*---== ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---* """"""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original Online ST Magazine" _______________________________ June 30, 1989 Vol III No.94 ======================================================================= ST Report Online Magazine __________________________ Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32236 ~ 6672 R.F. Mariano Publisher - Editor _________________________________________ Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EDT BBS: 904-786-4176 12-24-96 HST FAX: 904-783-3319 12 AM - 6 AM EDT _________________________________________ ** F-NET NODE 350 ** FIDOMAIL NODE 1:363/37 ** Our support BBS carries ALL issues of STReport and An International list of private BBS systems carrying STReport for their users enjoyment __________________________________________________________________ > STReport Issue: #94 The Online Magazine of Choice! ------------------- - The Editors' Podium - CPU REPORT - The Hand Held Wonder Toy!! - OLD GLORY! - Whetmore joins Bushnell!! - CAPCOM SUPPORTS ATARI! - CALAMUS ~ In Depth Review! - ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL - CIS ACQUIRES THE SOURCE!! - SMALL RESCUES STACEY! ---=== World of Atari Dearborn Commentary & Analysis ===--- ======================================================================= AVAILABLE ON: COMP-U-SERVE ~ DELPHI ~ GENIE ~ THE SOURCE ~ BIX ======================================================================= > The Editor's Podium¿ We have in this issue, among other things, our coverage of the WOA show from Dearborn Michigan. All three of our correspondents agreed that the show had good attendance on Saturday, Sunday was another story, it seems WOA was scheduled up against one of THE major annual events in the great state of Michigan, "THE MICHIGAN 400 AUTO RACE". Recently, we received a copy of The Shareware Connection, Issue # 1, this is, in our humble opinion, a needed service in the ST Userbase. The newsletter is well written and shows a great deal of promise for the future. We highly recommend this newsletter to anybody interested in knowing the latest info about Public Domain and Shareware software. Those interested can contact these folks at PO Box 2224 Arvada, Colorado 80001. Atari is definitely a company on the move, in the coming months we will witness even more change in the structure of this growing company. Naturally, as with all growing concerns, there are the ever present, "growing pains". In whatever form they appear, they must be considered for only what they are and no more, simply put, don't try to read anything into what you are hearing or seeing, we have found that even though whatever event is presented as the 'whole' story, there is usually a very strong undercurrent which eventually ebbs and the real story always comes forward. We, the users, must encourage Atari to push ahead and strive to dominate the home computer market. We can and must do this together. At STReport, our commitment of non-partial reporting of the news in the Atari userbase is our bond. As far as sugar coated diatribe, the chances of this occurring in this userbase are slim to none! There are simply too many folks with more than a casual interest in Atari and it's activities. That sort of press (propaganda) would not survive the time it took to download it. As far as this magazine is concerned, we will, as always, call it like we see it. In reality, our paramount responsibility is to our readers, by presenting reliable information, contemporary features and up to date news. In doing so, the total commitment is met. Thanks for your support! Ralph..... "ATARI IS BACK!" *********************************************************************** NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME to the Readers ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE "The Online Magazine of Choice!" NEW USERS SIGN UP TODAY! Call the St Report Official BBS number (Listed at the top of ST REPORT) or Leave E-mail to St Report - R.Mariano Be sure to include your full mailing address so your Compuserve kit can be immediately mailed to you! NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE NOTICE *********************************************************************** > CPU REPORT¿ ========== Issue # 27 by Michael Arthur Remember When.... In June 1979, Seymour Rubenstein, founder of MicroPro International, introduced the WordStar word processor for CP/M, and in April 1983, when WordStar 3.3 became the first version of WordStar for the IBM PC? CPU INSIGHTS¿ ============= OS/2, DESQview, and the Future of the IBM PC -------------------------------------------- When Microsoft introduced MS-DOS in 1981, one of its greatest virtues was its support for an incredible (at that time) 640K of memory, which was more than enough for any reasonable task. At that time, though, Digital Research was offering M/PM, a multitasking version of C/PM, and although it did not catch on, it caused many PC owners to desire that DOS multitasked. And while rumors of a multitasking DOS persisted (often when IBM/Microsoft was about to announce a new version of MS-DOS), nothing became of them. In 1984, these rumors surfaced yet again, when IBM was introducing the IBM PC AT. By this time, as DOS programs had gotten larger and more powerful, 640K of RAM was no longer the large amount of memory it used to be, and PC users began to want support for more memory. This time, IBM fueled the rumors by saying it was developing a new DOS that would fully use the AT's abilities, foremost among which was the new 80286 chip. At that time, QuarterDeck had come out with a program switcher called Desq, and Digital Research was making Concurrent DOS, a program that could multitask DOS programs. Although both programs used a windowing scheme, as Concurrent DOS lacked essential features, and Desq didn't truly multitask, they didn't become predominant. But as time passed on, the "multitasking DOS" rumors were not forfilled. Then, in 1986, Intel developed the 80386 chip, which featured both an MMU chip and a virtual 8086 mode that allowed 8086 programs to multitask. Seeing that the hardware was in place, many began to demand that IBM provide the software to allow PC's to multitask. Thus it was cause for celebration when IBM announced OS/2 along with the PS/2 and MicroChannel in April 2, 1987. Just as promised, it used the 80286 chip's capabilities, supported up to 16 Megabytes of RAM, and most importantly, multitasked. And although it didn't multitask DOS programs, it did have a compatibility box to run them. But after the fanfare, some flaws about OS/2 began to emerge that spoiled the good news. OS/2: Trouble in Paradise Now I am not talking about bugs, or inadequate features. I mean mistakes made in the choice of its features themselves, more commonly known as design flaws. And although OS/2 is a very powerful operating system, with a task-switching algorithm/priority scheme that is more sophisticated than Unix's, a vast array of facilities for InterProcess Communications (or IPC's, which allow tasks, or processes, to communicate with each other), and is, like the MicroChannel, based on previous minicomputer technology, the fatal reality may be that OS/2's foundation itself is not as sound as its many capabilities. Foremost among these design flaws was the decision to support the 80286 chip, instead of the superior 80386 chip. The most obvious reason is that the Virtual 8086 mode would allow a 386-specific OS/2 to multitask both OS/2 and DOS programs at the same time. And as you may know, the current situation (with the DOS Compatibility Box stopping all OS/2 programs while it runs only one DOS program at a time) has not been seen as favorable. One of the other reasons deals with programming for OS/2. The 80286 chip normally can only address 16-bit data segments that are 64K in size. This is often a hindrance to programmers, especially when writing large applications. In comparison, the 80386 chip supports 32-bit data segments that can be 4 Gigabytes in size. Also, one of the main allures of OS/2 was the potential to port minicomputer applications over to it so they could be run with microcomputers, and those programs definitely use data segments larger than 64K.... Another problem with OS/2 is that it is far too large. OS/2 with the Presentation Manager requires 2.5 Megs of RAM just for itself, and since OS/2 programs are likely to be larger and more powerful, an OS/2 system would probably require around 7 Megs of RAM for optimal performance. One corollary to this problem is that as OS/2 itself is large, it is also very slow. Disk access is 50 percent slower in OS/2 than with DOS, and it is apparent that an OS/2 version of a program will tend to be slower than a DOS version of the same program. It seems that either OS/2's algorithms are not that optimized, or that OS/2 itself is simply so large that it slows down the machine. And given the fact that versions of Unix for the 80386 don't slow the CPU down as much as OS/2, maybe it's just that the 80286 isn't capable of providing efficient multitasking.... Around the time that people were discovering the flaws in OS/2, Microsoft Windows was introduced. Immediately IBM Users began wondering when OS/2 would employ Windows, and IBM promised that a windowing OS/2 (now known as the Presentation Manager) would be available soon. But while many IBM Users waited for the Presentation Manager, a few were seeking other ways to obtain a windowing multitasking operating system which would correct the handicaps found in OS/2. OS/2 and DESQview While IBM/Microsoft were developing OS/2, and the IBM industry waited for a multitasking system, a company called Quarterdeck Office Systems continued to improve and modify Desq, their old program switcher, to remedy its deficiencies. When the 80386 chip was made, and IBM did not modify OS/2 so it would support it (and as actual programming on OS/2 did not start until Early 1985, while the 80386 was announced in Early 1986, IBM could have done this), Quarterdeck began to dream of a new Desq, which would not only multitask DOS programs but become almost an operating system unto itself. Ironically, this product became available just a few months before IBM had started shipping OS/2 1.0. The product that emerged, renamed DESQview, was now capable of much more than its predecessor. Not only did it utilize the 80386's virtual mode to support multitasking, but the wizards at Quarterdeck were even able to get it to perform DOS multitasking with the 80286, 8086, and 8088 chips, something which was considered completely impossible. And in addition to this, DESQview only has about 1% of overhead, meaning that it will run DOS programs about as fast as DOS itself, as well as being able to multitask them. Microsoft Windows, on the other hand, takes up over 10 percent overhead for its environment. DESQview also has support for the Lotus/Intel/Microsoft Expanded Memory Specification, or LIM EMS 4.0, so that it can handle up to 32 Megs of RAM. And when used with a 80386, DESQview uses the 386's MMU (memory management unit) to provide memory protection, so an "ill-behaved" program doesn't crash or interfere with the system. And seeing that any operating environment, even a DOS multitasker, needs to have third-party support, Quarterdeck designed the DESQview API (Application Program Interface) Toolkit, which allows programmers to directly use DESQview's multitasking capabilities, as well as other things found in a true operating system. The API lets applications use its IPC facilities to exchange data between