By the way, while the TT030 uses a VGA signal similar to the Falcon's for its color display, it's not quite a "standard" VGA signal. It seems that the TT030 has a slightly wider than normal horizontal pulse width that causes a distorted aspect ratio on most VGA monitors. A handful of monitors can be adjusted with the external size controls to regain a more normal display. Sadly, most lack the flexibility to do this. The Magnavox CM9089 requires an internal adjustment to match the pulse width but then works fine. Rumor has it that one of the "Amazing" brand of VGA monitors will also work, but I've not confirmed this yet. Many of the more expensive multisyncs can be adjusted to a correct aspect ratio as well, though each seems to differ in what is needed to reach a correct ratio. Color VGA suggestions for the TT030? Ask your dealer, or buy a video adapter (CrazyDots II, Super Nova, CyRel Sunrise, etc) since these not only offer a much wider selection of screen resolutions and colors but an industry standard VGA output as well . Falcon monitors? Well, now it gets interesting since we've no idea yet of what Atari intends for the next generation of the Falcon (something I've taken to calling the "FalconNG"). Currently almost ANY standard VGA monitor will handle the Falcon's video right out of the box with no problem. There will be wide variations in display quality between the really inexpensive low end VGA monitors and the better (if slightly more expensive) units. I've found the 14" Magnavox CM9089 VGA monitor offers a sharp and bright display on the demo Falcon at Computer STudio, in fact it's a better display than the TT's. But..... if you want to take advantage of future Falcon video releases, COMPO's ScreenBlaster, or any other resolution enhancement, then you may need something more than a base "cut-rate" VGA monitor. As a rule, I suggest you consider a non-interlaced 1024 x 768 display for any unit you purchase for your Falcon if you're also looking to future expandability. Go for as flexible a unit as you can find, a multisync with a 30-60 Khz (or better) horizontal sweep (the higher the resolution the faster the horizontal sweep required), 50-90 Hz (or better) vertical, a dot-pitch of .28 or smaller, and a bandwidth from 68 to 100 Mhz or better. As for size.... well, contrary to popular myth "bigger IS better." The day of the 12-13" monitor is long over and 14" is now considered the LOWER END of any video display. In fact, 14" is pretty well maxxed out with the Falcon's 640 x 480 display in terms of clarity and readability. 800 x 600 is usable on a 14" monitor but only if it's a VERY good monitor and you have better than 20-20 vision. If you can afford it then a 15" monitor is the best size for a readable 800 x 600 resolution or a rather cramped 1024 x 768. Plan on using 1024 x 768 (or higher) for serious DTP or CAD work? Then you'd best plan on spending some serious dollars on a 17" or larger monitor because you're going to need it. At any resolution resembling the TT's old 1280 x 960 resolution, anything smaller than a full-screen 17" monitor is an exercise in severe eye strain. Needless to say, a display like this is a true joy to work with. (for the handful that can afford it that is. ) If cost is no object, then I strongly suggest you look into one of the new 17" MAG, ViewSonic, or NEC monitors. These units offer a VERY wide range of vertical and horizontal frequencies, a wide to huge (in the Mag's case) bandwidth, a reputation for outstanding displays, and a price tag guaranteed to shock even a congressman. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// More Falcon Compatibility Reports =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Taken fron the GEnie Atari ST RoundTable Category 14, Topic 46 Message 109 Sun Jul 25, 1993 FAIRWEATHER [David] at 13:22 EDT Kozmic, ST Format Mag's psychedelic pattern generator, gets past the opening screen to the menu (In ST Lo Compatibility mode) but at that point the mouse pointer locks up and the program becomes useless. Kosmic is written in STOS. Anyone know if any STOS programs work on the Falcon? ------------ Message 116 Mon Jul 26, 1993 FAIRWEATHER [David] at 09:50 EDT Deskmanager works. But I prefer Mouseboot which also works. Starsaver messes things up pretty bad in 256 color mode but seems to work ok in ST compatibility modes. ------------ Message 118 Mon Jul 26, 1993 R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 21:33 EDT MCH, Atari's Mouse Accelerator program (MACCEL.PRG) has a screen saver built into it. ------------ Message 120 Tue Jul 27, 1993 C.FLUEGEL [Curt] at 01:06 EDT Mark : NVDI works on a Falcon, and Falcon Warp9 BETTER BE OUT SOON! (hint hint)........... Curt ------------ Message 123 Thu Jul 29, 1993 R.BUSH [Richard Bush] at 02:15 EDT Mr. Stefani, Superboot is somewhat compatible with the Falcon. It does get confused and think it's running on a monochrome monitor if you are using a vga monitor, but you can still make it work. For digital clocks try Zeitgeist-- it's available in the library. >Atari's Mouse Accelerator program (MACCEL.PRG) has a screen saver >built into it. But it only works in the compatability modes.... I can't find ANY screen saver that will work with my vga monitor unless it's in one of the compatibility modes ------------ Message 126 Thu Jul 29, 1993 AEO.7 [Gregg] at 20:47 EDT DB Writer seems to work well enough on the Falcon, but avoid the color resolutions.... two color or ST High emulation only. Gregg ------------ Message 128 Sat Jul 31, 1993 R.BUSH [Richard Bush] at 03:03 EDT >I think Silkmouse works in 4-color VGA mode, and may work in 16-color Yes it will work in 4-color, won't in 16 or 256 and you can't configure it or it will crash the system. Configure on another system then move it over-- a pain I know. ------------ Message 130 Sat Jul 31, 1993 FAIRWEATHER [David] at 23:06 EDT I was looking for a good Fractal program that would take advantage of the Falcon's high resolution and extra colors. I've found it in MAND_ALL.ZIP which is available here on GEnie. It works in 256 colors (I haven't tried True Color yet but I'd be surprised if that was supported.). It also works in the non-standard extra high resolutions of FalconScreen creating great full-screen unwindowed hi-rez color graphics--probably the best fractals I've seen on an Atari. Check it out! ------------ =-=-=-=-=-= //// WrapUp =-=-=-=-=-= Hmm, looks like the Asylum didn't shrink as much as I thought it might. Don't worry though, the next issue will be shorter (please, no applause). With luck I'll soon be on my way for an extended (and well deserved ) trip to Arkansas, Indiana, Michigan, and maybe Canada. With luck I may even find an Atari dealer or two along the way. I've learned something after writing for the Atari line for so long. It's not always safe to identify yourself as the author of this or that article or series to folks when you travel, you never know if they're going to throw roses or rocks .... So until they loosen the loops on this jacket and I can reach the keyboard again; keep hanging in there and I'll see you next week during visiting hours at... the Atari Asylum. --==--==--==--==-- ||| Multi-Tos, now that you got it, what to do with it? ||| By: Tim Wilson / | \ Internet: WILSONT@RAHUL.NET GEnie: AEO.8 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Does having Multi-TOS boggle your mind, now that you can do everything at once? Read this starter guide to efficient multi-tasking. Some terminology just for a quick start: [] The Console - Keyboard and mouse input, the main CPU, or Host. [] Process - A general program thats currently running. It may be a .ACC, .PRG, .TOS, .TTP or .GTP. (i.e., any executable bit of code.) [] Child - A process launched by another process. NewDesk is the parent of all programs you double click on. "gcc-ld.ttp" (linker) is a child of "gcc.ttp" (the main control program for GCC). Children inherit certain characteristics of their parents, such as input and output devices. [] Background - A state of being for a process; a process that is running in the background may get just as much CPU time as a foreground process, but it may be hidden (iconified window), or it may not have a window (ike some ACC's). It does not receive console I/O. (A program such as STlogin, attaches itself to a serial port, it gives a shell interface to callers, so it gets its I/O from another source.) [] Foreground - A state of being for a process; a process that is running in the foreground gets the console, its windows (if any), are "topped." [] Iconified - A window of an application that has been turned into an icon, representing that the application still is resident, perhaps working. [] Topped - A window that has all of its gadgets visible, and doesn't have any overlapping windows - the title bar will have a unique fill pattern, or be of a different color. [] Shell - A command line interface, where commands are typed. Nice to have around at times in a multi-tasking environment. [] Suspended - A state of being for a process; a process that is suspended takes up 0% CPU time, it is frozen, on hold. It must be foregrounded or backgrounded to continue running. (CTRL-ALT-Z, for some programs, or CTRL-Z for a shell child. [] Niceness - A program that re-prioritizes a process, called "nice" has been on UNIX machines for a long time. nice will execute a program at a specific niceness. Processes with a low "niceness" will get more attention by the OS. Values usually range from -20 to 20. A similar command "renice" will adjust a currently running process to a new niceness. A GEM version of these is floating around somewhere. "renice" is availible for use with a shell or you may use it as a TTP. A Multi-tasking OS requires more forethought than simply running your 5 most used apps every time you boot. Since your memory and CPU time are "commodities," you must use a bit of simple planning. By using some of the MTOS utilities, like TOP, or PS, one can find out just how much a program uses each of these commodities. TOP shows the processes on your system, CPU time, and memory. It is updated constantly, so you can view what's going on as processes stop and start. Much like the "U:\PROC" directory. PS gives a listing of processes, and their CPU times, and memory usage but it only prints its results once, then ends. Another way to judge how much a program will consume, is to look at what the program does and generalize. [] A text editor, like Emacs, or Edhak, one that uses sytem font, and waits patiently for input, will consume the least amount of CPU time. Its a good idea to "renice" such a process, just to be sure MTOS doesn't give it any any more time than it might need. I've seen text editors jump up to 10-15% of processor time, only to go back to "sleep." These type of programs can have low priority for most uses, for large search and replace however, you might want to restore normal priority. [] Word processors, such as Works, and other WYSIWYG word processors consume a bit more time, because they have to work a bit more. The "work" they do is the multiple fonts, layout, columns and the like that need to be updated. But, the program for most of its runtime, is waiting for you to type. Leave these at normal priority, its not a good idea to renice these kinds of applications, unless you want to put it on hold for an extended period of time. [] Graphics - by this I mean interactive graphics, such as drawing or DTP. It's a good idea to increase priority for these applications. Unless you really have to run something in the background (we'll decide if you need to later