_______________________________________ ST-REPORT January 20, 1988 Issue No.18 (c)1988 Syndicate Publishing _______________________________________ Co-Publisher: ST X-Press Magazine Editor: Ron Kovacs Circulation Assistants: Ken Kirchner Rich Decowski _______________________________________ ST-REPORT HEADQUARTERS->(213) 69O-1919 ST XPRESS BBS _______________________________________ ZMagazine/ST-Report Magazine Post Office Box 74 Middlesex, New Jersey 08846-0074 _______________________________________ Contents _______________________________________ Editors Desk....................................................Ron Kovacs Atari News Update.........................................Antic Publishing Probing Your ST..Magic Sac...................................Mr. Goodprobe Generic Double Sided Disk Drive...........................James Lacassagne United States Government BBS Systems.............................PD Access Where to Find ST-Report.........................................Ron Kovacs ANSI Codes.........................................................XBN BBS _______________________________________ Editors Desk _______________________________________ Thanks for downloading or reading ST-Report. I have a few things to fill you in on. First, we are now officially part of ST X-Press Magazine. We will be distributed with the monthly magazine disk. The ST-XPRESS BBS will also be the National Headquarters for ST-Report effective with this issue. You might wonder why?? Well, The Syndicate ZMagazine BBS was taken down earlier this week due to a system crash. The time required to restart the system and devote to it's survival helped decide it's fate. ST-Report and ZMagazine will still be published on a weekly basis. I will be providing a list of systems carrying both publications in the weeks ahead. If your system carries ST-Report, Please leave me a message on any of the BBS systems listed in this issue. In other news... A few rumors around Atari land recently, OSS is going to be bought by ICD?? Not confirmed, but close sources tell me this is soon to be the truth. Oasis BBS system could be in for a change real soon, details coming as soon as they are available. Analog Magazine will be returning, Read ZMagazine 89 for more details.....Keith Ledbetter has left ICD and returned to Virginia!! Could this mean that Express Pro will be released sometime this year??...And finally, Many messages on the ZMag BBS before the crash of '88, Is the NEW Kovacs baby born yet? Well as of this writing, NO! Anytime in the next two weeks the doctor sez.. Anytime in the next 2 weeks.... yeah, yeah, yeah..... Details when the child arrives....Prediction for the history books.. Feb 3-6, 1988! Thanks for reading!! _______________________________________ Atari News Update _______________________________________ ANTIC PUBLISHING INC., COPYRIGHT 1988 REPRINTED BY PERMISSION. ATARI GETS TOUGH ON TV BY Gregg Pearlman, ANTIC ASSISTANT EDITOR In the wake of a Christmas season in which Atari Corp.'s video game sales were more than twice those of the same period last year, Atari plans to keep the ball rolling by launching a major first-quarter national television advertising campaign featuring six new commercials, according to Michael Katz, president of Atari's electronics division. The commercials will be aired in the top 30 markets in children's and prime-time viewing hours and will include syndicated and cable programming. Katz said that first-quarter spending will be comparable to what Atari spent in the fourth quarter of 1987 when the company sold out of two of its three game systems, the new XE Game System and the older 7800. The new Atari 2600 commercial, like the previous one, uses rap music while heavily promoting the new games available for the 2600. The new XE commercials include a testimonial/endorsement commercial presented by the presidents of four computer game companies; a commercial comparing Atari's baseball game with Nintendo's; and three more promoting the range of new games for the XE. Atari also announced new playable, self-running point-of-sale display units for the 7800 and XE systems, available at no charge to retailers. ATARI NEWS** ATARI PC: MYTH OR FICTION? January 6, 1988 -- "I'm sure that I will never see" "Atari's duplicate PC..." That song's been sung for months. There's been little evidence of the IBM clone Atari started showing a year ago. But according to a classified advertisement in the San Jose Mercury News, Atari is seeking a "Production Development/Sustaining Engineer for our growing line of PS2/PCAT/PCXT systems." So keep on your toes -- it may not be far away after all. ATARI NABS COUNTERFEITERS December 17, 1987 Agents of the U.S. Customs and U.S. Marshals Services seized 2,000 counterfeits of Atari's 2600 video game system at Terminal Island in the Port of Los Angeles on December 17. The imitations were manufactured by Fund International Co., Ltd., of Taiwan, and distributed in the United States by P.S.D. Inc. of Canoga Park, California. VIRTUSONICS LICENSING AGREEMENT December 16, 1987 Virtusonics Corp., creators of the Desktop Performance