its own tasks and other DESQview-based programs Also, since DESQview is a text-based windowing system, the API lets programmers access its menuing and windowing routines to design Macintosh-like features into DESQview-specific programs. Also, DESQview supports PharLap's DOS Extender, which allows 386-specific DOS programs to take full advantage of the 32-bit data segments of the 80386, be larger than 640K, and multitask along with normal DOS programs. OS/2, in comparison, does not yet support the features of the 80386.... But even though Desqview has so much going for it, there are a few factors that give OS/2 a great advantage as an operating system in the long run. One is that even though DESQview multitasks current DOS programs, has guidelines to help make future DOS programs more powerful, and will quickly support new technologies, it is working within an aging standard, while OS/2 gives a newer, more sophisticated standard that was built from the ground up for technologies such as multitasking. A good example of this is OS/2's LAN Manager. Because Local Area Networks (or LANs) are becoming very popular, and OS/2 is a single-user operating system, IBM and Microsoft designed a LAN Manager for OS/2 which would handle every aspect of LAN Management, from the sharing of resources and data, to ensuring the LAN's smooth operation. Many LAN Makers are producing handlers to let their networks be controlled by the LAN Manager, and although DESQview will soon support some of the more popular LANs, OS/2's LAN Manager provides the type of comprehensive organization of a Network that only an operating system can perform. Also, DESQview's API, while allowing DOS programs to have some features of OS/2, cannot provide the same type of functionality that OS/2 is capable of, simply because OS/2 was designed from the beginning to support the sophisticated features that future programs will need.... Another advantage of OS/2 lies in SAA, a new strategy that IBM has implemented around OS/2 Extended Edition, a version of OS/2 with Database Manager, an integrated SQL Database system that is compatible with IBM's DB2, a mainframe database standard, and Communications Manager, which has utilities to allow communications between separate IBM computers and terminals. Systems Application Architecture, or SAA, is a common set of guidelines that will allow users to learn and use applications on any IBM system, from IBM Mainframes to the PS/2, more quickly, and for programmers to port applications running on one IBM computer to another IBM system more easily. SAA consists of three components: CUA (Common User Access), which defines Presentation Manager as the standard graphical user interface for IBM applications, CPI (Common Programming Interface), which is a standard set of operating system calls allowing IBM applications to be ported among OS/2, OS/400, MVS, and VM, the Operating Systems used in IBM's PS/2, workstation, and mainframe systems. CCS (Common Communications Support) standardizes the various terminal emulations and protocols used for LAN, modem/terminal communications in IBM systems. This unified approach to computing could allow IBM Mainframe Users to integrate AT Clones and PS/2s into their businesses, and would make the power of mainframe applications available to OS/2 Users. However, since OS/2 Extended Edition will be the VERY first application to support IBM's SAA, the success of SAA depends solely on OS/2. And since the success of OS/2 is greatly dependent on the success of SAA, a "chicken and egg" dilemma is established.... Also, most major DOS companies are making OS/2 products NOW, meaning that it will shortly have a vast software base. In comparison, while major software companies are considering using DESQview's API for their products, DESQview-specific software probably won't be seen until after OS/2 software is readily available. Of course, since DESQview can already multitask DOS software, this might not be that important. But combine all this with the fact that both IBM and Microsoft are putting their united support behind it, and OS/2 has a good chance of being an emerging standard. But ONLY if one of its most grevious handicaps is corrected immediately.... Most of the potential of OS/2 as a replacement for DOS will go unrealized if programmers cannot use new technologies with it, and if users cannot use it with new systems. IBM and Microsoft have announced that they are finally developing a 386-specific version of OS/2 that will take advantage of its capabilities. These included 32-bit data segments, being able to multitask both OS/2 and DOS programs, and using the 80386's special features for faster, more secure multitasking. However, this version of OS/2, which should have been made in the first place, will not be available until Late 1990. And it is reported that Intel is preparing to shortly announce the new 80486 chip, which will replace the 80386 as the state of the art. And assuming that IBM/Microsoft won't do an 80486-specific version of OS/2 until 1991, when Intel will probably be announcing an 80586 chip, it is more than likely that OS/2 will never truly be at the forefront of computer technology, as IBM tries to make it catch up with the status quo of the high end of the market. And as other products (such as DESQview or Unix) will definitely take advantage of new technologies at a quicker pace, OS/2 could be overtaken by a system like Unix. Unless, of course, Big Blue wishes otherwise.... With OS/2, IBM presented the final segment of its plans for the microcomputer of the Nineties. The other two segments, the PS/2 and MicroChannel, have also faced stern criticism and strong competition, partly because of the industry's tendency to be cautious of new technologies. But there are other startling similarities between the MicroChannel's situation and OS/2's. In both cases, IBM offered a powerful new standard which was vastly different from anything in its field, which garnered a great deal of controversy in the IBM world. With the MicroChannel, though, the criticisms were not centered on any inadequacies or faults it had, but on whether the PC world can afford to completely switch to a new standard. OS/2, though, has several deficiencies that hamper its usefulness. And even though it is supposed to be the operating system of the future, its inability to support state of the art products such as the 80386 limits its being feasible in high-end systems, where it would be most useful. Also, DESQview has many attractive aspects which OS/2 does not currently have, making it a powerful alternative. But even though DOS as an operating system will be around for a very long time, the fact is that for high-end users, DOS has already become obsolete. So at least in the high end of the market, a sophisticated operating system such as OS/2 will be needed. And even though Unix is a viable option, the dissention within its own ranks could cause OS/2 to win by default. So is the real issue whether IBM missed the fundamentals with OS/2, forgetting the basic tendencies and preferences of its userbase in striving to make a superior product, or if IBM's timing in introducing OS/2 was faulty? CPU REPORT CONFIDENTIAL¿ ======================= Sausalito, CA AutoDesk Inc. has introduced AutoCAD Release 10 for IBM ------------- 80386-based IBMs running under DOS. This version of AutoCAD speeds up 3-D rendering/drawing operations by 20 percent, and uses PharLap's 386/DOS Extender to break DOS's 640K limit.... AutoCAD for the 80386 chip will be shipping at around Winter Comdex, for $3000.00, the standard price for ANY version of AutoCAD. However, existing AutoCAD users will be able to upgrade for $100.00. Beaverton, OR NCube has introduced the NCube 2 Scalar Supercomputer, ------------- a parallel processing architecture which uses from 32 to 8192 processors to execute up to 60 billion instructions per second, and 27 billion floating point operations per Second, or nine times the speed of a Cray Y-MP. Cost: From $500,000 to $30 million.... However, while it does run Unix, the only software package currently being made for the NCube 2 is a Parallel Server Architecture version of Oracle Inc.'s SQL Database System. But then, with 170 customers already waiting for delivery, the NCube 2 is certain to revolutionize the industry.... San Francisco, CA Nintendo has obtained a preliminary injunction which ----------------- prohibits Atari Games, or its subsidiary Tengen from selling the Tetris video game in the U.S. Nintendo is suing Tengen, a subsidiary of Atari Games, over the exclusive U.S. distribution rights to Tetris, and since Tengen was selling a version of Tetris for the Nintendo Entertainment System.... Tokyo, Japan In a recent agreement, Canon has decided to invest ------------ $100 Million dollars in NeXT Inc. In return, Canon will receive 16.67 percent of NeXT's stock, and exclusive Far East distribution rights for the NeXT Computer. However, to prevent any potential takeover, Canon cannot obtain more than 20 percent of NeXT Inc. in the next 10 years.... This may be a golden opportunity for both NeXT Inc., who now has an excellent Asian sales network for the NeXT System, and Canon, who has a valid entry in the burgeoning Japanese workstation market.... _______________________________________________________________________ > "OLD GLORY" STR Feature¿ ----------------------- "WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" ======================== by Ralph F. Mariano Theme: This is 1989, ..some things we must hold dear to our hearts! You're a Grand Old Flag, you're a High Flying Flag...... The "Supreme Court" has decreed that you are a just a rag! Ok to be burned, soiled and done with as any demented misfit cares to do with you! Flash Back! ---------- Iwo Jima, Second World War, A group of American Soldiers who have fought through the blood soaked volcanic ash of this pacific atoll begin to raise the Flag atop Mount Surabachi, ... Afterthought... -------------- We, the people, would love to see this "Supreme Court" tell THOSE soldiers that some puke can BURN the Flag of the United States of America! Flash Back! ----------- An overview of the French population when the American Expeditionary Force arrived and pledged to help win the First World War in the names of freedom, justice and liberty for all. The sight; "the French people with tears in their eyes saluting the American Flag" and treating the doughboys as if they were their own sons! Afterthought... --------------- How it easy it becomes to understand "the how and why" when the people of nations, whom we have fought and died for, show disrespect. Especially, when they observe our "Highest Court" in the land permits punks to desecrate the flag of our country. How then, can we ever expect those folks in other nations to respect our flag or our citizens for that matter? A little history... ------------------- The original circle of stars in "Old Glory" signifies the first colonies to become the founding states.....but how many people actually know what the colors of the flag signify? Red ..is for the blood spilled in defense of our country! White ..is for the purity of heart and thought! Blue ..is for the undying loyalty of all Americans pledged to the flag! Why all the fuss? ----------------- There comes a time in every man's heart when he murmurs to himself, "I stood all I can stand and I can't stand NO MORE!" Folks, what is happening to our country? It seems to be the right time to jump squarely in the face of every elected official from the local dog catcher right up to and including the oldest Senator and let them know