SILICON TIMES REPORT ==================== INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ============================= from STR Electronic Publishing Inc. A subsidiary of STR Worldwide CompNews Inc. March 24, 1995 No. 1112 ====================================================================== Silicon Times Report International OnLine Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32221-6155 R.F. Mariano, Editor Featured in ITCNet's ITC_STREPORT Echo ----------------------------------------- Voice: 1-904-783-3319 10am-4pm EST STR Publishing Support BBS * THE BOUNTY INTERNATIONAL BBS * Featuring: * 45GB * of Download Files Operating with * Mustang Software's WILDCAT! 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""""""""""""""""" - STR INDUSTRY REPORT - SUN W/S TOPS! - Digital Cuts $$ - HP; Wireless Printer - PROFOUND Online - Micrografx DEAL - GOP Computer Law - WinCode Internet - WinCIM & Zoom - INSIDE Win'95 - People Talking - Jaguar News -* MS WIN95 PRE-RELEASE OFFERS *- -* PENTIUM 120 SHIPS NEXT WEEK *- -* MULTIMEDIA MARKET UP 227% *- ========================================================================== STReport International OnLine Magazine The Original * Independent * OnLine Magazine -* FEATURING WEEKLY *- "Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information" Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports ========================================================================== STReport's BBS - The Bounty BBS, invites all BBS systems, worldwide, to participate in the ITC/Fido/Internet/PROWL/USENET/USPOLNet/NEST/F-Net Mail Networks. You may also call The Bounty BBS direct @ 1-904-786-4176. 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CALL: 1-800-848-8199 .. Ask for operator 198 You will receive your complimentary time and be OnLine in no time at all! "Enjoy CompuServe's forums; where information is at its very best! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" LottoMan 1.30 Results: 03/18/95: two 3# matches and two 2# matches ---------------------- > From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""" Spring is sprung around these parts ... and already the yard needs cutting. It also means Spring Comdex is not all that far away. New versions of popular software are already in the pipelines to the users. Corel has Version 5.0e shipping at this time. Micrografx has a new bundle deal that's superb. And... all the familiar goodies are soon to be wearing a new suit of clothes in the 32 bit style. The shareware market is virtually buzzing with busy programmers doing their thing. The new line of Adaptec host adapters for the PCI bus are absolutely amazing. I might add the support is already in Win'95 for these powerhouse wide SCSI hosts. The speed, versatility and expansion potential for the future is all there. With all the questions we've received about the Windows 95 Preview Program, all that can be said at this point is there will be a full set of instructions provided as soon as they are made available. In the meantime a call to Redmond WA. Should get some answers for those genuinely interested. Win'95 Beta three will become the foundation of the Windows Preview Program, a pre-shipping copy of Windows 95 that will be distributed to more than 400,000 individuals and organizations to facilitate their migration to Windows 95. A nominal charge of $32 for the Preview copy of Windows 95 covers the cost of materials and technical support. The Preview Program release is scheduled to begin shipping at the end of this month. Any new developments will be brought to you as soon as possible via STReport. Now, comes the "enthusiasm"... Win'95, without a doubt, has killed the "Windoze" perception completely. In fact, Win'95 is very fast and rock solid. Anything you hear from anyone to the contrary... please, question their findings and motives at length. Win'95 will definitely rule the roost. There is quite a bit of information in this issue about Win'95.. Information that will prove to be of value to everyone. Ralph... Of Special Note: ---------------- STReport will be branching out further to Internet's userbase in the very near future. We've received numerous requests to receive STReport from a wide variety of Internet addresses. As a result, we're putting together an Internet distribution/mailing list for those who wish to receive STReport on a regular basis, and we'll UUENCODE each issue and mail it to you. If you're interested in being added to our mailing list, please, send your requests to either "dpj@delphi.com" or, RMARIANO@DELPHI.COM. Look for mailings to begin by October first. We are also considering a number of Internet ftp sites in which to post our issues for as well. Whatever we can do to make STReport available to you. we'll try it! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! """""""""""""""" Publisher -Editor """""""""""""""""" Ralph F. Mariano Lloyd E. Pulley, Editor, Current Affairs Section Editors """"""""""""""" PC SECTION AMIGA SECTION MAC SECTION ATARI SECTION ---------- ------------- ----------- ------------- R.D. Stevens R. Niles J. Deegan D. P. Jacobson STReport Staff Editors: """"""""""""""""""""""" Michael Arthur John Deegan Brad Martin John Szczepanik Paul Guillot Joseph Mirando Doyle Helms Frank Sereno John Duckworth Jeff Coe Steve Keipe Guillaume Brasseur Melanie Bell Jay Levy Jeff Kovach Marty Mankins Carl Prehn Paul Charchian Contributing Correspondents: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" Dominick J. Fontana Norman Boucher Clemens Chin Eric Jerue Ron Deal Mike Barnwell Ed Westhusing Glenwood Drake Vernon W.Smith Bruno Puglia Paul Haris Kevin Miller Craig Harris Allen Chang Tim Holt Patrick Hudlow Tom Sherwin Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: CompuServe................... 70007,4454 Delphi......................... RMARIANO GEnie......................... ST.REPORT BIX............................ RMARIANO FIDONET........................ 1:112/35 FNET........................... NODE 620 ITC NET...................... 85:881/253 NEST........................ 90:21/350.0 America OnLine..................STReport Internet.............RMARIANO@DELPHI.COM IMPORTANT NOTICE ---------------- STReport, with its policy of not accepting any paid advertising, has over the years developed the reputation of "saying it like it really is". When it comes to our editorials, product evaluations, reviews and over-views, we shall always keep our readers interests first and foremost. With the user in mind, STReport further pledges to maintain the reader confidence that has been developed over the years and to continue "living up to such". All we ask is that our readers make certain the manufacturers, publishers etc., know exactly where the information about their products appeared. In closing, we shall arduously endeavor to meet and further develop the high standards of straight forwardness our readers have come to expect in each and every issue. The Staff & Editors """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > STR INDUSTRY REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS """"""""""""""""""" IBM/POWER-PC/PC SECTION (I) =========================== Computer Products Update - CPU Report ------------------------ ---------- Weekly Happenings in the Computer World Issue #12 Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. ******* General Computer News ******* >> Multimedia Market Up 227 Percent << Dataquest Inc. analysts estimate the market for multimedia CD-ROM titles grew by a whopping 227% last year over 1993 sales. The market research is quoted as putting total industry shipments at 53.9 million units in 1994, up from 16.5 million units in 1993. Dataquest says Microsoft Corp. shipped the most, 8.3 million units. Bruce Ryon, director and principal analyst of Dataquest's Multimedia Worldwide program, said, "Games, reference books, and education titles were the big hits of 1994," adding that as developers battle it out for retail shelf space, profit margins on individual CD-ROM titles are being squeezed. Ryon says the average factory selling-price of CD-ROM titles has sunk to an all-time low of $11 a copy. Dataquest also has found CD-ROM titles that come bundled with multi- media computers and kits account for 66% of all CD-ROM title shipments, and that some computers contain as many as 50 CD-ROM titles. Breaking out the industry leaders last year: -:- Microsoft had a 15.4% market share. -:- Mindscape has 12.4%. -:- Grolier held 9.4%. -:- Electronic Arts Inc. had 5.5%. -:- Broderbund Software Inc. had a 4.7% share. >> SUN DOMINATES WORKSTATION WORLD << Despite competition, Sun Microsystems Inc. still dominates the boom- ing computer workstation market. Dataquest Inc. analysts say Sun Micro had racked up a market share figure of 38.1% in 1993 and saw that share decline to 36.2% in 1994 as price-cutting rivals picked up customers. Dataquest said hat No. 2 Hewlett- Packard Co. is closing in, with its share rising to 19.8% from 19.1%, while IBM, in third place, made a major gain, going to 12.9% from 11%. Dataquest also found the overall industry for workstations increased shipments by 25% last year and that the fourth quarter was the biggest in workstation history, with 216,000 units shipped, representing $3.6 billion in revenue. Dataquest analyst Dominic Ricchetti said, "IBM is soaking up the big bucks with its ability to move heavily loaded, high-performance work- stations for both technical desktop use and commercial servers." He said Sun Micro's high volume in the low end of the workstation market and large installed base ensure a solid business among software developers, "but high-performance PCs are squeezing the low-end workstation market." The report said Sun Micro shipped 281,877 workstations last