on) run these without MTOS. For the most part, applications such as these weren't written for MTOS in mind. A few newer drawing progams are designed to work with MTOS, and these will exhibit better performance under MTOS than their older counterparts. [] Calculative, GEM-View, Ray tracers, and Zmodem programs all fit into this category. This type of program truely deserves to be run in the background. Any window that they might have is usually a status report, iconify this window, or move it to the bottom off screen. Then start up a program in the interim to keep you busy while the computer calculates. You might want to play around a bit with the priority of each. My usual scenario is to edit some source code while compiling. If you use GCC, you should look for the MiNTlib versions. They are slightly smaller, and run better under MTOS. (atari.archive.umich.edu has a whole section in the /atari/Mint directory.) Ok, so obviously, these different classes don't work all work together flawlessly. Running 3 calculation programs are gonna split the CPU time at about 30% a piece. They'll probably all take a bit longer than if you would run them separately one after each other. So that's not a good thing to do. You can however, make them low priority and do something else that doesn't take much CPU time, say, call a BBS, or use Works. By doing things like this, you _gain_ time, since now doing all 4 of these, separately, would take more time. An example: (approximated times for a 4Meg STe) GIF2SPC: 4 minutes RZ(2400 baud): 7 minutes 100kfile ZIPjr, unzip big .MSA: 5 minutes Type a report: 30 minutes total time: 46 minutes MultiTOS times---- GIF2SPC (low priority) 7 minutes RZ 7 minutes ZIPjr (low priority) 8 minutes Type a report: 30 minutes OK, here's where it gets neato: Background processes: 22 minutes. Foreground process: 30 minutes Larger of Fg or Bg: 30 minutes Total time: 30 minutes Because the background processes are running the whole time the typing is being done, the same work is done in less time than without MTOS. This is an extreme example of course, at least for me. All sorts of programs could also be running, MOD players, STlogin, network managers, shells, things that could sit and wait for things to happen. This is the case on Unix machines, where 100 processes at a time are running. Here's some "things to do" to get you started: Background Foreground ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 8Mhz STe- Connect 2.0 Play othello or other window game. (waiting for RZ to finish) RZ (downloading, 2400baud) Falcon030- Music (.MOD, .OCT) TruePaint (drawing an insect) non-DSP mandelbrot Desk "Show" text file on specimen TT030- MOD player Calamus SL Run BBS, or STlogin PhotoCD viewer (importing pictures) Compiling a C program Or course, the better the CPU, the more stuff you can run. A MegaSTe for example, could run both serial ports at the same time, and at least one of them at 14.4K baud, the TT030 could probably run all 3 standard ports at full blast. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Speeding it up =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= A screen accelerator is a must when using MultiTOS; you won't feel the slowdown as much. For those interested, you might want to pick up a Minix File system. Since MultiTOS allows for different filesytems to be resident on your hard drive, some people have a small TOS partition for picky programs, and a Minix FS for the rest. Minix is faster than the MS-DOS format that Atari uses, you can have longer filenames as well. The downside is that it's still at a low version number, and there might be hidden problems lurking. On the Falcon030, use a lower resolution (or smaller color palette) when working with MTOS. Iconify windows (if the program supports it) when not in use, or suspend processes. Use the CTRL-ALT-TAB combo to move between programs instead of the Desk pulldown; also get to know NewDesk's keyboard commands, assign often used commands to easily accessible keys. (e.g., close top window = spacebar) CLR/HOME from the desktop redraws the screen. Have a desktop icon for U:\PROC, so you can easily kill processes that have gone amuck. If you have trouble with the standard desktop window colors, (if it's hard to tell what's topped), use WINCOLOR.CPX to make bottom windows have low contrast with the desktop's main field; the topped window will show up better. Don't top a window if you want to close, resize, or drag, MTOS doesn't require you to do so. Topping a window could take a second or more. If you are working with "solid" programs, try turning off the memory protecttion (Use the MultiTOS.CPX). This speed up is only for 030 users, as the 68000's in other Atari's don't have memory protection. MultiTOS is a great thing to happen to the Atari world, and that's my personal un-bribed opinion. I hope this helps you use it better. --==--==--==--==-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- --==--==-- GEnie Sign-Up Information --==--==-- -- -- -- -- 1. Set your communications software for half duplex (local echo) -- -- at 300, 1200, or 2400 baud. -- -- -- -- 2. Dial toll free: 1-800-638-8369 (or in Canada, 1-800-387-8330). -- -- Upon connection, enter HHH. -- -- -- -- 3. At the U# prompt, enter XTX99436,GENIE then press . -- -- -- -- 4. Have a major credit card ready. In the U.S., you may also use -- -- your checking account number. -- -- -- -- For more information in the United States or Canada, call 1-800- -- -- 638-9636 or write: GEnie, c/o GE Information Services, P.O. Box -- -- 6403, Rockville, MD 20850-1785. -- -- -- -- --==--==-- Atari's Official On-line Resource! --==--==-- -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --==--==--==--==-- ||| The Unabashed Atariophile ||| By: Michael R. Burkley / | \ GEnie: AEO.4 Delphi: MRBURKLEY ------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you remember a few weeks ago I talked about how some people have a problem with "things?" They seem to think that if only they had another gadget or gizmo that they would be happy. I'm reminded of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (if I remember correctly) who, when asked how much money is enough money replied, "Just a little bit more." Fortunately, having more than enough things to satisfy our basic needs doesn't necessarily make us happy. I think that it takes a bit more than the things of this world to make a person content with the life he or she lives and gives. After saying (and meaning) that, it's with some hesitancy that I tell you that I just had a Turbo 25 board from Fast Technology installed in my 4 meg STE. I bought it because I knew that I would save a lot of time because of all the compressing and uncompressing of files that I do. But little did I realize just how much time I would save. By just a rough estimate compressing and uncompressing files goes nearly three times faster than before. Not only that, but windows open faster, my programs and accessories (all compressed with DC Squish) load much faster, my scrolling through Steno (from Gribnif Software) is so much faster that I'm just learning not to overshoot the text I want, and Calamus, already super fast, just blazes through screen re-draws and printing on my SLM 605. I would liken it to the difference between a Warp 9 equipped ST and one lacking that amazing bit of software. Once you run it for awhile you don't want to ever go back! I just wonder what it would be like to use the Gadgets by Small SST 68030 board or one of the Fast Technology's 68030 boards! But, wondering is all that I'm going to do! Have you ever thought of buying an accelerator board? Now would be the time to do it. Fast Technology has their family of accelerator boards, ICD is having a blow-out sale on their 16 MHz accelerators for the ST/STE, and Gadgets by Small has their 030 SST. But all of the above doesn't have too much to do with the best in PD and SHAREWARE software (other than the fact that you can uncompress those files a lot faster when you have an accelerator!). So now it's time to move on to some of the files I have found in recent weeks. [] ASTROTIM is the Astro Time Calculator v.3.03beta by Gerry Kichok. This HyperLINK .HAP file will allow you to calculate moon phases (at whatever latitude you are at), Julian dates from the Gregorian dates (normal dating), Universal Time, and more. It is accurate to the extent of HyperLINK (5 decimal places). Color or mono (best in mono). Docs included. Use HyperLINK or the HyperLINK run-time module to use. Gerry has written a number of HAP files, COINBOOK, REPAIR, SHAREWARE v.1.3, SOFTWARE, v.1.10 are just the ones I know. She certainly keeps busy with her programming! [] AUTOCLIP is a series of four GIF B & W scanned pictures of: a Honda Civic Del Sol Si; a Lexus GS300; a Subaru Imprezza, and an Infiniti J30. You can import them into PageStream or Calamus SL. Since this file was uploaded, the author has uploaded scads more. [] AXELF is the AXEL FOLEY song from the TV series "Beverly Hills Cop." Have you ever tried to describe a music file? It's tough! So this time I won't try. This is a familiar tune, and I like it. You can play it with the most recent Paula MOD player or with JukeBox v.1.4. There are lots of other MOD files uploaded recently, both on Delphi and GEnie. I recommend them to you. If you only have an ST (i.e., one without the DMA chip) you will need Paula to play this .MOD file. [] BABYSIT1 is a PageStream 2.2 .DOC file by M. Mastaler that provides you with a checklist to leave with a babysitter. You can either fill in the blanks in PageStream or print out the document and fill them in by hand. I like how this has been set up. Along with all the standard information (where you're going, emergency numbers, etc.), the author has also included spaces for "What to do if you try this and it doesn't work." Now THAT's something helpful for a babysitter to have in an emergency! [] BODY is the Electric Body Shop by Albert Baggetta. This program has been designed for Guitar Players who want to have some fun. You are presented with three differently designed guitar bodies. You then choose which guitar heads to attach to the body, and finally, you color your choices. This program is a fun way of getting a guitar of your choice. Color only. Docs included. [] BSTAT246 is B/STAT v.2.46 by Robert Wilson. It is a sophisticated statistical analysis and business graphics spreadsheet program. A powerful graphing program is also included. Data can be entered from its own spreadsheet or others. It will load DIF, ASCII, PRN, WKS (Lotus 123) and SYLK files. It requires a minimum of 1 Meg of RAM (more is better) and a double-sided drive or hard drive. B/STAT will use GDOS if available (only on a larger-than-one-meg machine) but it is not required. This program is complicated, but powerful. Docs and online help included. 