that what is happening here in the USA, in 1989, is not correct, respectful or at least, decent. Whatever became of stability, continuity and just plain common sense??? Common sense is really just... "Doing the Right Thing." "Burning the Flag of the United States of America is the SUPREME INSULT thrust upon each and every one of us. And especially upon those who have fought and died for our beloved country!" This recent decision of the Supreme Court scares the pants off me, if this type of thought process is what "we the people" want ...then somebody had better show me where I am .."cause there is not a single soul here in this part of the country who agrees with them saying, it's ok to burn the flag!" :REFLECTIONS: ============= The VietNam War Memorial, all those names, I'd love to see the Supreme Court tell those citizens or their families ..it's ok to burn the Flag! The Arizona Memorial, still a small but very evident oil slick comes forth as a reminder to today's generations that the memorial is actually the battleship itself. Wonder which of the justices on the Supreme Court would volunteer to explain the how and why it's ok to burn the flag to these citizens and their families??? Two very dramatic and harsh examples of just how insulted and outraged the "SILENT MAJORITY" of the US population really is. The boneheads in DC had better wake up and realize that the average US citizen is not a dolt being led by a public relations expert's leash! The wave of indignation is in it's beginning stages, and as it's magnitude increases, it becomes very believable that if the course of current events and the attitude of our present "leaders" doesn't change, the next National Election will reflect a record setting change in government. "IT'S TIME THEY STOPPED CUTTING EACH OTHER'S THROATS AND PAYED ATTENTION TO THE PEOPLE!!" Today's government must improve: a) It's attitude toward the common man. b) It's LACK of response to the 'little guy'. c) An obvious lack of understanding the majority of it's citizens. The Supreme Court is appointed by the Executive Branch, (The President) and approved by a committee made up of elected representatives of the people...understandably, it is difficult to remove a justice once appointed, but perhaps a PRESIDENTIAL MANDATE for either a change in the Supreme Court's decision to ok flag burning, or ...An AMENDMENT to the Constitution to prohibit desecration of the FLAG of the United States of America in ANY manner whatsoever, would be in order! (as long as it is NOT "debated to death" or "footballed" in the "hallowed halls" forever.) The wheels of government however slow, must be kicked into high gear at this time to make sure that this "Lame Duck Supreme Court" hasn't sent a message to the enemies of Democracy and the USA, that the FLAG and it's bearers are fair game! HELP SAVE THE FLAG! note: Feel free to send this essay to your congressman, senator, or whomever...it may be duplicated at will. Please, help get this outrageous ruling reversed! PLEASE, DON'T BURN THE FLAG.... I love this country, and what it stands for, I have seen what is happening in other areas of the world first hand and believe me, we have the GREATEST NATION the World and history has EVER known! Ralph F. Mariano _______________________________________________________________________ > WOA Dearborn STR Feature¿ An overview of the World of Atari Show ------------------------ World of Atari Dearborn Michigan ================================ Viewpoint #1 June 24 and 25, 1989 by Randall A. Kindig When the name Atari is mentioned in the same sentence with computers, most people (at least those in the U.S.) fail to see the connection. However, to a small but loyal group of people, Atari is THEIR computer company. For those people, those who wouldn't trade their Atari computer for all the Big Blues or Apples in the world, Atari means EXCITEMENT. This is the type of people who packed the World of Atari Show, held June 24-25 in Dearborn, Michigan, only 10 minutes from the Detroit airport. It was a large show, in terms of square footage, held in a very large, very plush, Hyatt Regency Hotel. However, unfortunately, the attendance was not as large as the facilities that were provided. Officials of the show stated that there were an estimated 2800 people over the 2 day period, which is certainly much smaller than the previous World of Atari held in the Disneyland Hotel, but would have to be considered a success nonetheless. Saturday was definitely the best attended day, with certain booths so packed it was almost impossible to walk through the aisles. * The Format of the Show * One very large conference area was packed with Atari retailers and developers, including, of course, Atari Corp. itself. In addition, there were seminars held at various intervals throughout the day in some additional reserved conference rooms right near the exhibit area, with most of them scheduled for Saturday. The entry fee was $5 for a single day and $7 for the entire 2 days, which is more than reasonable. In fact, if you stayed at the Hyatt, all it took was to show your room key to get free entrance. A drawing was held on Sunday during which many pieces of hardware and software were given away to a lucky few (not one of which did this reviewer win!). The prizes included a couple of XF551 disk drives, an SX212 modem, many pieces of software, and a color 520ST computer system. * The Exhibits * The number of retailers and third party developers was very large, so I may have missed one or two. But, the following should be a fairly comprehensive list. Unfortunately, the map given out at the show was inaccurate, apparently due to the fact that some vendors who were to show up did not do so at the last minute. (more on that later): CodeHead Software ================= John Eidsvoog and the infamous Charles Johnson (I mean that in a complimentary fashion Charles!) were there showing their entire line of ST software. This includes G+Plus, Multidesk, Hotwire, MidiMax, and a new set of programs called Codehead Utilities. This includes Multifile, which is a multi-featured GEM-based file handling utility. Another program allows one to rearrange the AUTO folder. Art Gallery 2.0 is a multi-format graphics viewer/slideshow. It will handle DEGAS, TINY, NEO, SPECTRUM 512, and ART DIRECTOR format pictures and will even work as a desk accessory to load these formats into DEGAS Elite. There also is a RAMdisk, print spooler, disk copy program and many, many others. This is an excellent value at only $29.95! I was glad to see that their booth was always very busy. This is one company ST users definitely should go out of their way to support! Reeve Software ============== They were showing their GOS operating system (ST Junior) for the 8-bit line. One can almost imagine he's using an ST when on this program. CHAOS, 1ST Stop =============== These 2 groups (CHAOS being a user group and 1ST Stop being a retailer) were sharing an area and showing the new real-time video digitizer, Vidi ST. This is an excellent digitizer from Scotland which can capture frames from a VCR without needing to pause the picture and many special effects capabilites are built into the software. I couldn't resist purchasing one! JRI === John Russell Innovations were showing their genlock for Megas at $650 suggested retail, the $99.55 JATO accelerator board, and the ST4096C board. The accelerator board may not work on those ST's which have slow RAM chips and has a switch to select between the enhanced 16 MHz operation and original 8 MHz operation. The ST4096C retails for $49.95 and gives ST and Mega computers a 4096 color palette rather than the standard 512 color one. It requires no soldering, trace cutting, or jumpers and claims to be compatible with all existing software. It requires purchasing an additional Shifter chip from Atari. Innovative Concepts =================== They were showing 8-bit products primarily, but also had version 2.5 of the ST Xformer available, which allows running some 8-bit software on the ST. ICD === They were showing their entire line of 8-bit and ST hard drives. In addition, they had their new tape backup system, which works at 6.5 MB per minute, has a built-in clock, SCSI and DMA ports, and stores 155.7 MB on a single cassette. Datafree Industries =================== They had European magazines (which are fun to look through, some great products are available over there). Also, they were showing their accelerator board (that's 4 boards now that I know of!), which has an external on/off switch, does not use a RAM cache, and retails for $119.95. They also had some RAM upgrades boards available Migraph ======= Migraph had a very large booth at the show. Their primary focus was to show and sell their new hand scanner, which is bundled with Touch-Up. The scanner has a 4 in. scanning window and has scanning resolutions of 100, 200, 300, and 400 dpi. Price $429 for the package. A new version of Touch-up (1.5) was introduced to be bundled with the hand scanner. Enhancements include hard drive caching so that it is now limited only by hard drive space rather than memory, an on-screen 2x magnifier, a bolding feature to make all or part of an image stand out, an on-screen locator in lightning mode, and, best of all, no more PSK device (for copy protection)! This new version should be available now and will be free to current hand scanner/Touch-Up package owners. The hand scanner alone is $314, $15 of which will be refunded when Migraph receives the PSK from the previous version of Touch-Up. For those that only own Touch-Up, version 1.5 will cost $35, $15 of which will be refunded for the old PSK. Thank you, Migraph, for getting rid of the PSK! There was a great deal of interest at this booth. Abacus ====== They were showing their entire line of ST reference books and had some good deals on them. Abacus also had some of their software for sale, such as Datatrieve and Assempro. Also, they were offering BeckerCad for an introductory price of $95 (retails for $395) until July 15. InterSect Software ================== Another great Atari-only software company, Intersect was showing their newest version of Interlink, and talking about the upcoming Masterlink telecommunications program. They also were showing Revolver. Softrek ======= Wayne Buckholdt was showing the latest version (1.57) of Turbo ST, the speedup program. This version makes window redraws faster, has a Wordperfect and Word Writer speedup, is compatible with more software (in fact, they claim 100% compatibility), can use the Blitter chip on those machines which have one, and is 52K in size. Version 1.6 is almost ready and will be split into color and mono versions to reduce the program size. He was also upgrading all previous versions for registered owners at no charge during the show, with $5 being the normal fee. I think Wayne was feeling some heat from the new Quick ST created by Darek Mihocka (of ST Xformer fame) which is available for a $20 shareware fee and which has most of the same features as Turbo ST. Imagen - They were showing the new postscript emulator, Ultrascript. Michtron/Microdeal ================== This was another large booth. They had a lot of software for sale, as well as a laser disk player/Journey to the Lair combo which could be hooked to the ST for $950. They were also selling the new Fleet Street Publisher II Deluxe bundled with Ultrascript for $169 and Tempus II, the ultra high speed text editor. ST World ======== Of course, since Richard Tsukiji was organizer and promoter of the show, ST World had a large booth and was selling subscriptions to their magazine. GENIE - GENIE was showing their online system and signing folks onboard GEnie ...Darlah and the whole gang where there! Atari Corp. ========== Atari had 2 very large booths in the middle of the exhibit hall, one dedicated to ST's and the other for 8-bits. They were again showing the STACY, the Portfolio, and Megafile 44. The Megafile 44 provides 44 MB of storage capacity and uses a removable cartridge. It has a fast 25 ms access time in an 8 in. by 5 in. by 1.6 in. cartridge. They are claiming that this gives ST users "unlimited hard disk storage and data back-up capabilities." The price is "less than $1200", with cartridges running about $150. No word on when it would be available. They were also giving out an International ST Software Catalog, which was marked on the front as normally costing $12.95, but was found to be published in 1987. The PC4, an 80286-based PC-compatible, was not shown. They were also not showing the newly-announced Color Portable Video Game System. This is a direct shot at Nintendo and has a 4096-color palette, allows connecting up to 8 systems together for multi-player games, built-in 3.5 inch LCD color monitor, 16 MHz clock, is capable of using up to 16 MB cards, uses 6 AA batteries, weighs 1 pound, is about the size of a videocassette, and will retail for $150. Gribnif ======= A new version of Neodesk, numbered 2.04, was released just for the show, according to Gribnif. It was on sale for the show price of $35. This version contains Moniterm support, is smaller (about 20.8K), and has support for the public domain BigScreen program. Sierra On-Line ============== Showing several of the games in their ST line, ie; King's Quest IV, Space Quest IV. Accustar ======== Another game company, and announcing that a new game called Winger would be available soon. Alpha Systems ============= They were showing Digisound, Switchback, Polydisk, and other ST and 8-bit software and hardware. Digisound is a program to turn your ST into an inexpensive drum type sequencer for $29.95. Swithback allows switching between 2 programs in memory at once, a la Revolver. BEST Electronics ================ They had many 8-bit and ST items, such as cartridges, modems, spring key stiffeners and more for sale. FAST Technologies ================= Jim Allen was showing his Turbo16 accelerator board, which now will come in a single version and retails for $299. Jim claims that this is the best and most compatible accelerator on the market, stating that it has been tested even with Spectre 128. It uses a 32K static RAM cache so as to speed up all aspects of running a program. It uses CMOS components and is built such that it should be able to be used with the new PC Ditto II because it does not cover the 16 MHz 68000 chip. It will come with a desk accessory to allow shutting it off (for games). As with all accelerators, it does require soldering work, because the original 68000 chip is soldered to the motherboard in the ST. It has to be desoldered and a socket and board is installed in its place. it should be available July 1. Jim was also talking about some future products his company is working on, such as a Blitter adapter so all machines can use the Blitter chip, a 68030/68882 accelerator board which require the Turbo16 as a base, a $250 genlock for all ST's, a 640 X 480 color graphics board for Megas, and an inexpensive upgrade to change any ST's monochrome resolution to 800 by 560. Call (508) 475-3810 to order or get info on any of the above products. Gadgets by Small ================ The whole Small family, even the 'small' Smalls, were at the show, taking orders for the Spectre GCR, which will allow reading and writing Mac disks directly in the ST drive with no interface. It is scheduled for release by August 1 and will retail for $299. Dave stated that he is working some very minor bugs out of the software while the hardware is being produced. $50 will hold one for pre-orders and Gadgets by Small will give owners of Spectre 128 a $100 rebate towards Spectre GCR. In the meantime, there was much talk about the first portable Mac, a STACEY with a Spectre GCR cartridge. Seymor Radix ============ They were showing and selling the new interface, DVT VCR, which allows using a standard VCR as a 360 MB tape backup system for hard drives. It retails for $249.95, works at 8 megabits per minute, and fits in the cartridge slot. They were also selling IMG Scan, the scanner which attaches to the print head of your printer. Some other vendors were at the show, the busiest of which were Rite Way Computers of Warren, Michigan and Cal Com of Silverspring, MD. They had many great deals available and undoubtably were pleased with their sales. Many local ST users groups were also present, such as CHAOS, GAG (my favorite acronym at the show), GLASS, and MAGIC. They all had PD disks available at low prices and had demos of various sorts at their booths. Exhibitors Who Didn't Show Several exhibitors were advertised in the pre-show fliers that did not show up. Most notable was Avant-Garde, of PC Ditto fame. Many attendees were disappointed that they couldn't get a look at the soon to be released PC Ditto II. Show officials stated that Avant-Garde was busy trying to get PC Ditto II into production and decided they would rather miss the show than not get it out on time. Also missing was Astra, which we later found out went out of business, Supra Corp. and Antic Publishing, all very important in the ST arena. No reasons were given for these no-shows. Seminars at the Show The seminars which were given at the show were as follows: Future of Atari - Given by Sig Hartmann and very well attended. It will be reported on in a later segment. Spectre 128 GCR - Also very well attended. Dave Small is very humorous and fun to listen to. Graphics Operating System - Alan Reeve Desktop Publishing - George Miller of Michtron Computers and Kids - Dorothy Brumleve, highly informative! National User Group Forum - No one showed up to host this one. What Turbo 16 Will Do For You - Jim Allen of Fast Technologies Programming in Hisoft BASIC - Again, George Miller of Michtron Quick ST and ST Xformer - Darek Mihocka, well attended! Show Specials There were many special deals at the show, some of which you only dream of. As the show got closer and closer to the end, it seemed that some of the vendors were trying to clear their stock, with the show attendees benefiting. Here are only a few of the many specials I saw: Timeworks ST Publisher..................... - $55 - Cal Com Vidi ST.................................... - $149.95 - 1ST Stop SupraModem 2400............................ - $119.95 - Rite Way Computers Set of all 10 Abacus ST Reference Books.... - $80 - Abacus Interlink - $20 - upgrade to Masterlink - $20 - Intersect Software Turbo ST................................... - $35 - Softrek 10 DS/DD disks............................. - $8.90 - Rite Way Computers and many, many others! Sig Hartmann's Seminar on the Future of Atari Atari Corp's Vice President Sig Hartmann gave a talk on the future of their company to a standing-room-only crowd of enthusiastic fans. Those who have heard Sig speak know that he seems like a down-to-earth, tell-it-like-it-is spokesperson. The talk lasted over an hour and many topics were covered. We present some of the highlights: ---------------------------------- 1) Sig stated that the ST now has 5000 titles worldwide. He expressed regret that, unfortunately, few "big name" companies have decided to develop for the ST. He has talked to some of those companies, but has had little luck thus far. He did emphasize that the current software line is excellent, however. 2) Atari will try to attend more conferences like the recent government technology show which was held in Sacramento. Sig stated that Atari attending that show caused much interest to appear in their products. 3) Atari is now a 1/2 billion dollar company, with 1800 employees worldwide. 4) He emphasized the U.S. push this year and stated that Atari will try to build more product in the U.S. . 5) When asked about the rumored enhanced ST, with improved resolution and color, Sig would not confirm or deny, pointing out Atari's new policy of not announcing a product until it is about ready to ship. In fact, he put his job on the line and said that if Atari doesn't ship by the announced latest date, he personally will resign. 6) When queried about recent and future advertising, he said that 3 to 4 months ago their was some advertising fairly localized in California, where Atari is based. He stated that Atari did have a large ad budget and more will be done in the areas where Atari products sell well. Sam Tramiel had said that it takes 3 things to sell well: product, ads, and distribution channels. Now that they have product, the other 2 items are being improved. He emphasized that all of this will happen this year! 7) As for shipping dates: Portfolio, Laptop, and new handheld game machine - September 1989. TT - guaranteed before end of year. 8) Sig stated that they have shipped 500 CD ROM units to 3rd party developers. 9) 100 Portfolios have been produced thus far. 10) On the subject of TOS 1.4, Sig said that it is released to production for new machines. Current ST owners can now get EPROMS from their dealers with the new TOS or the dealer can order them from Atari. If you don't have a local dealer, contact Sig by mail and he will get you a set. No price was mentioned. 11) He stated that Chris Roberts, a long-time 8-bit and ST user, is now the User Group Coordinator. 12) The ATW is currently available only in Europe. It was released there first because it was felt that the U.S. could not provide proper support. It is, however, awaiting FCC approval and is expected in the U.S. by the end of the year. 13) The dealer base has expanded in the last 6 months and Atari expects many more by the end of the year. No numbers were given. ----===---- Viewpoint #2 by D. Mitchell Due to the extreme heat on Saturday morning, my car overheated on the way to Dearborn, thus and I was forced to drive slower to get there. I arrived around midday, to find the show area pretty well packed with people. I missed the Sig Hartmann talk, as well as the David Small seminar, but I'm told he really packed them in. The Atari booth was rather tame. Chris Roberts was there, as well as Sig, and a few no names. The Crazy Glued portable (STACEY) was there. The keyboard felt a bit different, but a bit spongy. Someone mentioned that the keyboard actually clicked. I did not think so. Definitely not an AT quality keyboard. The screen was a bit dim, and the contrast wasn't too hot either. It did have two built in floppy drives, and with the screen down, the whole unit is hardly any bigger than a 1040ST. I want it! Codehead was about the only software booth that was packing them in. They had their new product Codehead Utilities, which look pretty cool. The Gribnif booth had Neodesk 2.04, and SofTrek was showing Turbo ST 1.57. This new Turbo ST is damn fast! START (Antic) didn't show. Megamax didn't show. Bill Teal didn't show. There was a _lot_ of empty space . Riteway computers had a huge booth where they were selling just about anything. Cheap disks, cheap magazines, etc. BEST also had a large booth with all kinds of gizmos and parts for Atari. Two 16MHz boards were being shown. Jim Allen of Fast Technologies was showing his board, now priced at $300. Using Quick Index 1.6, it scored 135% on the CPU memory test, and over 200% on the other CPU categories. What this means to the average users is a 50%-60% speed increase on just about _any_ ST program. I was able to verify this by