year, followed by 154,222 for Hewlett-Packard; 100,917 for IBM; 83,360 for Digital Equipment; 46,370 for Silicon Graphics, and 112,639 from all other vendors. >> Pentium 120 to Ship Next Week << Still think 100MHz is fast? Better pull to the right. Here comes the Pentium 120. Officials with Intel Corp. said that PCs with the company's new 120MHz Pentium chip inside will be available next week. Craig Kinnie, director of Intel's architecture development lab, made the comment during his remarks at the Windows hardware engineers conference in San Francisco. Previously, Intel's fastest chip was 100MHz. >> Service Promises Low-Cost News << A new online system called Profound, a unit of Market Analysis and Information Database Inc., says it will deliver to consumers and businesses low-cost news resources, some of which now are available only on expensive databases like Lexis-Nexis. The system will deliver data using the Acrobat technology developed by Adobe Systems Inc., which preserves the appearance of documents across many kinds of computers and printers. MAID says Profound will cost $19.95 a month and $6.95 an hour in connect time. >> Digital Cuts U.S. PC Prices << Digital Equipment Corp. has dropped prices in the U.S. on 20 models in its Digital Venturis and Digital Celebris desktop PC lines. The computer maker notes that the reductions of up to 20% produce a savings as high as $419 on several Venturis 486-based PCs. The price cuts take effect immediately. A Venturis 4100 100MHz 486DX4-based system with 8MB of RAM and a 540MB hard disk now carries a list price of $1,880. A Celebris 590 90MHz Pentium model with 8MB RAM of RAM and a 540 hard disk is now available for $2,599. The Venturis and Celebris personal computers were introduced last fall. The Venturis models are designed for mainstream office use. The Celebris models are configured for high-performance applications, such as scientific, engineering, analysis, software development, and desktop publishing. >> AMD, Cyrix Team on Technology << Chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices Inc. and Cyrix Corp. have jointly created a technology that will help companies develop computers that use multiple microprocessor chips. The Wall Street Journal reported the firms say their "programmable interrupt controller" technology will make it easier to build computers and accessory chips based on different types of microprocessors, including chips made by AMD, Cyrix and Intel Corp. >> HP Offers Wireless Printer << A line of printers that don't have to be connected to a computer -- at least, not by wires -- is being created by Hewlett-Packard Co. In the system, a small infrared transmitter in the computer and sends out a signal to a receiver in the printer, which then prints your file. Reports note the printer are "a bit exotic for most home computer users" -- and expensive (the manufacturer puts street prices of about $1,000) -- "but HP suggests it will find extensive use in offices where people with laptops are coming and going. Instead of searching around for a cable to plug into, they will print into thin air." Other computer makers -- including IBM, Sharp Electronics Corp. and Gateway 2000 Inc. -- are working on infrared transmitters to be standard features in their machines. >> Graphics Software Bundled << Micrografx Inc. has announced the immediate availability of Designer Power Pack, a Windows CD-ROM graphics software bundle that includes Micrografx Designer 4.1 TE, Micrografx Picture Publisher 5.0 and Kai's Power Tools 1.0. The software publisher notes that Designer Power Pack is designed to appeal to computer users just beginning to explore PC- based graphics. Designer Power Pack has a U.S. estimated retail price of $349.95 and an upgrade price of $149.95. The upgrade is available to both current customers of the bundled products and users of competing graphics products. >> AST Unveils Mid-Range PC << AST Research Inc. has introduced a new 75MHz Pentium PC that's aimed at budget computer shoppers. The PC maker says the mid-range Premmia MX P/75 offers users the power and features to tackle current projects as well as the expanda- bility and compatibility to accomplish future tasks. The system features a 64-bit local-bus graphics subsystem plus 2MB of video RAM. An optional PCMCIA Type III expansion slot allows users to transfer data between notebook to desktop PCs. The feature also lets users store data in a secure location outside the PC, such as a safe or file cabinet. The Premmia MX is outfitted with two PCI and four ISA expansion slots, five drive bays and RAM upgradeability to a maximum 128MB. Users can choose between 540MB and 1GB Enhanced-IDE hard disks that run 15% faster than conventional IDE drives. Estimated sales prices for the Premmia MX P/75 start at $2,100. The estimated sales price for a model with a 540MB hard disk and 8MB of RAM is $2,400. >> Database