Studio, has entered a development and licensing agreement with 2nd Mate Systems, a marine navigation software systems company, to adapt and interface its Virtuoso software technology with 2nd Mate's computerized marine navigational systems. Boaters will now be able to plot their courses and positions on computerized charts using computers (such as an 8-bit Atari) and a monitor or television. A review of the Desktop Performance Studio and an in-depth article about Virtusonics and the Virtuoso Software technology will appear in the April, 1988 issue of Antic. ATARI WINS SHOOTOUT VS. NINTENDO December 15, 1987 A U.S. District Court Judge denied the request of Nintendo of America to halt Atari Corp.'s television commercials that said that more games could be played on the Atari XE Game System than on the Nintendo, according to Reuters. Nintendo had contended that the ads were false and misleading, but Atari was "confident of the outcome," according to Michael Katz, Atari's president of entertainment electronics. "The commercial was hard-hitting but truthful, and we proved it," he said. The XE Game System runs all cartridge-based Atari games, and a disk drive can be added to run all disk-based Atari games. _______________________________________ Probing Your ST _______________________________________ Mastering your Macin-ST-osh... (Getting the most from your Magic Sac) by Mr. Goodprobe Emulate 1. to try to equal or surpass 2. to rival successfully. Websters New World dictionary. You know, thats funny. I was about to begin this series of articles by stating that David Small's Magic Sac MacIntosh Emulator shouldn't really be called an emulator. I guess we are all used to thinking of an emulator as something that runs some programs that were designed for another computer system, but in doing so so you lose the majority of the speed, and many of the features. Such is not the case with the Magic Sac, in fact it appears that maybe the Magic Sac is one of the few TRUE emulators we as ST users have that lives up to its billing. Where does one go when they attempt to travel uncharted seas? Good question! As we all well know Atari makes great computers, but there is something sadly lacking when its comes to customer support, it might be closer to the truth to say its hard to determine if it actually exists! Well, what about Mac owners and computer dealers? Could they be our ally? I just read a humorous story where a young gentleman walked in to a computer store that handled Macintosh software, so as to inquire how he might go about purchasing a certain software package. We well know that Macs have many incompatibilities amongst themselves, so the dealer inquired which Mac it was for. Our young friend pulled his Magic Sac cartridge out of his pocket and said "Here is my computer!". The dealer suddenly went through many color changes and blurbbed something about the Magic Sac being "immoral and unethical" and such things should not be allowed. It is therefore needless to say we can look to them for help. It is up to us, the ST Magic Sac user, to pool our resources and see if we can support one another. I will therefore attempt to share information which will hopefully make you feel as comfortable with your new computer as you were with your ST. Strange..it looks the same...but it seems some magical spell has come over it, the scenery on my monitor looks different, my keys react differently, strange new worlds open before my eyes... I will not delve in programming, as this is not my area of specialty, rather I hope to write a small basic users manual so you can harness the power and beauty of your new computer thanks to the amazing Magic Sac. Oh yes, I am not here either to sing the praises of Magic Sac, too many have done that already and I wish not to bore you with another futile review. This will be practical information for your amusement and edification. Lets dive right in! The first thing you behold after the FINDER or system disk has done its thing is that the layout of the screen appears remarkably familiar, although quite different. The icons are much more detailed, and many, many of them have custom pictures, give the look and feel a much more personalized touch. The mouse operates much the same, except when you want to select more than one item, hold down the shift key, and then select as many items as you wish. You can double click on a disk icon or program to run it just as you would in the native ST mode. The first place we run into some differences in in the windows, although the average ST user will feel right at home here. You can change the size and dimensions of the window by clicking on the "square on a square" located in the bottom right corner of the window. When you are changing the size and shape of a window, it appears that only the outline of the window is changing. When you release the right mouse button the window will spring into the shape that you designated for it. It is wise to set the windows up as you left it, for the FINDER will set them back up exactly as you left them, as if you had a DESKTOP.INF file on the disk. You can click and