benchmarking the ST Xformer, and sure enough, it was 50%-60% faster (i.e. about 80% of full speed). Turbo ST really flies with this board. The board is turned on by an AUTO folder program, so no external switches are required, therefore, NO FCC regulations are not violated. On the other hand, the Datafree board, which does have a switch and sells for about $130 has absolutely no effect on the Xformer and may speed up some programs by a mediocre 20%-30%. GEnie has a booth set up with a modem to allow people to try out the service. Atari sysops Darlah, Jeff Williams, Holly Stowe and Sandy Wilson were there. Migraph was demoing Touchup on the Moniterm monitor. Real neat stuff. On Sunday, when the doors opened at 10am, no one showed up! By 11am, maybe 20 or 30 people showed up, and many of those were repeaters from Saturday. It picked up by around noon or 1pm, but thinned out soon after. Some booths started packing up around 3pm! The seminars on Sunday drew a thin crowd. The Xformer/Quick ST seminar only drew about 40 people, who stuck around for the whole 90 minutes of the talk. Ignac and D. Mihocka took turns demoing the 7 Quick Utilities and the latest 130XE emulator. It was rather disappointing that the seminars weren't announced on the PA. (or if they were, it couldn't be heard). A number of folks announced their seminars themselves. Also, the whole room only had one entrance and exit door. The booths close to the door had lots of business, while booths stuck out way in the corner of the show area were idle. David Small's booth and Jim Allen's booths were in that corner, and it appeared that they should have had more traffic. Richard Tsukiji was predicting 5000 people would attend the show. In our humble opinion, we figured that no more than 1800 could have gone though on Saturday, and 500 on Sunday would have been a miracle! (not counting the repeaters) . ----===---- Viewpoint #3 World of Atari Show Dearborn Michigan by Terry Russell For me, the day started at about 2am Saturday morning as I counted down the minutes until I started the 237 mile trip to Dearborn Michigan from Akron, Ohio. Going into details on all the booths at the show would take forever as there many of them and the activity around them was quite heavy. Actually, it became very apparent that it would be impossible to see everything in the hall and still have the time to attend the interesting and informative seminars and believe me, the seminars was where we wanted to be! At the Abacus display we noticed a new item among their growing list of products that support the Atari ST, a new Cad program, (Computer Aided Design), BeckerCad, which is said to be a full featured system. While not being overly knowledgeable about Cad programs, what was evident to the untrained eye was indeed quite impressive. The President and CEO of Abacus a very friendly and informative person, Arnie Lee talked with us about Abacus, it's products and the Atari ST. Mr Lee proceeded to describe, in depth, their (Abacus) support for the ST market and of the new products currently available. Additionally, he pointed out that existing books were sold out and that they were being re-published and updated. He illustrated the fact that the US market was still small and that they expanding as the market itself expanded. About 11:00 am, we proceeded to attend the "Atari's Future" seminar with Mr. Sig Hartmann, we found the room already full of fellow users and Dealers waiting for the seminar to begin. As the seminar was brought to order, Mr. Hartmann welcomed all of us. Listening to him speak and later talking with him personally was the high point of the entire show. In person, he is such a friendly, knowledgeable person, I can't remember ever having met a person with so much charisma! During his talk he answered questions in a straight forward and sometimes humorous manner that kept everyone's attention. He requested we "hang tough" with Atari as it rebuilds itself in the US Market place. He assured that the 8bit would be supported along with the entire Atari product line. He stated that "Jack wants to be one of the biggest in the USA home computer market!" He also pointed out, "In order to do this you have got to have 3 things, One is good distribution, a powerful advertising budget set aside and the third thing, he stated; "Is products, and this is all gonna happen this year and next". He told us that Sam is really pushing and working his behind off pushing everyone in the Atari organization. He said that the funding was available, and that Jack and Sam planned on spending it. He said that after last year, the strongest commitment was the strengthening of the US market. When asked about the new Tos 1.4 Mr. Hartmann told us that Atari plans on providing it thru their dealers and distributors and that we should talk to our local dealers about providing us with the upgrade. Back to the main show where I talked with the President of a fellow usergroup called Chaos. I got my socks knocked off as he demonstrated Vidi ST. It appeared to me as he showed it to me that he was as excited about it as I was and for good reason. Vidi ST is a cartridge that captures a picture that uses a 16 shade palette not just from a camera but also from VCR or TV or other composite devices in 1/50th of a second (No waiting ), it's FAST! You don't need a still picture for this champ. It is the very first real time frame grabber out for the Atari ST. It captures pictures from the source you provide just as fast as you send them to it. Then you can watch what you have stored in ram in playback mode, or you can display 16 different frames on the screen, you may then decide which you wish to save. As I watched I saw how easy he was able to go forward and backward through the screens and the different modes that were available. Next stop, Migraph with the Viking monitor set up to make me feel even more excited. They were demoing the Newest version of Touch-Up software v1.5, which is a great program for the ST graphic and desk top publishing enthusiasts such as myself. Actually, anyone would be impressed by it. On display was their new hand scanner, the picture looked as good on the screen as it did on the hardcopy. Considering the great package deal that Migraph is offering for Touch up and the Scanner it is a must for anyone who wants a full featured, easy to use, product. I stopped next at ICD's booth, they were selling goodies as fast as they put them up for sale! It seemed every where I looked someone was walking with one of there fine products under arm. The tape back up system was a real hot item. The 8bit lines seemed a little slow, but were made up for by many ST sales. I stopped by CodeHead and was impressed by the fine products they were offering and it seemed that they had something for everybody! A big disappointment to me was that Avant-Garde Systems did not make the show. As an owner of PC Ditto, I am really looking forward to the new PC Ditto II soon to be released. I also wanted to get an eye on Atari's newest release in the game market the Atari Color Portable Video Game System but it was not to be found anywhere!! Atari was selling the Megafile 44 a removable cartridge hard disk, it stores 44 megabytes of data. It has a 4 inch removable cartridge. It's access time is impressive with 25ms, and the size of the unit is only 8" x 5" x 1.6". The price will be less than 1200.00 and additional 44 megabyte cartridges are available for about 150.00 each. It will make a nice addition to any system. Also on display was Stacey, the lap top ST computer that has 1 meg onboard, 3.5 floppy and hard drive. It has a mini trackball that may be used instead of the mouse and packs a heck of a punch with its storage capacity. Next, Turbo 16 for the ST was being demo'ed ...The ST flew with the upgrade installed. Watching, as the screens popped in and out so fast, I thought it was an AT 386 running! There was nothing slow about that rascal and when he used it with Turbo ST it was like it was in 4th gear. Look out!..Michigan 400; Atari is on the way. Turbo 16 has a list price of $349.99 and one version fits all machines. The Spectre GCR running on the new Atari Stacey! How about that, an Atari laptop running faster than the Mac SE and with a built in hard drive for a fraction of the cost of what an Apple costs. Just another reason why Atari is becoming so popular. The demonstration included loading a real Macintosh disk in to the ST systems equipped with the GCR and it booting up. With products like this and PC Ditto II available, it makes one wonder why people pay MORE for LESS with other computers. I went to the Alpha Systems Booth next and spoke with the President, George Morrison about the fine products They had on display. By the end of Saturday there was very little left to sell as the crowd present at this booth literally bought everything but the tables! Several times as he was demonstrating the hardware and software, people asked to buy the demo units. CODEHEAD bought the last 2 Ultra disks which is a two meg battery backed up Ram disk that plugs into the cartridge port on the ST. The software provides many features such as printer spooler ect. as well as having a clock option available too. It will allow you almost instant access to that code you want to compile and is alot faster than even a hard disk. Also available was their new product Jam Master which is a full blown Midi Sequencer complete with full digitized keyboard sampling. It has four voice polyphonic sound. And is fully Gem driven. Back Track was also demo'ed and offered for sale, this is a software program that allows the user to utilize the backside of his double sided disks separately. It is nice when backing up original S/S software that normally takes a whole disk. With this product you could take 2 Copy protected original disks and back both of them to one double sided disk! Beatbox ST Sound Digitizer and many products for the 8bit were present for demonstration too. Across from Alpha Systems was Best Electronics with anything you could ever want for the ST. They had things available that most dealers tell you are unavailable! I found several items that I personally had been looking for like a rebuild kit for a mouse or an extra mouse cable. I heard an add for the company was "If they don't make it you will find it at Best" and from all the products I saw on display I believe it... My next stop was at Gribnif for a look at the latest version of Neodesk. Neodesk is a desktop alternative and is it a class act. Imagine booting up your hard drive system and instead of wading thru folders to boot your favorite utility, you find it on your desktop and after double clicking on it Neodesk does the work of finding it and booting it for you. The Icon Editor allows you to create Icons that are really great, and that is something that I would enjoy. It has many features that really were needed in the normal Gem desktop. The newest version makes it shine even more by being able to take advantage of the new TOS 1.4 when it becomes available. One of the larger booths at the show belonged to Michtron/Microdeal. They had an assortment of the fine products that they currently feature in the MichTron Catalog. Fleet Street Publisher was looking real good. I wanted to attend the seminar they had, but only caught the tail end of it. They said that many more features are planned for Fleet Street's future releases. At the booth, I spoke to Tim Purves about several of their products including Michtron BBS 3.0 program. I run this on my bulletin board so I can say with the experience that this is one powerful program! The built