Standard Sought by Six << Sources are saying six major U.S. computer and software companies are aiming for an agreement to make their database software products more compatible. Unidentified sources close to the talks are quoted as saying the six -- Microsoft Corp., IBM, Novell Inc., Sybase Inc., Lotus Development Corp. and Computer Associates -- plan to make a joint announcement March 29 at the Interop Trade Show in Las Vegas. >> Survey: Home Workers Organized << A new survey from Fuji Photo Film U.S.A. Inc. finds that home office workers strive for organization. For example, according to the survey, 60% of all people with a home office equip their work area with at least one computer. Fifty-seven percent of that number use a daily organizer as a part of their daily business routine. The survey also reveals that 41% of men and 35% of women dress formally rather than casually as part of their daily work routine. Additionally, 63% of women apply make-up and 75% of men shave each working day. >> Internet Blows Chief Spy's Cover << Surfing beyond the reach of a local ban on the information, a note on the worldwide Internet network has reported the name of the Chief of the Israeli Internal Intelligence Agency Shin Beth, a state secret. Reports from Jerusalem quotes a story in Jerusalem Report magazine as saying that, while publication of the name is banned by Israel's military censorship bureau, his name and address appeared in an Internet message in mid-March. The online message read, "Mazel tov to the new head of the Shabak" (referring to the Hebrew acronym for the Shin Beth), then went on to report the name of the man from Jerusalem, identify him as the son of a well-known family of lawyers, and suggest users send him letters of congratulation. APF notes, "In Israel, the censors allow him to be identified only as 'K.' Several attempts have been made in parliament to lift the ban, considered an anachronism." >> Electronics Jobs Up 4.8 Percent << Jobs in the U.S. electronics and information technology sectors were up 4.8% last year over 1993, growing by 111,000 to 2.43 million positions. Officials with the American Electronics Association said the biggest gains were in computer programming services, pre-packaged software and systems design. The gain was a reversal from 1993, when about 84,000 jobs disappeared due to foreign competition and the tail end of the U.S. recession. Further breaking out the numbers, the AEA says: -:- The defense/commercial guidance systems sector lost 21,000 jobs to 196,000 due to continued relentless cost-cutting by defense contractors as funding slowed and companies continued to con- solidate. -:- Systems design was the biggest gainer with the number of jobs rising by 33% from 108,300 to 144,500. -:- Consumer products gained almost 5,000 jobs to 71,400. -:- Communications jobs grew by 12,000 to 271,700. -:- Components other than semiconductors gained almost 25,000 to 364,200. -:- Instruments rose 8,000 to 316,300. -:- Computer programming surged 37,000 to more than 250,000. -:- Prepackaged software jobs were up 17,000 to 184,000. >> GOP Bill Targets Computer Porn << A measure approved this week by the House Judiciary Committee would increase severity of penalties for use of computers to deliver sexually explicit materials and to lure children into sexual activities or pornography. The bill, sought by Republicans as part of their Contract With America and backed by the Justice Department, is intended to increase efforts to prevent abuses of children that "rob children of their innocence and harm them for life." Rep. Bill McCollum, R-Florida, lauded the proposal, saying it was another way for "policing the information highway." Computers are "particularly harmful because they can reach an almost unlimited audience," he said, adding that as generations become more computer literate, increase the chance that minors are exposed to sexually explicit materials. However, Rep. Charles Schumer, D-New York, said the proposal is not enough. "In terms of making the family paramount again," he said, "we must do more than just strengthen penalties for child pornography." _________________________________________ > Micrografx News STR InfoFile """""""""""""""""""""""""""" Micrografx Bundles... "BEST OF BREED" GRAPHICS SOFTWARE ================================= Designer Power Pack to Include Micrografx Designer, Micrografx Picture Publisher, Kai's Power Tools Richardson, Texas (March 20, 1995) – To provide PC graphics users with leading functionality and compelling value, Micrografx(, Inc. (NASDAQ:MGXI) today announced the immediate availability of the Designer Power Pack, a bundle of award-winning products comprising Micrografx Designer( 4.1 TE, Micrografx Picture Publisher( 5.0, and Kai's Power Tools( 1.0. The Designer Power Pack is expected to have a U.S. estimated retail price of $349.95 and an upgrade price