hold on the Title Bar located and the middle of the very top of the window, and drag it any where on your screen you wish. Now here is an interesting feature. You will note as I have many times all the icons that should be there are not displayed. If this is indeed the case, you will note that either the right side, or the bottom side of the window will be shaded. This tells us that if there is more information vertically, the bottom edge will appear with the shaded effect. If there is more information horizontally the right edge will be shaded. You will note that at the top of the window it will tell you how many items are in that directory. Scrolling and closing the window work the same as the St native mode. At the top of the screen you will find our command bar. We will touch on these commands next time. Until then, enjoy! If I could, I would like to encourage you to send your Magic Sac usage hints, hardware projects and modifications to me so that we can put them here in ST-REPORT for all to enjoy and benefit from. Please address these to Mr. Goodprobe and mail them via letter or disk (3 1/2 or 5 5/4 is fine, it will be returned) to: Mr. Goodprobe c/o Midtown TV 27 Midway Plaza Tallamdge, Ohio 44278 Or: you send them via modem to: XBN BBS (617) 559-6844 or Stairway To Heaven 216-784-0574 300/1200 or mad*Micro*laboratory 216-633-0998 300/1200 30 Meg. 6p-9a Daily All day Sunday Due to open end of December (Stay posted!) Keep those Atari's hummin! Mr. Goodprobe (on lend from) Midtown TV Atari 8/16 Sales /Repair _______________________________________ Generic Double Sided Disk Drive _______________________________________ by James Lacassagne Purpose: This document is a description of the hook-ups and modifications that I found necessary in adding a 3.5 inch double sided drive to my Atari 520. It is intended solely as a guide to anyone who is interested in saving a few dollars by using an "industry standard" drive in place of the Atari SF314. Warning: This installation seems to function properly for my system, but I cannot guarantee anything. Also, the only way that a saving will result is if a suitable power supply is already available, or can be obtained at a very low price. Requirements: 1 3.5" Double Sided Drive w/ Installation kit @ $130 (The Unit I used was a Toshiba ND-352 which came with a multi-purpose mounting kit. BE SURE that the unit is XT compatible!!(720 K etc)) 1 5v/12vdc Regulated Power Supply @ $ 25 (The supply must be capable of supplying 5V.+/-5% @200 mA and 12V.+/-5% @300 mA. I saved some money here by using the same supply that I used for adding a 5 1/4 in. drive as described in numerous articles in magazines and on Bulletin Boards.) 1 34 pin Card Edge Connector @ $ 3 (Yes, This is the "industry standard" used on all XT's and Clones. I got mine at Radio Shack (P/N____________).) 1 Standard Atari 3.5 in Disk Drive Cable @ $ 8 (Preferably, one of the After Market types 6' or so in length.) 1 Disk Drive Case @ $ ? (This is optional--I still haven't found a good cheap one, but the drive seems to work fine.) Procedure: There are two ways to proceed with this project depending on whether you want the new drive to be A or B. The Drive B method is the simpler, so I will start with it. Cut the Standard Drive Cable in half (Save the other half for another project--maybe!) Strip back about 2" of the outer insulation from the cable. Do Not cut off the shield wire (a layer of wire woven around the multiple conductors in the cable). Carefully unweave the shield, and twist it to form a wire of its own. Since the 34 pin connector that I used was designed for ribbon cable, some ingenuity is required here. Each pin on the connector ends in a V shaped stud designed to separate the ribbon cable wire and cut only its insulation when the cover is forced in place. Since most of the wires in the cable go to the top row of the connector (the even numbered pins) and the shield goes to the bottom row, along with the wires from pins 3 and 7 of the Atari connector, I divided them accordingly and routed them above and below the connector cover. Very carefully, I pushed each wire far enough into the corresponding Vstud to hold it in place. I then forced the cover down, forcing the wires the rest of the way into the V. By trial and error I found that the two ground wires (pins 3 and 7) in the cable did not provide a sufficient ground path, causing unreliable drive operation. I overcame this by (gasp!) tying the shield to ALL of the odd numbered pins on the connector. (That's what the twisted shield wire is used for.) Carefully lay it over the bottom row of Vstuds before putting the connector cover on. The Connections Follow: (NOTE: the colors mentioned are for an Atari Cable You should check if you are using an After Market Cable.) 