in C like language makes it very easy to customize the BBS. The MCL language supports many of the C commands and if you know a little C it's a piece of cake to use. The BBS program comes ready to run, so you can learn as you use it. It has it's own compiler and a well written manual. Sierra's booth was displaying their new software for the Atari ST line. Many of the popular and colorful programs that are released for the ST can take advantage of the new Stereo hardware. As I watched one of my favorites Kings Quest IV being played utilizing their stereo system I was very impressed with the fantastic sound. SofTrek's newest version of Turbo ST is FAST. The software blitter as it's called is fully compatible and what a speed increase you get with it! I watched a demo on one of the 16mhz boards for the Atari ST and a stock ST with Turbo ST ..well, the Turbo ST equipped stock ST actually beat the one with the new accelerator in it and when ST Turbo was added to the machine with the 16 mhz board the results were fantastic. Softrek was offering free upgrades to their registered owners as a way of thanking them for the support they have shown. I stopped by the JRI, (John Russel Innovations) booth and saw two very exciting new products. One was the ST4096C color enhancement system which was selling for only 49.95! It gives the ST the ability to display 64 colors at one time from a selection of 4096 colors over the 512 it can select from. The difference from 16 to 64 is quite vivid and the extra availability of 4096 colors is fantastic. The other product is one that has long been awaited in the Atari community, Genlock which allows interfacing with professional video gear. There were many things at the show I did not have the time to look over, because I could only be present for one of the two days the show was on. I would like to thank Ralph for giving me an opportunity to share my experiences with you. If a World of Atari show opens near your hometown, you really should plan to attend it, you will be glad you did! In the meantime, enjoy using those great Atari Computers. Editor Note: ------------ Where was everybody on Sunday??? The Michigan "400" ran on Sunday... This was heard in a number of conversations concerning the weak attendance of WOA on Sunday of this past weekend. According to CBS Sports, who telecast this National annual racing event, this year's race was attended by the largest crowd in the last twenty years. We made mention of this fact, * the Michigan 400 Race being on the SAME day *, because we noticed a number of comments pointing out that Atari was at fault for the poor attendance performance at this show... Let's be fair here, Atari is NOT at fault, no person or entity is. Again, a set of circumstances, blunders and lack of a professional approach at the planning stages gave cause to this unfortunate occurrence (a) The show running so soon after the highly successful MACE Expo. (b) Poor planning, in as much as the WOA show Co-Ordinators should have been more flexible in it's date schedules. (c) Those folks who find it easy to blame Atari forget that WOA, although very nice and quite entertaining, is a totally for profit business venture of ST World Magazine. Not Atari's responsibility! ______________________________________________________________________ > An Inside View STR Feature¿ A candid View of W.O.A. Dearborn... -------------------------- ...From the Other Side of the Table =================================== There was a sense of excitement getting ready for the Dearborn World of Atari show. For the first time we were going to have 3 of us manning the booth and thanks to our newest sysop, Jeff Williams, we incorporated a raffle into the show. Will it be worth it?? That was on my mind from the very earliest stage of preparation. The show was a joint effort with Sandy Wilson and Jeff Williams putting in more than their share. We were still excited when it came to setting up. Although we wanted to set up the night before, that was not possible. Due to the count of equipment being less than what Atari stated it should be, Richard Tsukiji was hesitant at being the distributor of the equipment. I don't blame him. I would not want to be responsible myself. Off to the jacuzzi we went to chill out....relax or heatup, depending on one's interpretation. We would have plenty of time to set up in the morning. The first day of the show was relatively busy. I must admit that I did notice one thing about this show that was more acute at this show. People were serious. They asked questions. The crowd seemed very intelligent and informed as a whole. It led me to come to the conclusion that the Michigan area seems to be in touch with what is happening with the Atari community. It was nice to see. The second day of the show was much quieter but people came back the second day with questions they did not think of the 1st day. It gave us the time to solve problems they may have and to help them in areas they might of not been aware of. The second day of the show I got the opportunity to mill around and talk to the others. I heard more than once that the timing of the show was the reason for the less than assumed turnout. I now find out that their were other factors that contributed to this. Michtron mentioned that they were very happy with sales. To them it was a success. It seemed like sales were high all over. Fleet Street Publisher with Ultrascript seemed to be very popular. Tempus II was a hot mover. Craig S. Thom, from ICD (my 8 bit sysop) told us more than once that sales for their hardware was high. He seemed to be VERY happy. Milling around the crowd, with a sense of genuine care was Sig Hartmann. He spent a great deal of time talking to a number of people at the show as well as myself. We discussed the GEnie as well as his concerns on Atari's voice in the community. His concerns on misinformation was very obvious. I have every belief that his concern is one of the key factors in prompting a good flow of accurate information. I was disappointed at the lack of PA system announcing the conferences. I must say though that they were attended well and people still managed to find out the times etc. The conferences that were planned were varied and quite informative. It was good to see such a variety. Although this is only a partial view of the show from my perspective, it does lend you to answer that question I was pondering at the onset of preparing for this event. Will it be worth it?? I think so. The term quality comes to mind vs quantity. This show had it. The word caring comes to mind. The dealers, software developers and retailers really gave you the sense that they cared what the prospective buyer wanted. I realize it goes with the territory but the feeling seemed to go further. Thank you Atari for helping promote this show and others planned. With genuinely caring about the Atari market and the consumers that may enter this world and already exist, it eases my mind that Atari is taking steps to become a presence in this arena. When the next WOA show comes to your neighborhood, take the time to check it out. You will be glad you did. Darlah J Pine (Chief GEnie Atari Sysop) _______________________________________________________________________ > Atari Stock ~ STReport¿ The "tale of the tickertape"... ====================== THE TICKERTAPE ============== by Glenn Gorman Atari Stock went of 1/4 of a point on Monday, 1/4 on Tuesday, and 1/4 on Friday. Finishing up the week at 8 5/8 points. Up 3/4 points from last Friday. Glenn Gorman +---------------------+ | ATARI STOCK WATCH | | Week 06-19 to 06-23 | +=======+==========+===========+=============+============+=============+ | | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | +-------+----------+-----------+-------------+------------+-------------+ | Sales | 1075 | 5361 | 1287 | 683 | 2537 | +-------+----------+-----------+-------------+------------+-------------+ | Last | 8 1/8 | 8 3/8 | 8 3/8 | 8 3/8 | 8 5/8 | +-------+----------+-----------+-------------+------------+-------------+ | Chg. | +1/4 | +1/4 | ---- | ---- | +1/4 | +=======+==========+===========+=============+============+=============+ | From > THE CAVE ST BBS <> 609-882-9195 <> 300//9600 HST <> F-NET #351 | +=======================================================================+ _______________________________________________________________________ > CALAMUS STR Review¿ The first of a series, comparing DTP programs.. ================== Calamus--From ISD ================= by William Y. Baugh Calamus, in my opinion, is the finest DTP out for the ST. It is unrivaled in ease-of-use, speed and print quality. This week, I will give an overview of Calamus, then for next week, I will collaborate with Associate Editor Ron Brunk to compare Calamus to Pagestream. Once Calamus is loaded (which it loads quite fast for a large program; unlike Pagestream) you must first either load in a previously created file or start from scratch. Once either is selected, you are presented with a full size view of the page. This view is changeable either by dropping down the View menu or by using the icons in the upper middle of the screen. The three icons select between full page (which is presently displayed), normal display or a definable display which defaults to 200%, but can be set to any size you are comfortable with. I like about a 80% size, which zooms in, but still keeps the page width within limits of the screen (no horizontal scrolling). Depending upon the function being executed will dictate the size of the screen. If you are importing text, or doing massive font style changes, you will want to see the entire page. But on the other hand, if you're working on raster graphics, it's nice to be able to have the page zoomed in for closer scrutiny. Now it's time to define the work area (framing). Unlike other DTP's, Calamus handles this function quite differently. Under the frame icon, there are seven different sub-icons; these are used to define the frames and what will be placed within them. The frames consist of text, line, Raster area, Vector graphics (DEGAS, etc), Raster graphics (Geometric, definable shapes), header/footer and rotated text frames. When each frame is drawn, the icon it is represented by remains in the frame, thus allowing easy identification. Also, every frame has its own "effects" icon that allows you to modify the existing parameters, choose different graphics, etc. These features are the heart of Calamus, and where you will probably spend the most time working from. Once your page is complete, you may save it to disk as a layout. When each frame is drawn, you always have the ability to change the size, either multidirectional or proportional, protect the frame so no accidental work or deletions occur, move, copy and delete frames. If you have one frame overlapping another, you may choose to move the frame into the background or keep it in the foreground. This, accompanied with the raster graphics, can make some spectacular effects such as the GEnie logo Ralph created to use in the CPU Newswire. There are seven(!) overlapping frames in this display that creates a very unique texture. This is a helpful function if you use the same page layout time and time again. Text input is handled conveniently with the features of the text editor and special functions found within the text sub-icons. There are eight icons lining the top of the text side menu which allow you to view the selected character set and dictionary, display text rulers, change font size and styles, create text macros and use the built-in clipboard. The editor is a separate GEM