799K uncompressed. Color or Mono. ST through TT compatible. SHAREWARE. [] C172 is a nicely done .IMG drawing of a Cessna 172 single-prop monoplane in flight. The view is from the above right and front. [] COMIK is a demo (save disabled) of The Comic Book Collector v.2.0 by Albert Baggetta. According to the author this is the ultimate comic database when it comes to simplicity and thoroughness. Collecting, sorting, cataloging, listing, reading, scanning, updating your collection is only a key or mouse press away. This is an easy to use and capable program. Color or mono. [] CWAC_301 is the Cool Wave Archive Converter v.3.01 ("Quack") from Lee Offenberger of Cool Wave Software. This program will allow you to easily convert archived files from one format to another. All you need to do is to tell the program what files to convert, to what you want them converted, and where to put them. That's it - and it uses a pleasing interface, too! The most recent versions of ARC.TTP, LHARC.TTP, STZIP.PRG, UNARJ.TTP, and ZOO.TTP are required (you can find them in a companion file named PACKERS.TOS). You can also have CWAC convert any file extension into an archive. For example convert all your *.TXT files to *.LZH files. This version is fully functioning except that it doesn't allow for command line control (which could be used by SysOps for file maintenance). Make sure to use this version because under rare circumstances previous versions could do some mean things! This time the author has zapped those bugs! Docs included. Color or mono. SHAREWARE. I enjoy Science Fiction (as I think I've told you before). Some of my favorite authors are Zenna Henderson, Poul Anderson, Madeline L'Engle, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov (among many others). That's one of the reasons I like to visit the Delphi Science Fiction Database. I know GEnie has a similar section (probably bigger, too); I just haven't found it yet. There are all sorts of files there. I've downloaded the first half of a recent Orson Scott Card book (Xenocide - the third book in his Ender stories). That made me get the rest of the book! There are portions of other books available for downloading as well. There are also many short stories free for the downloading. It's fun! I thought I would pass on a few of them. [] DATACHRI by Ron Stein is a short story entitled, "Data's First Christmas." I thought this was a very interesting story about Data's investigations into "The Christmas Spirit." Data while wondering just how one goes about getting this spirit learns that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." I liked it! From the Delphi Science Fiction Area. [] I_LOCUT is a short story entitled I, Locutus. Captain Picard is slowly being taken over by a Borg virus implanted in him while he was "Borgified" as Locutus. The Borg succeed in over-running Earth and was well on the way towards assimilating the best of our world. Through heroic efforts of all concerned (of course!), everything works out in the end! While no longer fitting in with the Star Trek Universe as expounded in the TV show, this story is self-consistent and true to the story line as of when it was written. From the Delphi Science Fiction Area. [] STAR_DRE is Star Drek: The Next Degeneration, by Robert Fentiman. This is an amusing parody of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In it you will meet Captain Hugh Lett Packard, the Chief of Security, Fishermans Wharf, and many more "familiar" characters. Learn how "Leslie" saves the Enterprise from the Borg Tribbles. This is really "BAD"! From the Delphi Science Fiction Area. [] DR&THE_E is a story written by Jean Airey (1982) that presents a very good look at what might happen if "The Doctor (from the "Doctor Who" universe) met up with the crew of the "original" "Star Trek" series. I liked reading this, and recommend it to you if you like either Dr. Who or the original Star Trek (especially if you like both!). From the Delphi Science Fiction Area. Now back to the regular files... [] DAYCARE1 by Mark Warner is a HyperLink HAP file that will allow you to computerize a DayCare center. It contains modules that will allow you to track basic needed information about the child (parents, contacts, etc.), a medical module that allows you to record needed medical information, an "other" module that allows you to add whatever other information you wish, and a finance module for tracking payments. Of course, you can generate reports of all of the above. Requires HyperLink or the freeware Hyperlink run-time module to run. [] DMASND13 is DMA-SOUND (The STE DMA Sound Sample Player) v.1.3 by the author of The Recipe Box and many other programs, Anthony Watson (dated July 30, 1993). The STE DMA Sound Sample Player allows you to play stereo or mono sound samples at 6KHz, 12KHz, 25KHz, or 50KHz using the hardware built into the STE/TT/Falcon computers. Naturally older STs which do not have this hardware will not be able to use this program. The program itself only uses 15K of RAM, though memory usage overall varies with each sample played. The only limit to the length of sample playable is the RAM you have available in your machine! It will play signed sound samples only. Install it as an application and just click on a sound sample and listen away! This version is the same as v.1.2, but it is now freeware (since NO ONE registered it - jeesh!). [] DSP20 is DSP v.2.0 by Keith Lord (dated July 23, 1993). This is a Digital Signal Processing program which allows you to create High pass, Low pass, Bandpass and Notch digital filters, and use them to process your favorite digitized sound samples. The author wrote the program to try to get rid of that annoying "warp drive rumble" that seems to be in the background of all Star Trek TNG audio samples. You can modify your sound samples any way you wish. Although DSP was written to process audio samples, it's really a general purpose digital filter program, so you can use it on any digital information. GEM based (and I like his moose mascot!). This file includes a built-in sample playback feature (David Baggett's Play Program v.3.0), a graphic filter display, and a beep to let you know when it's done. This version allows you to access the menu bar (now you can get to your accessories!) and now many more features of D.B.'s sound player program are accessible. Color or mono. Docs included. ST/STe/(and hopefully) TT compatible. [] EIFFEL is VICI v.1.02 by Peter Seitz (dated Mar. 13, 1993). This is a GEM based interpreter for the Eiffel computer language. Program and docs in German. Numerous examples are provided. SHAREWARE. [] ELFBACK2 is ELFBack 2 by E.L.F Software. This TT-only program provides an easy way to do hard disk backups and restores for the TT030 platform (It uses TT RAM, 68030 instructions, and the 68881 floating point co-processor, so it absolutely won't work on an ST(E).) It can use data compression to reduce the number of floppies needed (three different built-in versions), and has a built in RAMdisk to speed up I/O. I like the graphical representation of just how far along you are in the backup process. To me it always seems to go faster if I can see some progress indicator rather than just a static screen. This program also allows you to do incremental backups (in other words only the first backup is a pain! - the others are easy!), or to select the drive, directory, or file to back up (nice!). One (of many) nice thing about this program is that it allows you to inspect each floppy before you write on it, and to either reformat, erase (faster than reformatting), or use the remaining space on the floppy and preserve the existing files. That can save you much trouble with the "oops!" factor. There are many other features of this program as well. Docs and online help included. Color or mono. SHAREWARE. [] ELFSTART by R.Constan of Elfin Software is a program that fixes a problem with ElfBoot that sometimes affected ElfBoot users with TOS 2.00 and up. If you have had trouble starting programs from within ElfBoot (either by direct command or from within a macro), then this file is for you. Simply put this file in your AUTO folder in place of the ElfBoot program already there (either the demo or the registered version). Color or mono. This is not needed for TOS versions below 2.00. [] F211UPGD is a file that will allow you to upgrade Flash II v. 2.0, 2.01, or 2.1 to version 2.11. If you use this excellent telecommunications program then this upgrade is for you! [] FPATCH1 is a patch from Atari that fixes two problems in the Falcon BIOS (TOS 4.00-4.04). The first is that the sound system is not initialized properly (the patch allows some older programs that do STE/TT-style DMA sound to function), and the second is that Bconmap() doesn't work (run this patch and that problem will be history!). [] FREE_T1 is seven PostScript Type 1 fonts for use with PageStream 2.x. They are Ambrosia, Bastarda, Czar Bold, Dixieland Normal, KeyStroke Normal, Kurt Russell, and Mac Humaine. These are all fairly complete fonts, some with many special characters, and all with some. This file also contains information on obtaining more Type 1 fonts (the same place has Calamus fonts available as well). I found this on the CodeHead BBS and on other services. [] GVIEW232 is GEM View v.2.30 (dated July 19, 1993). GEM-View loads and displays pictures in a variety of graphic formats in any desired resolution and virtual size (BigScreen) on the ATARI ST/TT/Falcon series of computers and with a diverse range of graphic cards. This amazing picture viewing program runs as either a program or an accessory! Forget about the rest of this description and just get this file! Many people claim that it is the best around. Now I agree! This version, while fixing a few minor bugs, now has complete English Docs. While the program was in English before this version, the complete docs were always in German. The English docs are great! GEM View automatically manipulates a picture file to display it in its best possible range of color and size. Here are the picture formats supported by GEM View (a LOT!): TIFF Format ( *.TIF ) GIF Images 87/89 ( *.GIF ) JPEG Images ( *.JPG) Tiny-Compressed Images (*.TN[123Y] ) Imagelab Images ( *.B&W ) Spectrum 512 Images ( *.SPU, *.SPC ) IFF Imagefiles ( *.IFF ) HAM Hold & Modify ( *.IFF ) OS/2 Bitmap ( *.BMP) MS-Windows Bitmap ( *.BMP, *.RLE ) GEM-(X)Image Files ( *.IMG ) GEM-Metafiles (Vector) ( *.GEM) PC Paintbrush ( *.PCX ) Art-Director Rasterfiles (*.ART ) Degas Images ( *.P[IC][123] ) Sun Rasterfiles ( *.SUN ) STAD Images ( *.PAC ) Portable Bit Map ( *.P[BGP]M) MacPaint Image ( *.MAC ) Neochrome Rasterfiles ( *.NEO ) Targa Images ( *.TGA ) Enhanced Simplex ( *.ESM ) Vidas Image ( *.IMG) Vivid Raytracing ( *.IMG ) X Bitmap-File ( *.XBM ) Resource File ( *.RSC ) Load as Hexdump ( *.* ) Doodle Monochrome Rasters ( *.DOO [640x...] ) I like the fact that this will automatically display and convert GEM metafiles (vector graphics) into raster graphics (the display works fine, but the conversions, at least for my GEM files, left much to be desired). It runs under MultiTOS with no problems. You can even load GDOS fonts (for use with GEM Metafiles)! Includes excellent monochrome support - even for GIF pictures - and is very fast. Now you can keep in memory more than one picture at a time. The interface has been improved and expanded. The program version now allows access to accessories. This program does so so much more than even this long description includes (MANY supporting programs and .ACC's included). Highly recommended. SHAREWARE ($20) by Dieter Fiebelkorn. Color or mono (and high color and true color boards). Requires at least 1 MEG of RAM. Over 1.4 Meg uncompressed (but set up in such a way that people who only have floppy disks can still uncompress it). [] KABOOM by David Munsie is a conversion of an old 8-bit favorite. You are presented with a screen with someone who doesn't like you at the top. He goes on to drop LOTS of bombs on you from above. You have to catch all of them with three paddles you move back and forth with your joystick. Catch enough of them and you move up to the next level - which is harder than the one you just finished! Miss once and you lose one paddle (the bottom one). I do fairly well until I miss my first bomb, and then it's just downhill - rapidly - from there. This is one of those games about which you say, "I'll just try it one more time - I know I can do better!" Color only. ST--Falcon compatible (supposedly - I know it works on my STE). Docs included. DONATIONWARE. [] LCKYLT32 is Lucky LOTTO Numbers v.3.2 by Terry Warren and Barney Poston (dated July 14, 1993). This program will allow you to analyze lottery data for just about any state or regional lottery (ranges of 1 to 9 winning numbers out of a possibility of 15 to 60 numbers), and then print out numbers for you to "play." I'm amazed that there is a market for a program such as this. Analyzing random numbers to predict a future random number is a waste of time. I would welcome anyone to show me differently. If a lottery isn't random, it's fixed - and you certainly won't know about it! As the authors say, "Don't forget the quote from Forbes magazine 'Your chances of winning the lottery are the same whether you play or not!'" Mono only. This program uses David Becker's excellent Zest interface. Detailed docs included. ST--STE compatible (at least). [] LHA_221 is LHarc v.2.21 by Christian Grunenberg (dated June 1993). This compression/uncompression utility is LZH compatible (lh-0 to lh-5) and is compatible with Quester's LZH201 (and a bit faster, too). The version on Delphi contains both the English and German programs while the version on GEnie contains only the English program. There are program specific docs in German alone, and the archive also contains generic LZH docs in English). 