34 pin conn. Atari conn. Signal Color 2 * media chng 4 N/A in use 6 N/A d4 sel 8 4 index yellow 10 5 d0 sel green 12 6 d1 sel violet 14 N/A d2 sel 16 8 motor on brown 18 9 direction orange 20 10 step grey 22 11 wrt data pink 24 12 wrt gate lt. blue 26 13 track 0 lt. brown 28 14 wrt prot lt. green 30 1 read data red 32 2 side 0 white 34 * rdy/med ch (any 3 logic gnd blue odd) 7 logic gnd black Assemble the Disk Drive and Adapter kit. It should have come with a power cable adapter with a std XT connector on the end. You can either buy a mating connector or cut it off and splice directly to the wires. (Generally, pin 1 (red) is 5V, pin 4 (yel) is 12V, and pins 2&3 (blk) are Ground.) The Installation Kit may refer to a jumper on pin 34, but this can be ignored. Now, the only modification to the drive can be made. On the Installation Kit PC Board, a Jumper must be soldered between pin 2 and pin 28 of the Drive Connector.(This is the one that actually connects to the Disk Drive. It is identical in pin layout to the Std connector, with pin 2 on the top left as you look at it.) This connects the Media Change signal on pin 2 to the Write Protect signal.(Thanks to Analog2 for pointing me in the right direction on this one.) These are both open collector, active low signals, and can be safely wired together.(wired or configuration) This should be all that has to be done to make the drive work. Simply plug the cable into the OUT connector of the first drive or the 1040, and away you go. If you have a 520 and want this to be drive A, the procedure is the same, except DO NOT CUT THE CABLE IN HALF. Instead, strip a 3-4 in. section in the center of the cable, Cut and unweave 1/2 of the shield. Lead the wires over the Vstuds as before, but cut the wires from the Atari connector pins 5&6. (computer end) Pin 5 wire is connected to the Std connector pin 10 and pin 6 wire is connected to the remaining end of pin 5.(The part that will go to the second drive.) This brings the ds1 signal to the ds0 pin on the second drive, just like Atari does it. You can cut off the remaining pin 6 wire if you like, since it doesn't get used. Don't forget to attach the shield to the odd number connector pins. If you have understood and followed my directions, the drive should function properly. If not, there is not much that can cause damage. My version will read and format and write to double and single sided disks without any problems. If you encounter any difficulty, I can be contacted through Delphi as JIMSL or Compuserve No. 72257,1613. Atari, Radio Shack, and Toshiba are Registered Trademarks. _______________________________________ US Government Bulletin Boards _______________________________________ The following list was downloaded from a community BBS in Hawaii, and the source of the list appears to be a Department of Commerce BBS. This information has not been verified and should be verified before it is relied upon. T H E E C O N O M I C B U L L E T I N B O A R D COMPUTER BULLETIN BOARDS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE The Economic Bulletin Board (This board) Operating agency: Office of Business Analysis Office of the Under Secretary for Economic Affairs U. S. Department of Commerce Contents: Current economic news from DoC Economic Affairs(EA) agencies including press releases, economic indicators, official DoC summaries of economic news, information on how to obtain data tapes, and summaries of reports and studies produced by EA agencies. Also included are press releases issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Audience: Open to the public without charge. No preregistration required. Operations: Operated 24 hours a day, except when being serviced. Telephone (202) 377-3870 or (202) 377-0433 Communications are Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit, or Requirements: Full duplex, even parity, 7 bit words, 1 stop bit 300 or 1200 baud. After connect, enter 1 or 2 returns to start Contact: Office of Business Analysis Telephone (202) 377-4450 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- State Data Center Bulletin Board Operating agency: State and Regional Programs Staff Data User Services Division Bureau of the Census Contents: News about new Census Bureau programs, Census publications, reference material for State Data Center personnel. Audience: For use of the Census Bureau staff and all State Data Center Components, including affiliates. Preregistration required - call information contact below. Operations: Operated 24 hours a day, except when being serviced. Communications Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit, or Requirements: Full duplex, even parity, 7 bit words, 1 stop bit 300 or 1200 baud After connect, enter 1 or 2 returns to start Information John Rowe or Larry Carbaugh Contact: Bureau of the Census (301) 763-1580 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Population Estimates Bulletin Board Operating agency: Federal-State Cooperative for Population Estimates, Population Division Bureau of the Census Contents: Information and news about population and demographic projections. Audience: For use by members of the Federal-State Cooperative for Population Estimates and members of the Federal-State Cooperative for Population Projections. No preregistration required. Operations: Usual hours of operation 5:00 PM to 6:30 AM Monday-Thursday, 24 hour operation from 5:00 PM Thursday to 6:30 AM Monday. No preregistration