window which may be moved and sized as you please. This feature also differs from most DTP's in that you have the editor to type with; no more typing in the frame and hassling with the proportional spacing. You may send your created text to the desired text frame or receive text from a frame. The font and justification codes are displayed in the editor and may be changed therein. Within the windows, text rulers are offered to help in the formatting of the text. The rulers display the margins, tabs, and the justification chosen. You may change any of these by clicking and holding the appropriate icon. For larger works, importation as ASCII or from several popular word processors (WordPerfect, Wordwriter ST and 1st Word) is preferable. The importation of text from the word processor keeps paragraphs and structural aspects complete. ASCII, on the other hand, can be brought in structured or unstructured; but in creating the file as ASCII, you lose some of the structure, depending upon the word processor. One quirk with Calamus, that can be a real bear at the beginning, is the importation of text into preset columns; especially when the document covers more than one page. To make the importation work properly, you must first set up the pathways that tell Calamus where you want the text to flow. This is done (appropriately enough) with the Text Flow icon. You may set-up whether you want the text to flow from column to column or from the last column to the next page, etc. The confusion occurs in knowing exactly how to set this up and the right order and placement of mouse clicks to allow you to do this. Once learned, it becomes second nature; but learning it is another story. Also included in the text features is the ability to block off sections of text and create footnote and index frames. Once your work is on the screen, you will not be disappointed. Calamus is a true, "WYSIWYG" program. The screen resolution is amazing; only to be outdone by the printout. I have been using Calamus to create a newsletter for my usergroup; printing it out with my KX-P1092 (9-pin) printer. Granted, the print-out is slow (around 20 minutes for a page) but the printing algorithm is efficient. The printer will do three passes a line creating a spectacularly sharp image. When the print-out is copied, it's hard to tell whether it was printed with a laser printer or not. The only drawback to using a 9-pin printer is that you lose the effect of varying degrees of shadowing. This is not true for 24-pin printer where there is only one pass per line. Calamus supports a whole slew of printers with the drivers included with the program. Macros are available to expedite your work. These text macros are a must for desktop publishing; especially one as advanced as Calamus. The ability to store up to 21 different macros allows great flexibility plus; no more having to dig down into nested icons for a function you use continuously. When you define a macro, you give it a title to reference through the macro menu and a keyboard equivalent. From the keyboard, you just press the control key and the defined key to execute the macro. Macros may be defined as "text, differing styles of text and instructions, plus formatting commands." A clipboard area is also available to make life a little easier. The clipboard may be used as a temporary storage for blocks of text. The text may be just part of a column ,headline, etc. or may be footnote entries or indexes. These entries may be taken at a later time and inserted into the Header/Footer frames. Any of these may be left in the clipboard, while the original is deleted from the working page. Calamus uses an incredible feature known as internal vector fonts. Vector fonts differ drastically from GDOS raster fonts in that they are not predefined and rigidly structured to follow an ASSIGN.SYS file. This is to say, you make the decision at the time of use as to how large you want the font. No more having to use font sizes that the manufacturer wants you to use. Within the fonts icon, you may load differing fonts, or use the one currently in memory. The sizes of the fonts range from 4 up to 999.5 points in steps of 0.1! Calamus comes with two font styles (Time and Swiss are the major ones and a Desktop font that is quite limited) with 13 variations on these fonts (bold, italics, bold-italics). More fantastic fonts are available through ISD. There is also a great font editor (that also comes with fonts) that may be used interactively with Calamus. Once you have your text in place, you may want to highlight it by using either line frames or the raster graphics frames. Line frames allow you to display either lines (of course) or arrows which may point to the text, title, picture etc., to emphasize a certain aspect of your page. The raster graphics are interesting in that they allow you to choose from a variety of geometric shapes, fill, shadow, and framing patterns to create very interesting effects. There are a number of different patterns, plus they are also user definable (you may create your own). With these graphics, in conjunction with the line frames, the possibilities are endless for creating special effects on the page. Another eye catching feature is the ability to rotate text. When the frame is drawn, text may be imported or typed in the editor, brought into the frame and rotated, with no distortion. This works very well for title pages and advertisements. Vector graphic frames are the areas where DEGAS, .IMG, .GEM, etc. files are imported. These window are like any other in that they may be sized, moved, and copied. Importation of graphics is fast! ISD's screen algorithm is one of the best! The importation and screen updating is the fastest I've seen yet on the Atari. This becomes important when you have multiple drawings on the screen and want to scroll vertically; other DTP's (Pagestream in earlier versions) took forever recalculating and drawing the image. With Calamus, it's a breeze. Being such a complex program, it can not be summed up in just a few pages. As I said before, a more indepth look and comparison with Pagestream is on track for next week. Also, if you get the chance, take a look at Calamus yourself, you won't be dissappointed. ________________________________________________________________________ > Atari Hand Held STReport InfoFile¿ A look at the New Game System. ================================== A.P.C.E.S. -> THE UTOPIAN GAME TECHNOLOGY ========================================= The Atari Portable Color Entertainment System has the entire gaming industry buzzing with enthusiasm and envy for "a marketing stroke of genius with perfect timing!" Being an Atari computer enthusiast, agreeing with this statement is not easy for me but ..admittedly, it is true. Although the Atari APCES is more expensive (149.95 msr)and slightly larger than it's nearest(?) competitor, Ninetendo's lackluster Gameboy. The Atari unit is far more sophisticated than * anything * on the market today, it offers full color on a 3.5 inch LCD monitor with 160x102 pixel resolution. The monitor displays dot matrix graphics in up to 16 colors at a time from a possible palette of 4,096 colors. The unit operates on 6 "AA" batteries, an AC adapter or Auto cigarette lighter adapter and includes a headphone jack. A connecting cable can be employed to interconnect up to eight units for multi-player challenges. One feature that left handed users will enjoy is the screen images may be rotated 180 degrees, thus enabling the user to comfortably operate the eight direction control pad with either hand. A partial NEW Game Cartridge Release list: o California Games - Athletics at it's best... o Monster Demolition - Nasty Beast destroys all in it's path.. o Impossible Mission - Spy vs Criminal Brain and his droids o Blue Lightning - Flying and jet fighter simulation... o Time Quests & Treasure Chests - from Dungeons to Outerspace Adventure.. o The Gates of Zendocon - Aliens and Space wars... (Average cost per cartridge 35.00) This gaming system was developed by Epyx, and prototypes were ready as early as the January CES however, being "sworn" to secrecy at the time it was impossible to report a thing about the unit. Epyx will continue to work closely with Atari in the development of new game cartridges and both companies are actively negotiating with a number of companies on licensing agreements and development programs for third party development. _______________________________________________________________________ > ST REPORT CONFIDENTIAL¿ ====================== - Dearborn MI. ***** SIG HARTMANN CLEARS THE AIR!! ***** ----------- Sig Hartmann made a very simple and quite clear statement that TOS 1.4 is available to Developers and those who need it NOW for a "particular purpose", this answer was in reply to a remark passed in the dealers conference yesterday, Sat 6/24/89, where an attendee blurted out that TOS 1.4 would NOT be available until Christmas. In no way, did Mr. Hartman propose that TOS 1.4 in ROM was in full and general distribution. Although the TOS 1.4 ROM chips are currently at the manufacturer, the actual delivery date is not known at this time, (a reasonable guess would be SEPT). Once again, for those who have a definite need, they may, through their dealers or Atari direct, obtain TOS 1.4 in EPROM (special exceptions only) until such time as the regular ROM chips become available. - New York City, N.Y. **** MINDSCAPE OFFERS SUPERB NEW GOODIES! **** ----------------- The list is formidable and very reassuring that we, (STers), are "on our way to the front row"...STAR TREK - The Final Frontier; Gauntlet II; Fiendish Freddy's Big Top 'O' Fun; Harley-Davidson..The Road to Sturgis, are among the new releases to be seen across the next year from Mindscape. Industry analysts expressed very positive remarks that Atari appears to be "on the way back". - Chicago, IL **** ACCOLADE SNUBS NOSE AT ATARI!! **** ----------- It seems Accolade is releasing HARDBALL II for the Amiga and IBM but the Atari ST is OBVIOUS by it's absence. In addition, they are releasing: Heat Wave;.......... (Offshore high speed racing), The Cycles;......... (International Motorcycle Racing) Eye of the Storm;... (Vietnam Huey simulation). Lastly, they are also introducing their first graphic adventures.. Conspiracy;......... The Deadlock Files (Spy thriller), The Third Courier;.. (Infiltrate behind the Berlin Wall) Don't Go Alone;..... (A Spooky Haunted House Scarem up) All for either the IBM, Amiga or Apple but no Atari... Maybe Sunnyvale ought to look into this? - Chicago, IL **** CAPCOM STRONGLY SUPPORTS ATARI! **** ----------- CapCom instead, is expanding it's Computer Gaming Catalog and has introduced a host of new titles some of which are: L.E.D. STORM........Driving challenge packed with danger! LAST DUEL...........Chivalry is not Dead, save a princess! SIDE ARMS...........Wearing a High Tech Space Suit, you fight Aliens! POCKET ROCKETS......Motorcycle Racing 600cc! FORGOTTEN WORLDS....Intergalactic Wars, Save the Earth! STREET FIGHTER......International Street Fight Competition! STRIDER.............Futuristic Swordsman battles strange enemy camps! Coming Soon on a monitor near you are: GHOULS AND GHOSTS...Sequel to "Ghosts 'N Goblins" CABAL...............a One man army fights against terrorists. BLACK TIGER.........D&D type, fight 3 Dragons to reclaim a kingdom. TIGER ROAD..........Ancient China, rescue kidnapped children. HUNT FOR THE FLYING CIRCUS A World War One flight combat game pitted against the infamous Red Baron! Capcom has the faith in Atari's future and shows it by continuing to release quality entertainment