283K uncompressed. [] MAC_FONT is a nice Warp 9 system font replacement by Lou Trapani (mono only). It makes your screen font look like a Macintosh system font. This replaces a previous version and improves on it in that most of the extended characters are in the same style of the Mac font. In the past any time a foreign language character would come up, it would just use the old Atari system style font. Now all the characters will be uniform. [] MCMINOS is McMinos v.0.815 by Andreas Neudecker and Ulrich Norbisrath (dated April 1993). This is an excellent PacMan clone with an amazing number of features (just one of them being that the program allows you to choose between English, Dutch, German or French versions!). You can play it on your ST--Falcon (at least one meg required) with ST mono or other resolution higher than that (640 by 400 or greater). Mouse, keyboard, or joystick controlled, your "man" (actually Prince McMinos) seeks to destroy the monsters and ghosts who are devastating the kingdom of the King (the one who is offering his daughter's hand in marriage if you destroy the baddies). Each screen is a "days" work, and you can get tired mighty quickly. Some screens extend over several monitor screens, and you'll find those little ghosts hiding just around the corners. This is one of the best, if not the best, games of this type I have seen. SHAREWARE. Excellent online help/manual available. [] MGIF_42B is MGIF v.4.2B by Johan Klockars (dated July 1, 1993) This program will allow you to display color GIF 87a or 89a images, JPEG (in JFIF format), Degas (PI1 or PI2) or the program's own format (.FL) in four gray scales on your ST to 32 gray scales on a Falcon. It supports a very fast pre-viewing (seeing a rough picture first which then gets clearer as the image is processed more fully), and much more. It gives you an excellent monochrome image of a color GIF file. This is an excellent viewer program, but it is also more than that. You can manipulate those images in many different ways, and then save your results. I thought this is an excellent program with the exception that files are not displayed in the center of the screen but rather at the bottom right corner. Mono is what works for the standard ST resolutions, but TT and Falcon should be able to display gray scale images using a color monitor. Requires at least 1.5 meg of free RAM. If you like MODS, you should check out Delphi (24 more .MOD files uploaded and 100's available) and GEnie (seven uploaded recently). I have NO idea how to adequately describe a music file, so I'm not even going to try. You'll just have to download them to see how good they sound! [] OYVIEWER is the OH YEAH! FILE VIEWER v.0.9 by Andrew Giddings (dated June 26, 1993). This small program will allow you to view ASCII, graphics (not though as pictures, just as data), or hex files from the desktop with a simple click of your mouse. It will work in color or mono, and with graphic cards, etc.. Keyboard/mouse controlled. Just install it as an application and it will allow you to rapidly access your files, mark blocks, scroll up and down through the files, and more (it quits "cleanly" too, which I like very much). SHAREWARE. Docs included. Found on the Boston Computer Society's BBS. Here are some PCS files for you to view (I think PCS pictures are great!) [] CAMERA is an excellent PCS image of a Canon 35mm camera with a telephoto lens attached. The camera is sitting flat on a shiny tiled surface and is crisply done. I am amazed at the quality that can be created with a computer generated graphic! [] CANYON is a PCS picture of a view of the Grand Canyon. While very nice, it is not as "clean and crisp" as many other PCS pictures I have seen. Still, it captures a bit of the awe-inspiring scenery of the Grand Canyon. [] DRAGON is a very nice PCS picture of a winged and horned Dragon (with another one just walking off-screen). This dragon is walking through a pillared and polished room. [] TREKCITY is a PCS drawing of a Federation Galaxy Class Starship approaching the open airlock in the side of a huge starbase in orbit about the Earth. The Moon is visible in the background. The view is from a distance. [] PSY_PIG2 is Pyscho Pig II. This is an excellent platform-style game. It's quite large, ending up on two disks. You play the role of Pyscho Pig, the SuperPig who has taken on the task on the task of rescuing a clutch of baby crocodile from an evil bird who wants to turn them into purses! Battle across four different landscapes gathering everything you need to save the day. Jump, float, fly, bounce from platform to platform, climb hills, burrow through the ground - in short everything you see on any "Super NES" machine is right here. Shareware, and well worth it. Color only. A STOS game (TOS 1.62 compatible, at least - but check out STOSFX21 for higher versions of TOS). [] QP_360 is QUARTET PLAYER v.3.60 by Dan Panke (dated May 1, 1993). QUARTET PLAYER 3 works in any resolution on an Atari ST or STe. Simply select your Quartet song and voice set via the file selector box and sit back and enjoy. In all previous versions you could only play one song at a time. Dan has fixed that! Load 'em up and listen! Simply select your song and voice set via the file selector box and sit back and enjoy. He has figures a way to connect the Quartet songs, sets and text files to all be connected into one file (all the programs and files you need to do this are included as well). This version now allows files that have been compressed with IcePack v.2.4 and Speedpacker v.3 to be played. This can save a significant amount of disk space. As you listen to the song a drum set is displayed along with information about the song played. There are many Quartet songs available (mostly on Delphi, I think), and this is THE player from them. Dan is the owner of ST Plug. He has some excellent software that can be found nowhere else. Docs included. [] RUNLOW13 is Run Low v.1.3 (dated July 22, 1993) by Anthony Watson of Mountain Software (the author of The Recipe Box and other fine programs). Run Low lets you run most of your low resolution programs directly from the medium resolution desktop! Run Low saves your current desktop colors, switches to low rez, and runs your program. This program provides you with up to five different ways of running your low rez programs, depending on your preferences. I especially like the feature of Run Low that will allow you to click on a file (say a GIF file), and will run the program (in this case the GIF viewer) that uses that file in low resolution. When you leave your program, Run Low switches back to medium and restores your desktop colors. ST--Mega STe compatible (at least). Docs included. I found this file on the CodeHead BBS and on other services as well. [] SAMSOUNZ is a series of .AVR sounds for use with Atari's new System Audio Manager (SAM). They are: Jackie Wilson saying "Hey You!" and "Rrrrrreeet"; Jimi Hendrix saying "You Move Me"; Sammy Davis announcing "Hear ye, Hear ye, The Court's in session. Here comes the Judge", and Undisputed Truth asking "Can You Dig It?" (this last I cannot get to play other than as random hissing). [] SCRUNCH is ST-SCRUNCH by Bill Hodges and R.E. Swem (dated 1986!). This program will allow you to compact whole disks into a single file. If this sounds like "The Magic Shadow Archiver" that's because it is like it, only an earlier "cousin." I haven't ever seen any files "scrunched" but you never know when you will run across one, and need this to use it. Found on the Boston Computer Society's BBS. [] SNDLB111 is Sound Lab v.1.11 by Damien M. Jones (dated July 28, 1993). This is a very capable sound editor that allows you to take digitized sound samples and manipulate them to your heart's content. It has plenty of features, and its edit functions are _very_ fast. You can play and record samples from 5KHz to 30KHz, use samples in .AVR (signed or unsigned), .SPL, .SAM, .WAV (commonly used on the "PC"), .SND (DigiSound and SoundOff!), and .SMP formats (for GEM Sound),, and it's easy to use. (Recording samples requires either the ST Replay cartridge or Pandaal DaataSound cartridge.) It also lets you add sound effects to your samples, like echo and fade, and more. It uses a ZeST type button interface that is a pleasure to watch and use. Color or mono. 40 page ASCII manual included. There's a nifty on-screen help system that takes you through the in's and out's of the program. Watch the mouse move about all by itself! ST/STe compatible. SHAREWARE. You get printed docs and updates with your registration. 