required. Communications Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit. Requirements: 300 baud Telephone (301) 763-5225 After connected, enter "RUN" to start. Information Fred Cavanaugh Contact: Bureau of the Census (301) 763-7722 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CMIC Electronic Bulletin Board Operating agency: Census Microcomputer Information Center, Office of the Director Bureau of the Census Contents: Microcomputer news, software and hardware reviews, public domain software, training programs for Census and Commerce personnel. Audience: General microcomputer users; primarily internal Census Bureau personnel. No preregistration required. Operations: Operated 24 hours a day, except when being serviced. Phone (301) 763-4576 Communications Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit, or Requirements: Full duplex, even parity, 7 bit words, 1 stop bit 300 or 1200 baud After connect, enter 1 or 2 returns to start Information Nevins Frankel Contact: Bureau of the Census (301) 763-4494 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Microcomputer Electronic Information Exchange (MEIE) Operating agency: The Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology (ICST) The National Bureau of Standards Department of Commerce Contents: Information on the acquisition, management, and use of small computers. Other files containing sources of information on topics such as: conferences, Federal publications and activities, user groups, other bulletin boards, etc. Audience: General microcomputer users. No preregistration required. Operations: Operated 24 hours a day, except when being serviced. Telephone: (301) 948-5718 Communications Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit, or Requirements: Full duplex, even parity, 7 bit words, 1 stop bit 300 or 1200 baud. After connect, enter 1 or 2 returns to start. If you do not receive a carrier after two rings, you should hang up and call again. Information Ted Landberg Contact: National Bureau of Standards Telephone: (301) 921-3485 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Climate Assessment Bulletin Board Operating agency Climate Analysis Center National Weather Service Department of Commerce Contents: Historical climate information - daily, weekly, and monthly, heating degree days, weekly climate bulletins Audience: Analysts using historical meteorological data. Operations: Operated 24 hours a day. Preregistration required. Call information contact below. Communications Full duplex, no parity, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit. Information Vernon Patterson Contact: Climate Analysis Center Telephone: (301) 763-8071 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- East Coast Marine Users Bulletin Board Operating agency: National Weather Service U.S. Department of Commerce Contents: Marine weather and nautical information for coastal waterways. Information includes data for bays and sounds, coastal waters, and offshore waters; tropical storm advisories; tidal information, and important weather, nautical, and fishing news. Data are primarily about the middle Atlantic region. Audience: Commercial fishermen and other users of coastal waters. The bulletin board is open to the public and free of charge. Users must preregister by calling information contact below. Information about similar bulletin boards for other regions may also be obtained by calling the information contact. Operations: Operated 24 hours a day. Telephone (301) 454-8700 Communications Full duplex, 8 bit words, 1 stop bit. Requirements: 300 baud Information Ross Laporte Contact: National Weather Service (301) 899-3296 _______________________________________ Where to Find ST-Report _______________________________________ by Ron Kovacs ST-Report National Headquarters ST XPRESS Bulletin Board Service......(213) 69O-1919 Jersey Atari Computer Group...........(2O1) 298-0161 ZMagazine National Headquarters XBN Oasis Bulletin Board Service......(617) 559-6844 _______________________________________ ANSI Codes _______________________________________ Captured from XBN BBS (617) 559-6844 |<<<<[XBN]| | Msg. No. |0069 | Sent To |All 01/20/88 | Post By |ROBERT AMES | Subject |ANSI screen codes If you have many IBM callers, you'll be interested in using the ANSI codes for SFUNCT.SUP. Here are some- assuming I can upload to msg base OK ESC[No.,No.H -- moves cursor to No.,No. ESC[No.C -- Moves cursor No. places forward ESC[No.D -- moves No. places back ESC[s -- save cursor pos. ESC[u -- restore cursor pos. ESC[2J -- erase display ESC[K -- erase from current column to end of line. ESC[No.;...;No.m -- set mode: where No. is: 0 -- normal 1 bold 4 underline (ibm monochrome only) 5 blink on 7 inverse 8 invisible 30 black forground 31 red for. 32 green for. 33 yellow for. 34 blue for. 35 magenta for. 36 cyan for. 37 whtie for. 40 black background. |[+-NPRAEDQMV?]| _______________________________________ ST-Report Issue No.18 January 20, 1988 (c)1988 Syndicate Publishing Company ST XPRESS Magazine is the EXCLUSIVE DISK Publisher of ST-Report. _______________________________________