software for the Atari ST community. - Almeda, CA. **** CHEVY CORVETTES RULE! **** ----------- VETTE! is the name, Street Racing is the Game!! Spectrum Holobyte is putting the finishing touches on their new street racing simulation. There are four street courses set in San Francisco...the graphics will leave you breathless, they are awesome! Observation vantage points of the game are stunning.. front, rear, above, left, right, and helicopter. In the game you'll deal with cable cars, pedestrians etc.. There are four models of Corvette to choose from ..they have outstandingly realistic attributes! We are patiently awaiting our review copy... - Cupertino, CA. ***** WHETMORE JOINS BUSHNELL!!! ***** ------------- Russ Whetmore, known as a developer's developer has left Apple and joined forces with the "Father of the Atari", Nolan Bushnell. Whetmore, famous in the Atari Community for Home Pak, Preppie and a virtual host of other dandy goodies, wrote MacDraw II for Apple. The union of Whetmore and Bushnell should produce some dazzling entertainment software. - Littleton, CO. ***** GCR STEADILY ADVANCING TO PERFECTION ***** -------------- August is the inaugural month for the GCR, and ....all indications are positively a GO. The GCR will make it's grand appearance on time and it's fanfare will be the virtually error free operation one can expect from it. It is nice to see the GCR right on track. It's going to be a busy summer. Also, for all the STacey fans, had it not been for Dave and Sandy the STacey would never have been seen at Dearborn, seems some rough weather gave it a good "G" force test. Sandy pieced it back together with super glue! Dave was busy hunting down the raw materials. - Columbus, OH. ***** C.I.S. ACQUIRES THE SOURCE ***** ------------------- Amidst a flurry of related stories, the final line to emerge reveals that Compuserve Information Services (CIS) has purchased the Source, "lock stock and barrel". CIS, owned by H.R.Block, is the largest and most popular of the information services offering worldwide access. With the addition of the Source's facilities, CIS now offers a wider range of services and in turn, it's services are now available to many more users almost overnight. - Sunnyvale, CA. ***** ATARI COMES UP "LIGHT" ***** -------------- Seems the inventory count for the hardware brought to Dearborn was no where near the same upon arrival back at Sunnyvale.... According to three different sources, this could amount to a sizeable loss. The sad part is no list was available to see who "borrowed" what at the show. _______________________________________________________________________ > PCP BBS List STReport InfoFile¿ ============================== Atari ST BBS's Accessible through PC Pursuit As compiled by Neil Bradley and Gil Seward For ST REPORT All BBS Phone numbers were verified during the month of June - 1989 The following is a list of Atari ST BBS's that are accessable through the telecommunications network called PC Pursuit - a division of Telenet. All the numbers listed below were verified by Neil Bradley or Gil Seward during the month of June, 1989. The BBS's are listed by city, showing the PCP outdial node, phone number, name, highest baud rate, and the BBS software program used. In the "Note" column are misc. notes concerning individual BBS's. "Priv" means that the BBS is private, requiring a system password for access. "$" means there is a user fee for unlimited access. "Multi" means that the BBS has more than one telephone line, allowing multiple users on at once (Currently only available using Michtron 3.0 and the DC Port). Only one phone line formulti-line numbers are listed. "Nights" means the BBS is available only after 1700, LOCAL time for the BBS. Those of you familiar with PC Pursuit will notice that some outdial cities are not included in the below list. This is because we could not find any current ST BBS's in those cities. PC Purusit is a telecommunications system that allows computer users all over the country to call other computer systems in 34 different cities throughout the United States. The basic cost of PC Pursuit is $30.00 for 30 hours, and each additional hour costs $4.75 per hour. There are other options available as well. To access PC Pursuit you need to know the local in-dial phone number for Telenet. Once you access Telenet/PC Pursuit, you then tell PC Pursuit to connect to an outdial city, and then tell PC Pursuit to dial the BBS Phone number in that city. PC Pursuit supports 300/1200/2400 baud rates. For more information about PC Pursuit you can contact Telenet at: 1-800-835-3638 (voice) or 1-800-835-3001 Data (300/1200/2400 baud). I apologize to those BBS's that are not included in this list. If you wish to be included in a future revision to this list, leave a message to the Sysop of ST SYNCRONISITY (Gil Seward) at (415) 526-6471. He has set up a user name of BBSLIST, password MORE for anyone who wishes to provide updates. Finally, I wish to offer my thanks to the number of SYSOPS who took the time to stop and "Chat" with me about the BBS project. Special thanks to Dave Lockwood of Meetpoint Station (415) 782-8248 for his assistance in providing a list of BBS's for verifying. Neil Bradley ------------------------------------------------------------------------- PCP NODE PH# BBS NAME BAUD SOFTWARE Note ------- --- -------- ---- -------- ---- Atlanta GA (404) --------------- GAATL 425-2718 Marietta BBS 2400 Forem Priv GAATL 428-7237 Overmind 2400 STADEL Boston, MA (617) ---------------- MABOS 595-0221 Atari (8-BIT) 1200 NIGHT-LITE MABOS 567-8642 Toad Hall 2400 MICH 3.0 Multi MABOS 396-4607 BCS Atari 2400 MICH 3.0 MABOS 471-2270 Games People Play 2400 MICH 3.0 MABOS 328-9230 Harbour Light 2400 MICH 3.0 MABOS 582-0657 Mace West 2400 MICH 2.1 Chicago, IL (312) ----------------- ILCHI 889-1240 Chicagoland Atari Users Group 2400 EXPRESS ILCHI 457-2219 Blue Moon BBS 2400 EXPRESS ILCHI 213-9299 Northwest Passage 2400 EXPRESS ILCHI 690-3724 Lions Den 2400 Carina ILCHI 695-8617 Dragon's Egg II 2400 Forem ST ILCHI 520-1780 Software Plus BBS 2400 ? ILCHI 916-0893 Crooked Dragon Inn 1200 Forem ST ILCHI 690-3724 Lions Den 2400 Carina ILCHI 695-8617 Dragon's Egg II 2400 Forem ST ILCHI 520-1780 Software Plus BBS 2400 Other ILCHI 916-0893 Crooked Dragon Inn 1200 Forem ST ILCHI 364-5428 White House 9600 Other Priv ILCHI 295-5207 Black Knight's Manor 2400 Cleveland, OH (216) ------------------- OHCLE 582-1904 Nerd BBS 2400 Other Priv Colton, CA (714) ---------------- CACOL 887-553 West-Line BBS (Byron's BBS) 2400 Mich 3.0 Denver, CO (303) ---------------- CODEN 431-1404 Mile High BBS 2400 Forem CODEN 452-4383 Diggers Tomb 2400 Forem Glendale, CA (818) ------------------ CAGLE 401-9611 The Abode 2400 Other CAGLE 760-0943 Infinity 2400 Forem Houston, TX (713) ----------------- TXHOU 446-4933 2400 EXPRESS TXHOU 486-1877 H.A.S.T.E. 2400 MICH 3.0 TXHOU 261-0556 Knowhereland BBS 2400 Forem TXHOU 339-2995 Megaboard 9600 Forem TXHOU 556-5436 Dark Side of the Moon 2400 Forem TXHOU 541-9160 The ATARI ST 2400 MICH 3.0 TXHOU 944-0108 Double-Click Software Support 2400 MICH 3.0 TXHOU 827-8041 Floppy Wizard 2400 Forem TXHOU 776-3699 Bit Bucket 2400 Forem Los Angeles, CA (213) ---------------------- CALAN 929-9449 USS Enterprise 9600 Forem CALAN 864-9740 Old Bailey 2400 EXPRESS CALAN 634-8993 Target Range 2400 EXPRESS CALAN 663-6886 The Luv Connection 2400 Forem MULTI,$ CALAN 826-4288 MIDI Network 2400 Forem CALAN 320-1541 Torrance Forem 1200 Forem Minneapolis, MN (612) --------------------- MNMIN 374-1707 Alha-Tech Computers 2400 Forem $ MNMIN 925-0900 KBAD 2400 STADEL MNMIN 784-8643 ****POOF**** 2400 STADEL MNMIN 788-1833 ST WHolsealers Club II 2400 STADEL MNMIN 544-5118 The Flight Line 9600 Forem MNMIN 451-4005 Inner City BBS 2400 Forem Priv MNMIN 781-0823 MIDIAPOLIS 2400 STADEL Miami, FL (305) --------------- FLMIA 253-6918 Shadow's Keep 2400 Forem FLMIA 261-6096 Damage, Inc 2400 XPRESS FLMIA 271-0688 ASIM 2400 MICH 3.0 FLMIA 386-9764 Southern Atari Remote 2400 MICH 3.0 Newark, NJ (201) ---------------- NJNEW 242-3619 Newark BBS 2400 Mich 3.0 Multi New York, NY (212) ------------------ NYNYO 473-0542 Peoples BBS 2400 MICH 3.0 Nites NYNYO 496-7660 West Side BBS 2400 MICH 2.0 NYNYO 604-3323 New York City BBS 1200 Oasis (8-bit) Oakland, CA (415) ----------------- CAOAK 436-6262 Ace Software 2400 OTHER CAOAK 526-6471 ST Syncronisity 2400 BBS/ST CAOAK 834-1707 The Enhancer 2400 BBS/ST CAOAK 236-8242 T.B.A. 2400 Carina CAOAK 845-1789 MicroWorld 2400 MICH 3.0 CAOAK 436-6262 Ace Software 2400 MICH 3.0 CAOAK 695-9247 Bloom County BBS 2400 Forem Palo Alto CA, (415) ------------------ CAPAL 782-4402 STu's Place 2400 MICH 2.1 CAPAL 790-1375 Tavern 2400 Forem ST CAPAL 782-8246 Meetpoint Station 2400 Star-Net CAPAL 581-1787 Fo-Star 2400 Star-Net Philadelphia, PA (215) ---------------------- PAPHI 335-4805 Star Station 2400 MICH 3.0 PAPHI 755-5667 Silver Dragon 2400 MICH 3.0 Multi PAPHI 586-8705 ST Atari Haven 2400 MICH 3.0 PAPHI 673-8384 Sector One 2400 Forem Phoenix AZ, (602) ---------------- AZPHO 242-3686 ST Base 2400 1ST Base AZPHO 439-0995 Abyss 1200 KBBS AZPHO 276-6102 Jefferson Software 1200 STADEL Portland, OR (503) ------------------ ORPOR 292-1321 Fortune 9600 Forem ORPOR 246-9712 3cpu 2400 Citadel ORPOR 245-9405 Portland Atari Club 1200 Forem Sacremento, Ca (916) -------------------- CASAC 364-0173 Dream Park BBS 2400 Forum CASAC 638-9923 Axolotl BBS 2400 BBS Express CASAC 392-7279 Select 1200 Carina CASAC 423-2544 Access 1200 Carina San Diego, CA (619) ------------------- CASDI 284-3821 S.D.A.C.E. 2400 MICH 3.0 CASDI 282-6815 Computer Outlet 2400 Mich2.1 (Nite) CASDI 691-7844 Computers Plus 2400 Forem (Nite) San Jose, CA (408) ------------------ CASJO 985-9219 Electronics BBS 2400 Forem CASJO 378-5450 Masters of Software 2400 Forem CASJO 998-9419 PI-NET 2400 Forem CASJO 745-5308 Atari Base #1 2400 MICH 3.0 Multi CASJO 985-8675 Kome 2400 MICH 3.0 CASJO 985-7573 The Board 5.1 1200 MICH 3.0 CASJO 353-4669 CompuCat LaserBreath Caverns 2400 Forem CASJO 986-0215 B.A.A.U.G 2400 Mich 3.0 Salt Lake City, UT (801) ------------------------ UTSLC 565-0850 FACP-ST 2400 Forem Seattle, WA (206) ----------------- WASEA 271-8613 The Budget Board 2400 EXPRESS WASEA 822-4085 Studio 1200 WILDCAT WASEA 562-0128 Xanth 1200 BBS/ST St Louis, MO (314) ------------------ MOSLO 394-9264 Orion BBS 2400 Forem Washington, DC (301/703/202) --------------------------- DCWAS 967-6575 Bit Heaven 2400 Forem DCWAS 250-7303 Merlin's Litterbox 2400 Forem DCWAS 577-3659 Vanguard Datasystems 2400 MICH 3.0 DCWAS 425-5824 Hallucination 2400 MICH 2.1 DCWAS 641-9769 Gallifrey 2400 Forem DCWAS 742-4056 The Attic 2400 Express ________________________________________________________________________ > A "QUOTABLE QUOTE"¿ ================== "Tis better to be thought a fool... ...than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt!" ATARI IS BACK! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ST-REPORT Issue #94 "Your Independent News Source" June 30, 1989 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED copyright 1989 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Views, Opinions and Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of ST Report or CPU Report. Reprint permissions are granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must include ST Report and/or CPU Report and the author's name. Information presented herein is believed correct, ST Report and/or CPU Report, it's editors and staff are not responsible for any use or, misuse of the information contained in this publication. -------------------------------------------------------------------------