653K uncompressed. [] SQIIDEMO is the demo of Squish II from Trace Technologies (Keith Gerdes). This new program picks up where the author's Squish v.1.x left off. As Keith says, "It's come a long way since 1989." Squish II allows you to safely save storage space quick-and-easy by compressing your programs and accessories. "Squished" files run exactly the same as the original, uncompressed version. You save LOTS of space, and if you load your programs from floppy you will notice a very nice increase in loading speed. Now compatible with all TOS versions (ST--Falcon), MultiTasking with MultiTOS, resolution independent, faster and better compression than v.1.x, and much more. This demo will show you all the features of Squish II, except you will not be able to save your Squished files. Docs and upgrade information included. I use Squish v.1.4 all the time, and that's great, but this seem a lot better! [] SRGEXMPL by Scott R. Garrigus (the creator of EmailMan, the email address database) is a file (dated July 25, 1993) that contains some GFA Basic source code demonstrating how to put a resource dialog box inside of a window. The .LST and .RSC files are included. The resource file was designed to run in ST mono or greater. [] STALKY is STalky v.1.0 by Paul Lefebvre (dated July 28, 1993). This is a desk accessory (or program) that gives STalker, the excellent telecommunications package from Gribnif Software, a type ahead buffer. The type ahead buffer is three lines and allows a total of 232 characters to be entered. It only uses 15K of RAM. Keyboard controlled. ST/STe/TT (and probably Falcon) compatible. This now works with Geneva, the multi-tasking resource from Gribnif, as well as Atari's MultiTOS. Color or mono. Docs included. [] STCAT_21 is the disk catalog of D & P Computers. It is full of over 290 hardware products for your Atari computers (including the Portfolio), and over 2000 software titles, with all of their associated costs. Many of the items have descriptions attached (nice feature!). This file comes with a small database that allows you to search through the catalog according to a variety of criteria. There's lots of stuff here! [] STZIP23 is STZip v.2.3 by Vincent Pomey (dated July 22, 1993). This is one fantastic compression utility, and he keeps on making it better! Lots of new features! It's fast and uses the new ZIP compression algorithm named 'Deflating.' (or older versions as well). Using an excellent GEM interface (with keyboard hotkeys), it compresses as well or better (!) than the newest Quester LZH utility (LZH201L). It is compatible with the newest version of PKZIP 2.04 (from the MS DOS world), and the Unix Info-Zip programs Zip 1.9/Unzip 5.0. This version is MultiTOS compatible, allows up to 65536 files in a zip (given adequate memory), allows you to extract files to a corresponding folder automatically, now supports Unix's Info-Zip, and much more (including several bug fixes). Use it with a command line or with the built-in GEM shell program (easy to use!). This file includes a program that creates self-extracting archives, and a small, stripped down version (a real memory saver) that is accessed only through a command line interface. I highly recommend this program for any of you who deal with ZIP files. Docs included. Color or mono. ST--TT (Falcon?) compatible. [] TANTAL2 by Sol Guber is a "demo" of his Standard Reference Symbols for use as figures in DynaCadd. He has included the complete index for the symbols as well as five IMG files that contain many of the symbols for your preview. Ordering information is included. 434K uncompressed. [] TTGAME is a series of programs by Joe Tapply that will allow you a much greater chance of running some ST specific programs on your TT. Several of the programs in this file move your TT ROMS and MMU translation tables into TT RAM and then configure it in various ways (separate versions are included for TT owners without TT RAM). This allows you to fool your 68030 into using only 24 bit addresses like a 68000 does. Other programs allow you to run _most_ ST Bootsectors from your desktop. Overall, these files will prove a great boon to your TT's compatiblity. Docs and source code (.S) included. [] TWAS is a .SAM file from the TV show, "Married with Children." Al Bundy is telling his own rendition of "The Night Before Christmas." I thought it was dumb, crass humor, but you never know, you might like it! Since this file uncompresses to 951K you will need a hard drive or a high density floppy to uncompress it. This is a signed sample digitized at 12.5 KHz. I used Damien M. Jones' Sound Lab v.1.11 to listen to it (set the High Bit to clear out lots of static - that results in very clear sound). [] VIDEOLB2 is the Video Lib v.2.0 HyperLINK .HAP by Bman. This simple HAP will let you title each video tape in your collection, identify programs by their distance from the beginning of the tape, and more. The author says it's still "ruff" but it seems to work (he updated it in less than a week, so he's on top of it!). Use the run-time version of HyperLINK or HyperLINK itself to use this file. [] WATCH_IT is WATCH-IT v.1.0a by Stefan Bock. It is a MultiTOS compatible GIF picture viewer for the ST--Falcon030 computer (mono through true-color resolution). In the future, the author says, formats other than GIF will be supported, but as of yet, not. While designed to be usable on standard ST resolutions, I found this program unworkable. Only a very small portion of a GIF was displayed on screen at any time. You can use the GEM scroll bars to view the complete picture, but you loose a lot when you can only see 1/16 (or less) of the picture at a time! I also found that the color map on some pictures was so scrambled as to make the picture incomprehensible. Stick with Speed of Light or PhotoChrome 3 for excellent GIF viewers. Docs included. [] XCNTRL is XControl v.1.2, the newest newest version of the Atari Control Panel. It is designed to take advantage of features only available in the latest (>2.0) versions of TOS. You can still use it if you have an earlier TOS. LOTS of new features. I have my questions about the status of this file. I found it on Delphi, but it has no documentation or .CPX files in the archive. I have v.1.0 which does contain both docs and numerous .CPX's. Anyone have the docs? I haven't heard from you about Dwight Morgan and Kristofer H. Cruz, two excellent programmers. Do any of you know them? Please let me know! Take care. All of these files can be found on one or more of the following on-line services: GEnie (AEO.4 or M.BURKLEY1), Delphi (MRBURKLEY), The CodeHead BBS (213-461-2095), Toad Hall (617-567-8642), and The Boston Computer Society's Atari BBS (617-396-4607) (Michael R. Burkley). Drop me a line! Michael lives in Niagara Falls, NY. He is a former Polyurethane Research Chemist and is presently the pastor of the Niagara Presbyterian Church. --==--==--==--==-- ||| Electronic Engineering Times Takes a Look at the Atari Jaguar ||| Reprinted Courtesy of CMP Publications / | \ ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- //// Editor: We are reprinting the following article from Electronic //// Engineering Times to provide you with a perspective of recent //// events surrounding certain Atari Corp. news from an outsider's //// perspective. We believe that you will enjoy this peek into the //// Jaguar's design and background as much as we did. ~*~ Permission to reprint this article from AEO is denied. ~*~ Copyright ½ 1993 by CMP Publications, 600 Community Drive, Manhasset, NY 11030. Reprinted from Electronic Engineering TIMES with permission. Atari Jaguar an IBM Animal by Junko Yoshida Atari Corp. will score a new level of video-game performance this fall with the introduction of Jaguar, a 64-bit RISC-based system offering real-time 3-D shaded surfaces with texture mapping. The $200 system, able to tap into the growing network of cable and telephone video services, will take videogames into a graphics realm once the province of midrange 3-D workstatins. In yet a further departure, the system will be built by IBM Corp. Jaguar, billed as an interactive multimedia system, is based on an Atari-designed proprietary 64-bit RISC processor and its proprietary digital signal processors. The cartridge-based system features 24-bit true color graphics, shaded 3-D polygons and real-time texture mapping. Atari claims that Jaguar offers four times the processing power of the current 16-bit videogames from Sega and Nintendo, and believes it is even more powerful than the coming 32-bit ARM CPU-based machine from 3DO Co. "If a spaceship goes around a moon, or a person walking on a street turns on the next corner, every object, every detail in such scenes is reproduced in shaded 3-D images with texture. It's truly amazing stuff," said Atari president Sam Tramiel. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Dense ASIC's =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The system's graphics performance is compared by the company to that of the 3-D engines in midrange Unix workstations. And like those engines, Jaguar is based on advanced, very dense digital ASIC's. Jaguar's core consists of two chip sets, one holding the 64-bit RISC processor and the other containing DSP hardware. "But the partitioning between the two chip sets is ambiguous." said Richard Miller, vice president of research and development at Atari, as the two share some functions. The two sets apparently pack a whole range of components, including controllers, video processors and encoders, leaving outside the core only "a very small amount of TTLs and DRAMs," said Miller. They were designed at an Atari facility in England, said Tramiel. The 64-bit RISC processor is capable of processing video data at a high rate, handling various video effects as well as full-motion video compression on its own, Miller claimed. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Lots of bandwith =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Atari would not disclose any more about the core ASICs, such as gate counts or data bandwidth, but Miller pointed out that Atari engineers had to concentrate most of their design efforts on bus bandwidth. "Graphics eats a lot of bus bandwidth. What's available today for other 64-bit processors such as PowerPC is only just enough for what we want to do," he said. "What we designed is right up on the level of expensive 64-bit processors." To meet its cost goals, Atari had to push ASIC technology to the limit. The chip sets will be manufactured by "one of the top four silicon vendors in the world" using the "smallest geometry" available, said Miller. It is believed that with Jaguar, Atari has become one of the early customers for a major Japanese 0.5-micron ASIC process, but the company would not confirm this. Clearly, manufacturing volume is essential to the Jaguar plan. The company intends to introduce an add-on PC card featuring the company's proprietary 64-bit RISC processor, said Tramiel. "It could also help minimize the cost of our chip sets," he said. Atari is also considering licensing the chip set to other silicon vendors, but has not determined any details yet, said Tramiel. The future holds more integration. But before working on the ultimate, a system on a chip, the next step for Atari's engineering team is to shrink what is currently a set of rather large custom chips further, reducing the whole system to "one processor, one DRAM, one ROM and one custom chip," said Miller. The company is looking at both synchronous DRAMs and Rambus DRAMs for future use, "but we are waiting to see some of the standards issues get settled first," he noted. Miller does have a technological wish list. "First," he said, "we'd love to have 0.3-micron process technology as soon as possible for custom IC's. Second, we'd like to see some form of synchronous DRAMs appear as a standard commodity DRAM, and, naturally, a very high bus bandwidth to produce higher video persormance. The existing improvements for faster bus interfaces so far have been very disappointing for us. Lastly, I'd love to play the Atari Jaguar system on a 10 X 10-foot display. I'm waiting for a very low cost, low power, large-screen-size display, using probably not an active matrix but FED-type technology." In the long run, Jaguar is designed not just as a cartridge-based game machine. It will use a 32-bit expansion port to connect to cable and telephone networks, and a digital signal processing port for modem usage and connection to digital audio peripherals. This I/O structure reflects Time Warner's 25 percent stake in Atari. "In the course of our product development, we've had frequent discussions with Time Warner. It has set the direction for our machine to have cable and telephone connections," said Leonard Tramiel, vice president of operating systems. The company designed and built a 16-bit prototype home-entertainment machine two years ago, said Sam Tramiel, but scrapped the plan in favor of a grand attempt to leapfrog the 16-bit systems that were then coming onto the market. But then Atari engineers started to look for enabling technology, "there were no RISC processors and no DSP's that fulfilled our requirements, especially at our cost," said Miller. Atari's design team even had to develop its own HDL simulation tools, he said. "People tend to forget that, unlike business users, comsumers do have much higher expectations in video quality, speed and cost," Miller said. "In order to match that demand, we had to really push the technological envelope, driving the chip counts down, designing the system to be highly manufacturable and depending on the smallest geometry process technology." =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// IBM the OEM =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Atari will also push the envelope in another way, turning its back on traditional East Asian manufacturing sites and calling on IBM to build Jaguar. IBM, working with a 30-month contract worth $500 million, will be responsible for component sourcing, quality testing, console assembly, packaging and distribution, and will build the system at its Charlotte, N.C., facility. The motherboard will come from an IBM-approved manufacturer, said Herbert Watkins, director of application solutions manufacturing at IBM Charlotte. For IBM, producing the Atari Jaguar system makes it for the first time a major OEM for highly cost-competitive, mass consumer-electronics products, Watkins noted. "To manufacture one of the most sophisticated game machines in the world, we needed someone who understood a high-volume, fast digital machine," said Miller. "IBM was a natural choice." According to IBM, the prototypes of the Atari Jaguar system will come out in July, ramp-up models in August and mass-productions versions in September. The system will be available first on a limited basis in the fall in New York and San Francisco areas. A national rollout is scheduled for next year. -- Additional reporting by Roger Woolnough. --==--==--==--==-- ||| Data Rescue v1.0 ||| By: Ron Robinson / | \ GEnie: EXPLORER.1 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Have you ever deleted a file and later regretted doing so? Or have you edited a file and then found you need the original version? Just like Batman comes Data Rescue to save your files. This utility from Trace Technologies can track your file deletions and rescue your data quickly and automatically. Trace Technologies was founded by Keith Gerdes, formerly of Double Click Software. Keith has extensive experience with the "in's and out's" of Atari file systems through one of his products, Data Diet, a real time file compression utility. Data Rescue arrives on a single floppy with a concise 32 page manual describing operation and use of the utilities. The product includes a 10K AUTO folder program that performs the work and a program/accessory used to recover deleted files and configure the program. //// Now You See It, Now You Don't Every time you delete a file, the data really is not zapped into that big bit bucket in the sky. The first character of the file name is replaced with a special character and the space used by the file is marked as being available for use by other programs. This means that as long as you do not write to your hard drive after deleting a file, the information is still there. The fun part is knowing how to revive this data should you need to do so. //// Dynamic Duo Delivers Deleted Data... Data Rescue is a set of programs that automates the recovery of deleted files from your drives. The AUTO folder part of Data Rescue monitors filesystem activity on your computer and keeps track of various aspects of deleting a file to help in future recovery. If you discover you need to recover a deleted file, the Rescue program can be used to automate recovery of your data. Two levels of data recovery are provided by Data Rescue. The first technique known as "DATA tracking" keeps a list of files as they are deleted by saving special file system information to a tracking file. With this information, a deleted file can be "un-erased," provided you have not written additional information over your erased files before attempting recovery. This method is very efficient, only requiring a constant 2K of disk space for every megabyte of data you need to track (100K for a 50 megabyte drive). However, once another file is written to the disk, all bets are off for recovering the file. For those who require more extensive protection, Data Rescue furnishes extensive delete protection and file management called "RESCUE Tracking." The program creates a RESCUE folder on each of your drives and moves any deleted files to that folder when they are deleted. If you goof and delete something you need, you simply open the RESCUE folder and copy the file back out. //// ... and Takes Out the Garbage Too! You may have seen public domain "Trash Can" programs that supply a similar service. Of course the problem is that since you really are not deleting anything, your drive rapidly fills with junk you no longer need. Data Rescue is smarter than the average trash can program, allowing you to configure a number of automated strategies for taking the garbage out. If your computer runs out of disk space, Data Rescue looks in the RESCUE folder and removes the oldest file(s) to provide enough disk space for the new file. An extension of this technique allows you to configure the maximum number of kilobytes of RESCUE folder files that are kept around. For example, you can limit the total size of your RESCUE folder files to five megabytes. When you use a backup utility to back up a file, there is a flag in the file's header called the "Archive Bit" that lets the computer know you have made a copy of the file. Data Rescue can be told to not work on files that have their archive bit set. You can configure Data Rescue to automatically delete files more than so many days old. Or you can limit the size of files to be RESCUE- ized. In the event you have a drive you wish to protect from inadvertent file deletions, Data Rescue allows you to "Delete Protect" any drive attached to your system - very handy if you have children who use your system. //// Rescuing the Goods The RESCUE program presents you with a window that looks much like a file selector. From this window your drives can be selected and relogged (great for SyQuest owners). Normal or deleted files can be displayed showing their name and file details. Directory paths (CodeHead MaxiFile support included) and other program options can be selected from within this window. Most RESCUE operations have keyboard equivalents available to replace mouse command operations. Deleted files are checked for rescuability, marked to let you know if they can be recovered, and files can be viewed on your screen for verification purposes. Data Rescue will indicate the full name of a deleted file. Normal and deleted files can be selected (by name or date) and viewed. Rescuing a file (or group of files) is a simple matter of clicking on the "Rescue" button. Partial text files can be recovered in the event part of the file has been overwritten. Data Rescue presents you with the status of the files being recovered during the process. //// Conclusions Data Rescue is one of those programs that can save you from several forms of self inflicted disasters. The built-in realtime intelligence gives you efficient use of your disk space while providing the advanced recovery features. Rejuvenating deleted files is very simple, using "point and click" fully automated operation - you don't even have to remember the file name as some other utilities require. I highly recommend Data Rescue as a great addition to any Atari owners collection of disk utilities. //// Data Rescue Requirements: Atari ST, STE, or TT computer. Summary: Data recovery utility that tracks file and folder deletions in realtime allowing them to be undeleted at any time. Price: $59.95 Manufacturer: Trace Technologies PO Box 711403 Houston, TX 77271-1403 (713) 771-8332 --==--==--==--==-- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- --==--==-- CompuServe Sign-Up Information --==--==-- -- -- -- -- To sign up for CompuServe service, call (voice call) (800) 848-8199. -- -- Ask for operator #198. You will be sent a $15.00 value CIS membership -- -- kit for free. -- -- -- -- --==--==-- CompuServe Sign-Up Information --==--==-- -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- --==--==--==--==-- ||| AEO Calendar of Events ||| Compiled by: Ron Kovacs / | \ GEnie: Z-NET CIS: 75300,1642 Delphi: ZNET ---------------------------------------------------------------- //// Houston Atari Safari August 21, 1993 The fourth annual Houston Atari Safari will be held August 21st, 1993 (10 am to 5 pm) at the Jerabeck Athletic Center on the University of St Thomas campus in Houston. Safari '93 is a major event on the 1993 Atari show calandar, and is the largest Atari show in Texas. Admission is $3 (preteens admitted free when accompanied by parent), and there will be doorprizes. Vendor table set up can start at 8 am, August 21st. The show will be open from 10 am to 5 pm. Tables will be available for reservation until August 15th. Distributors, dealers, or clubs that have brochures or flyers or demo disks that they would like to distribute at the show should send these to arrive by August 18th for inclusion in the "Safari Paks" given to each showgoer. The organizers anticipate around 300 attendees at the show. Any items of this type should be sent to HACE, PO BOX 820335, Houston TX, 77282-0335 or they can be sent to HACE (Attn: George Iken) at 11830 Westmere Drive, Houston TX, 77077. For information call (713) 493-0122 or use e-mail on GEnie (G.IKEN) or Delphi. //// Interop '93 August 23-27, 1993 Interop '93 (#2) at the Moscone Center in San Fransisco, California. //// ONE BBSCON '93 August 25-29, 1993 ONE BBSCON '93 at the Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs, Colorado. This is a four day exposition presented by BoardWatch Magazine. There will be three days of educational services, a trade show exhibit area with over one-hundred vendors on hand. For further information on this event and for registration information contact: Peg Coniglio at ONE Inc., 4255 South Buckley Road, Suite 308, Aurora, Colorado 80013. Voice: (303) 693-5253; Fax: (303) 693-5518; BBS: (303) 693-5432. //// PenExpo August 30 - September 3, 1993 PenExpo - The Pen-Based Computing Conference at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston Massachusettes. Pen Exposition, Conference, and Tutorials, Sponsored by Boston University Corporate Education Center and PEN Magazine. //// Fed Micro '93 August 31 - September 2, 1993 Fed Micro '93. Fed Micro CDROM and Multimedia Conference & Exposition. Washington Convention Center, Washington DC. //// BCS*Pen September 1, 1993 BCS*Pen Monthly Meeting at the Hynes Convention Center. Meeting begins at 7pm. Topic: "The Market for Personal Information Processors". Speaker: Donna Dubinsky, CEO, Palm Computing, Co-sponsored with PenExpo. //// The Glendale Show September 18-19, 1993 The Glendale Show returns with the Southern California Atari Computer Faire, V.7.0, in suburban Los Angeles, California. This has been the year's largest domestic Atari event, year after year. Contact John King Tarpinian at the user group HACKS at 818-246-7286 for information. //// MacWorld Expo September 20-22, 1993 The third MacWorld Expo, titled Canada '93 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, sponsored by MacWorld Magazine. //// Mobile World Expo September 21-23, 1993 Mobile World Expo and Conference at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose California. //// Unix Expo '93 September 21-23, 1993 Unix Expo '93 in New York City, New York at the Javits Convention Center. //// Image World October 4-8, 1993 Image World New York, Javits Convention Center, New York City. //// NetWorld '93 October 5-7, 1993 NetWorld 93, Dallas Convention Center, Dallas TX. //// Lap & Palmtop Expo October 7-8, 1993 Lap & Palmtop Mobile Computing Expo at the Chicago Mart/Expo Center in Chicago, Illinois. Exhibitors will show the latest in mobile computing, software, pen, peripherals and communications from the industry's leading manufacturers. In conjunction with the exhibits is the Mobile Systems Solutions Conference series. Featuring over 80 leading industry experts speakers, the conference provides vital information needed to build or improve your world of mobile computing. //// PC Expo October 19-21, 1993 PC Expo-Chicago, McCormick Place East, Chicago IL. //// CD-ROM Expo October 27-29, 1993 CD-ROM Exposition at the World Trade Center, Boston MA. //// EDA&T Asia '93 October 27-29, 1993 EDA&T Asia '93. The Electronic Design and Test Conference Exhibition at the Taipei International Convention Center in Taiwan. Exhibit space is still available. For more information contact: Betsy Donahue, Chicago, Fax: 708-475-2794. //// November 1-3, 1993 Online/CD-ROM '93, Washington DC. //// GeoCon/93 November 7-10, 1993 GeoCon/93, an international conference and showcase for software products developed outside the U.S. at the Royal Sonesta Hotel, Cambridge, Mass. The conference program will include three days of workshops on topics of interest to overseas developers entering the U.S. market. Workshop presenters will discuss such issues as how to negotiate distribution and licensing contracts, setting up a business in the U.S., manufacturing and fulfillment, technical support, packaging, research sources, and how to market through direct, retail, and catalog channels. For additional information, contact Tom Stitt, associate publisher, Soft letter, 17 Main St., Watertown, Mass. 02272-9154; Telephone 617-924-3944; Fax 617-924-7288, or Colleen O'Shea, director, Soft letter Europe, 2 um Bierg, 7641 Chirstnach, Luxembourg, Telephone: 35.2.87119; Fax: 35.2.87048. //// COMDEX November 15-19, 1993 COMDEX Fall '93. Las Vegas Nevada. //// Mobile '94 March 6-10, 1994 Mobile '94 Conference and Exposition at the San Jose Convention Center. //// SAC Expo 94 March 12-13, 1994 S.T.A.R (formerly known as SST) proudly announces SAC Expo 94. The second annual Sacramento Atari Computer Exposition will be held Saturday and Sunday at the Towe Ford Museum: 2200 Front Street, Sacramento, California 95818. The Towe Ford Museum was so excited about the '93 show that they allocated nearly double the space in the museum for SAC Expo 94. STAR will be mailing vendor packets by September, if you are a vendor and did not receive a packet for SAC Expo 93, please contact us so you will not be missed this year. Look for future press releases containing more details, vendor lists, and show information. For more information contact STAR at P.O. Box 214892, Sacramento, CA 95821-0892. //// GEC '94 June 4-11, 1994 GEC '94, Milam ITALY. Centrexpo, Sheila Palka/Delia Associates, PO Box 338, Route 22 West, Whitehouse, NJ 08888; (800) 524-2193, (908) 534-6856 (Fax). If you have an event you would like to include on the AEO Calender of Events, please send email via GEnie to Z-NET, CompuServe 75300,1642, or via FNET to node 593 or AtariNet node 51:1/13.0. International shows also covered. --==--==--==--==-- ||| Japan: An American's View ||| By: Andreas Barbiero / | \ Delphi: ABARBIERO GEnie: AEO.2 ------------------------------------------------------------------ While I am traveling the world courtesy of the United States Navy, accompanied by my trusty TT030, I am a bit cut off from the latest in computer related issues. I can not even find a copy of "Byte" or "Computer Gaming World" on these bases! So, I thought you all would enjoy a break from the latest exciting Atari news and join me on a brief tour of Japan. I have been lucky enough to see many places in the world, from Europe to Africa, and all over the United States. Japan poses an interesting counterpoint to these experiences. With a rudimentary knowledge of Latin or Greek, just about everything in Europe is accessible to the common American. If worst comes to worst, the basics of English can be used to figure out what is being said and what the signs around town are saying. In Japan, however, all bets are off. There is some use of English in Japanese society, but it will not help you much when you are looking for some help from TV, signs, or newspapers. English is used mostly in brand names, and advertising to sometimes humorous ends. Buying a blazingly hot "happy day" coffee or ice cold Pocari Sweat soda from a vending machine is really a unique thing for most Americans. Just about everything is available from vending machines, from tea, to soda, whiskey, beer, and even pornography. One thing that really struck me about Japan was an indefinite sense of difference about the landscape, especially from what I am accustomed to as an American. While towns and cities seem to have the same similar structure, and power lines, roads and other edifices are still the same. But when viewed from the air, these are scaled differently. Smaller is the term that comes to mind, but it is more than that. While most buildings are scaled smaller, and even with Japanese dimensions in mind, there are other differences too. From the air, at night, the most prominent feature of the American landscape has to be our highways. The flow of cars over the roads in America never ends, and the lights snake across the black areas between cities. In Japan there are no major superhighways lighted with a never ending line of cars and trucks; at least not in the same way that you can follow highways from major cities in California. I have been stationed at Misawa Air Base in Northern Japan since early May. Misawa AB is a combined air base, meaning that both Navy and Air Force planes are stationed here, supporting operations up and down the western edge of Russia, Korea, China and the South Pacific. This is where months of training pays off, since this is our opportunity to fly and monitor hostile ships, planes, and submarines, out where they operate. This is what Uncle Sam spent all those dollars on in training us for in the last year. Even in the scaled back military climate the world is in, a forward American presence is still important to keep an eye on things and maintain a peaceful atmosphere. Besides it is a really cheap way for an American to see Japan... just sign on the dotted line.... Korea is also an interesting place. It is a third world country that produces technology up to the par of the best that Japan and America can produce. They also produce some of the most interesting night life this side of Thailand. Osan, a town south of Seoul, has been the home of an Air Force base for years, and a shopping destination for the P3 Navy for almost as long. Everything from brass beds to $25 dollar Nike sneakers are available for sale. Many aircrews have been known to blow $500 a person out in town and not just on presents for home. Most sailors don't have much of a problem paying $5 for a beer, but when you get cursed out by a girl in a bikini because you won't spend $15 on a shotglass of Kool-Aid for her, you might start to think that your mother might have been right when she told you to stay out of these places. Needless to say there's sure to be a Marine somewhere in that bar who spent $300 on shotglasses of Kool-Aid. You could say he got a bargain. Enough on that subject - my wife still has to edit this article before Travis gets it! I always like to try out the local specialties, from kimche to a powerful booze called soju. When you are drinking soju, anything is possible. Your first drink makes you think you are rich; by the seventh, you are bulletproof. Japan may be cleaner and neater, but even the notorious habu-sake (snake sake... really there is a huge snake inside the jar!) pales in comparison. I like both places, and I like the food in Japan better, but like the odd couple, the messy one is more fun, and so is Korea. What can you say, lots of Occidental guys like Oriental girls, and in Korea, they tend to be a bit taller, and they don't look at you like you haven't washed for two weeks, something the Japanese girls do. Well, this concludes the first report from Japan, the next one will take place after the magical per-diem check arrives, the goal of the entire month, where I make my first sojourn into the wilds of northern Japan, properly fortified with Yen. Five more months... lovin' it! --==--==--==--==-- ||| GEnie Atari ST RoundTable News ||| Courtesy: GEnie Atari ST RT (with thanks to John Hartman!) / | \ ------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Atari RT Weekly News 8.1 = REAL TIME CONFERENCES = Dateline Atari with Bob Brodie! 10 p.m. EDT on Friday Night! Join us for a FREE Real Time Conference on August 6th! Hot Summer Nights in the ST RoundTable! = ATARI RT LIBRARY = = RTC TRANSCRIPS = ------------------------------------------------------ 29523 DMJ_SOFT.ARC X MIKE-ALLEN 930729 15872 80 13 Desc: Transcript of DMJ Software RTC 29504 CLEAR_TH.ARC X BRIAN.H 930726 12800 56 13 Desc: Clear Thinking (EdHak) RTC 21 Jul 93 29388 STI_CN.ARC X BRIAN.H 930717 16512 146 13 Desc: Current Notes/ST Informer RTC 14 Jul 29335 DAVE_GBS.ARC X BRIAN.H 930711 20224 420 13 Desc: Gadgets (Dave Small) 7th July RTC 29310 BRODIE11.ARC X ST.LOU 930710 13184 594 13 Desc: Falcon/Jaguar/TT News! 28966 BRODIE10.ARC X ST.LOU 930605 17280 736 13 Desc: Falcon and Jaguar News from Bob! ------------------------------------------------------ = LAST MONTH'S PRESS RELEASES = ----------------------------------------------------- 29581 DATALITE.ASC X P.CURRY3 930804 4608 1 14 Desc: DATAlite is now available. See DDDDD 29511 WANTSW.TXT X P.CURRY3 930728 640 62 14 Desc: WANT SOFTWARE FOR PUBLICATION 29510 211_UPGD.TXT X J.TRAUTSCHOL 930728 3200 133 14 Desc: Flash II ver. 2.11 upgrade info 29471 THALION.ASC X R.HALL49 930724 512 218 14 Desc: INFO ON FALCON 030 VIDEO 29470 FSCL0723.ASC X S.D.ELLIOTT 930723 14080 151 14 Desc: Falcon S/W Compatibility List 7/29 29467 GEMINI.TXT X ERICTREMBLAY 930723 1792 125 14 Desc: Press Release of the GEMini CDROM 29451 TOADFALC.ZIP X TOAD-SERV. 930722 3072 247 14 Desc: Info on Falcons & Accessories 29420 PDIRECT2.ASC X P-DIRECT 930719 2560 143 14 Desc: New Mag Brochure, Rates, User Group 29405 NOVAUPDT.ARC X LEXICOR2 930718 1664 114 14 Desc: Nova Special Update 29403 HOTFOOT.TXT X R.CONSTAN 930718 1920 101 14 Desc: HOTFOOT PRODUCT ANNOUNCEMENT 29382 TOADJULY.ZIP X TOAD-SERV. 930716 5504 375 14 Desc: TOAD COMPUTERS -- July Specials! 29372 STCAT_21.ZIP X B.VARGO 930716 259072 108 14 Desc: D & P Computer Disk Catalog 29371 JAG_NEWS.ARC X G.MATTHIJETZ 930716 4352 259 14 Desc: EET article about Atari Jaguar 29362 CAL_SL.UPD X POTECHIN 930714 4736 167 14 Desc: New Upgrade for Calamus SL from DMC 29345 BULKMAIL.LZH X J.EIDSVOOG1 930713 3072 157 14 Desc: CodeHead Giveaway (ASCII version) 29343 LEX_RESP.LZH X DABRUMLEVE 930712 3840 278 14 Desc: Response re Lexicor's expulsion 29324 GENPICS.LZH X GRIBNIF 930710 16768 189 14 Desc: Geneva Screen Shots (Medium/High) 29297 BLURIDG3.TXT X S.WINICK 930708 9088 29 14 Desc: Blue Ridge AtariFest Press Release 29293 DEVCDROM.ZIP X MIKE-FULTON 930708 11264 134 14 Desc: Atari Developer CDROM Announcement 29276 WALZPRESS.TXT X P.CURRY3 930707 1152 60 14 Desc: WalZ Breakout Now Available! 29274 MTW_108.DOC X B.NOONAN 930707 2176 42 14 Desc: MEDICAL DESIGNS SOFTWARE HAS MOVED. 29252 FONTSALE.TXT X POTECHIN 930705 1152 108 14 Desc: DMC PROFESSIONAL FONT SALE 29229 PR_7293.TXT X N.LANGDON4 930703 1280 109 14 Desc: SST name change and SAC Expo 94 29224 ZOCRA793.TXT X C.BUCHANAN3 930702 768 52 14 Desc: Zocra Technologies has Moved! 29188 IBM_JAG.TXT X BOB-BRODIE 930701 3456 569 14 Desc: Press release on IBM/Atari Alliance 29184 GEBETA.TXT X GRIBNIF 930630 1536 264 14 Desc: Geneva Beta Announcement 29183 GEDESC.TXT X GRIBNIF 930630 2304 249 14 Desc: Geneva - Brief Description 29182 GENEVA.TXT X GRIBNIF 930630 9088 321 14 Desc: Geneva Press Release ----------------------------------------------------- = LAST MONTH'S DEMO RELEASES = ------------------------------------------------------ 29573 WINNI.ZIP X A.FASOLDT 930802 31872 15 10 Desc: WINNI tests system window limit 29536 E_USA.LZH X BAGET 930730 42496 36 10 Desc: Eliemouse In the USA Map Program 29507 BULLY.ZIP X E.BAIZ 930727 111360 58 10 Desc: Play a nice game of darts. 29500 SQIIDEMO.ZIP X K.GERDES 930726 22016 89 10 Desc: DEMO of Squish II from TraceTech 29474 F_ROLL9.LZH X ST.LOU 930724 119168 40 10 Desc: DEMO.PRG for Falcon Demo Files 29464 F_ROLL8.ZIP X BOB-BRODIE 930723 859136 63 10 Desc: 8th of 8 files of the BEST Demo Yet! 29463 COMIK.LZH X BAGET 930723 34304 42 10 Desc: Comic Book Collector New Demo 29462 F_ROLL7.ZIP X BOB-BRODIE 930723 1137664 51 10 Desc: 7th of 8 files of the BEST Demo Yet! 29461 F_ROLL6.ZIP X BOB-BRODIE 930723 694144 71 10 Desc: 6th of 8 files of the BEST Demo Yet! 29460 F_ROLL5.ZIP X BOB-BRODIE 930723 1189888 68 10 Desc: The 5th of 8 File in The BEST Demo! 29455 F_ROLL4.ZIP X BOB-BRODIE 930722 1286016 64 10 Desc: 4th of 8 files of the BEST Demo Yet! 29454 F_ROLL3.ZIP X BOB-BRODIE 930722 1300480 64 10 Desc: 3rd of 8 files of the BEST Demo Yet! 29452 F_ROLL2.ZIP X BOB-BRODIE 930722 989056 93 10 Desc: 2nd of 8 files of the BEST Demo Yet 29448 F_ROLL1.ZIP X BOB-BRODIE 930722 288896 77 10 Desc: The BEST Falcon030 Demo to Date!! 29402 HOTFOOT.ARC X R.CONSTAN 930718 10752 57 10 Desc: Hands free control of ST Keyboard 29361 OMENINTR.TXT X CCARMICHAEL 930714 7552 61 10 Desc: Intro to OMEN for Developers 29328 OMENTT_D.ARC X CCARMICHAEL 930711 94592 62 10 Desc: GUI O/S for 68000s TT/Falcon Demo 29327 OMENST_D.ARC X CCARMICHAEL 930711 95360 125 10 Desc: New GUI O/S for 68000s ST Demo 29273 MTWDEMO8.LZH X B.NOONAN 930707 80256 52 10 Desc: DEMO of MultiWriter ver. 1.08 29226 SCRLTHUN.LZH X STEVE-J 930703 33664 41 10 Desc: Scrolling Thunder demo text viewer 29212 MC20.LZH X C.MULLER3 930702 246528 81 10 Desc: The Ultimate Finance Manager ------------------------------------------------------ = LAST TWO WEEK'S TOP 10 DOWNLOADED PROGRAMS = ------------------------------------------------------ 29519 STZIP23.TOS X BRIAN.H 930728 127488 416 40 Desc: ST ZIP Version 2.3 29432 LHA_221.ZIP X GRMEYER 930720 81792 274 40 Desc: LHARC v2.21 29409 KABOOM.LZH X D.MUNSIE 930719 36224 207 8 Desc: A classic...fun & addictive! 29544 GVIEW232.LZH X STEVE-J 930731 646016 154 28 Desc: GEM-View v2.32 (Shareware) 29547 LHA210.LZH X R.BURROWS1 930731 57344 129 40 Desc: LHA v2.10 archiver for .LZH files 29423 KMTERM19.ZIP X H.HOFFMAN 930720 93056 117 7 Desc: KMTerm 1.9 full-featured Telcomm prg 29459 FPATCH.ZIP X MIKE-FULTON 930723 768 112 2 Desc: Falcon030 TOS patch 29458 MGIF_42B.ZIP X G.WOOD14 930722 74496 112 28 Desc: MGIF 4.2, ultra-fast mono GIF viewer 29478 RUNLOW13.LZH X A.WATSON6 930724 15360 110 2 Desc: Run Low Rez Programs From Medium Rez 29533 AW_INV.LZH X M.HEBERT1 930730 3712 109 6 Desc: AtariWorks Invoice Templates. ------------------------------------------------------ = LAST MONTH'S TOP 10 DOWNLOADED PROGRAMS = ------------------------------------------------------ 29519 STZIP23.TOS X BRIAN.H 930728 127488 416 40 Desc: ST ZIP Version 2.3 29320 FROGGER.LZH X D.MUNSIE 930710 57984 323 8 Desc: A hopping good game! Try it... 29197 JURASSIC.LZH X BAGET 930701 42624 312 8 Desc: jurassic park computer interface 29432 LHA_221.ZIP X GRMEYER 930720 81792 274 40 Desc: LHARC v2.21 29409 KABOOM.LZH X D.MUNSIE 930719 36224 207 8 Desc: A classic...fun & addictive! 29341 YAHTZEE.LZH X R.NABITY 930712 29824 163 8 Desc: Yahtzee Dice Game 29311 MSA_2_32.LZH X E.JOLLEY 930710 25088 156 40 Desc: Magic Shadow Archiver II, v2.3+ 29544 GVIEW232.LZH X STEVE-J 930731 646016 154 28 Desc: GEM-View v2.32 (Shareware) 29547 LHA210.LZH X R.BURROWS1 930731 57344 129 40 Desc: LHA v2.10 archiver for .LZH files 29327 OMENST_D.ARC X CCARMICHAEL 930711 95360 125 10 Desc: New GUI O/S for 68000s ST Demo ------------------------------------------------------ --==--==--==--==-- ||| Developing Notes ||| Important items from TOS platform developers and supporters / | \ --------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Oregon Research Introduces DATAlite =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= DATAlite is a sophisticated product which combines powerful functions with a transparent user interface to give you an extremely effective "DISK DOUBLER" that compresses the data on your disks, thus seemingly increasing storage capacity. This accomplished by using a combination of advanced compression/de-compression techniques in the background. Some of the key features of DATAlite are: [] Compresses all types of files; data files, applications, etc,. [] Works with both hard disks and all types of floppies; single-sided, double sided and high density. [] Can be installed automatically from the AUTO folder or just when you require its services. [] Wide choice of compression algorithms so that you can optimize for size or for speed of access. [] To add flexibility, compression can be a two-stage process; first you "Format" the media to allow for compressed data and then you "Optimize" the drive ie. actually compress the data. [] Give full control over its cach size, allowing you to choose between memory usage and speed of access to compress data. [] All functions are controlled from an easy to use desk accessory and you can even configure all the dialogs! SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS [] DATAlite works on all Atari 680x0 computers (Including the ATARI FALCON 030) with 512Kb memory or more and a disk drive. [] TOS 1.04 or higher is recommended [] Monochrome and color monitors supported. DATAlite has a suggested retail price of $79.95 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Missionware Software - Flash II Update =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Missionware Software is pleased to provide an online upgrade for all current Flash II owners. We're now releasing Flash II version 2.11, which is a maintenance upgrade for all owners of Flash II version 2.1. However, even if you never upgraded to version 2.1, you'll still be able to upgrade your version 2.0 and 2.01 with this patch! The file to look for is called "F211UPGD.LZH". Flash II version 2.11 fixes a number of minor bugs that our beta testers and users discovered in version 2.1. You only need to upgrade to 2.11 if any of the following affected your operation: [] Type Ahead Backspacing: When Rubout was selected and backspace was used, the wrong character got erased from Flash II's internal TA buffer. The text looked ok on the screen but was garbled when sent to the port. [] Capture Clear: When clearing a capture that had a marked block, when the capture filled a second time with new data, the marked block reappeared. [] Silent Line with 0K Buffer: Silent Line would crash during initialization if its buffer size was set to 0K bytes. [] Wait For String Command: This was ignoring case when it should have been case sensitive. [] Keypad Enter: When using Keypad Application mode, the ENTER key was sending the wrong escape sequences in the VT and ANSI modes. [] "DL AS" Script Command: Added for compatibility with older versions of Flash!. You can now download text as a file. [] Memory Options: If "User" was selected and the memory specified was 256K or a multiple thereof, then the setting got chnaged to "All" and 128K at boot time. [] Terminal Timer: The timer now counts all the time, not just when you dial a number or board. It resets to zero (0) when you use Dial Number or Dial Board. [] Cursor Position: In Vidtex and VT52 modes, if the host positioned the cursor beyond the end of the screen the program crashed. Missionware Software continues to strive to provide you with the best support anywhere! Remember, version 2.11 is only an interim version. We're planning on releasing version 2.2 fairly soon which adds even more capabilities for all Atari machines and new features as well. Version 2.2 will also be uploaded as a patch upgrade for all current owners. If you have any questions about any of our products or about this patch upgrade, you can contact us right here. You can also contact us by mail or phone. Our address is: Missionware Software 354 N. Winston Drive Palatine, Illinois 60067-4132 USA phone: 708-359-9565 Thank you for supporting our products and the Atari line of computers! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= //// Pacific Software Is Looking for Authors =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= WE ARE LOOKING FOR SOFTWARE AUTHORS. WE ARE PUBLISHERS AND DISTRIBUTORS OF SOFTWARE TO THE ATARI DEALER NETWORK. OUR STAFF CAN DO THE COVER ART WORK, MANUALS, PRINTING, AND DUPLICATION. IF YOU HAVE A FINISHED PRODUCT, OR WORK IN PROGRESS WE WOULD LIKE TO HEAR FROM YOU. WE ARE PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN SOFTWARE FOR THE FALCON. IF YOU ARE INTERESTED YOU CAN CONTACT ME HERE ON GENIE. WE WILL ACCEPT SAMPLES OR FINISHED WORK FOR REVIEW BY E-MAIL (P.CURRY3) PETER CURRY CWEST / PACIFIC SOFTWARE SUPPLY --==--==--==--==-- ||| ||| Shutdown ............................ Power off, EXIT, BYE, Logoff / | \ ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------ We welcome feedback from all of our readers; feedback both positive and negative. Whatever you think of our efforts, we sincerely would like to know. Our EMail addresses are sprinkled throughout each issue - with the new Internet gateway into GEnie, you can reach us through the Internet also. Append "@genie.geis.com" to any of our GEnie addresses. Until the next issue of AEO, I remain, Your Editor Travis Guy Internet: aeo.mag@genie.geis.com --==--==--==--==-- (This issue printed on recycled photons) --==--==--==--==-- DNFTEC --==--==--==--==-- Atari Explorer Online Magazine is a bi-weekly publication covering the Atari computer community. Material published in this issue may be reprinted under the following terms only: articles must remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of each article reprinted. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted at the beginning of the article, to registered Atari user groups and not for profit publications. Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of the publishers. --==--==--==--==-- Atari, ST, Mega ST, STE, Mega STE, TT030, Atari Falcon030, TOS, MultiTOS, NewDesk, BLiTTER, Atari Lynx, Atari Jaguar, Atari Portfolio, and the Atari Fuji Symbol are all trademarks or registered trademarks of Atari Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned in this issue belong to their respective owners. --==--==--==--==-- Atari Explorer Online Magazine "Your Only Independent Atari Online" Copyright (c) 1993, Subspace Publishers * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: A E O ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: Volume 2 - Issue 14 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE 8 August 1993 :: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::