of $149.95. The upgrade is available to both current customers of the products and users of competitive graphics products. The Designer Power Pack provides Windows CD-ROM users with three of the industry's leading tools. In addition, Micrografx includes 15,000+ clipart images, 300+ stock photos, and 250+ fonts. As well as being an attractive upgrade offer for current graphics users, the ease-of-use and value offered in the Designer Power Pack is expected to appeal to computer users just beginning to explore PC-based graphics. "By providing three of the industry's leading creativity-enhancing software programs for as low as $149.95, Micrografx is taking an aggressive step to broaden the market appeal of its software," said Grant Wickes, Micrografx's vice president of product management. "Customer research shows Designer and Picture Publisher are often used together in creative environments, and the Designer Power Pack delivers the leading tools in a single, value-oriented package." "Designer and Picture Publisher are full featured tools that allow our users to get real work done without limiting their creative capabilities" said Ken Roller, corporate director of manufacturing and EIS systems with Liz Claiborne Inc., a designer and marketer of apparel and related items. "We have used the products hand-in-hand to create everything from initial sketches to final designs." The Products ------------ Micrografx Designer 4.1 Technical Edition (TE) is easy, precise and powerful illustration software featuring extensive import-export file formats and symbol creation and editing precise to one micron. Powerful text handling features such as linked containers and 29 precision drawing tools also help users quickly and easily create precision illustrations. Designer is a previous winner of PC Magazine's Technical Excellence Award, and the recipient of a Windows Magazine WIN 100 Award in 1995. Micrografx Picture Publisher 5.0 is an easy, fast, and powerful image editor for Windows that helps increase productivity through innovative features such as the Command List(, allowing unlimited undo and task re-ordering, and Object Layers(, which keeps all elements on separate "layers" for easy movement and editing. Picture Publisher continues its award-winning tradition by being named a 1994 Home Office Computing's Editor's Pick, as well as Computer Artist's Product of the Year in 1994. Kai's Power Tools 1.0 is a collection of 33 special effects filters that work with any program like Picture Publisher that supports the industry standard plug-in architecture. Effects range from edge detection to the texture explorer. Kai's Power Tools recently received the Best of 1994 Award from PC Magazine, and a 1994 BYTE Award of Distinction. Pricing/Availability -------------------- The Designer Power Pack is now available for $349.95 U.S. estimated retail price (CD-ROM only) and as an upgrade for $149.95 U.S. estimated retail price (CD-ROM only). The upgrade is available to both current customers of the products and users of competitive graphics products. Designer 4.1 TE and Picture Publisher 5.0 will continue to be available as individual, stand-alone products at estimated U.S. retail upgrade prices of $99.95 each. Micrografx develops and markets graphics software to meet the creative needs of everyone who uses a personal computer. Founded in 1982, Micrografx has become a leading software publisher by responding quickly to customer and worldwide market needs. The company's U.S. operations are based in Richardson, Texas, with a development office in San Francisco. International subsidiaries comprise Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, and Japan. ____________________________________ > WINCIM &ZOOM STR InfoFile """"""""""""""""""""""""" TIPS FOR USING WINCIM/DOSCIM WITH ZOOM HIGH SPEED MODEMS ======================================================== When using WinCim 1.3 (and higher)/DOSCIM with the a 14.4 or faster modem, you should use the following initialization string: AT&F&C1&D2&K4%C0^M ----------------------------------------------------------------- When using WinCim 1.3/DOSCIM with the 14.4 PC/14.4 EX modems, I suggest that you use the string AT&F&C1&D2&Q6&K4^M. The 14.4 PC/14.4 EX modems do not have built-in data compression/error correction. These modems have an RPI chip to handle data compression/error correction features. Since WinCim/DOSCim do not support the RPI interface, you should uncheck the error correction box in these software packages. --------------------------------------------------------------------- With WinCim version 1.2, I suggest that you use the string: AT&F&C0&D2&K4%C0^M. You should also have the error correction/data compression boxes unchecked. With Versions 1.1 and before (this includes versions 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, 1.0.4, and 1.0.5), they did not have flow control capabilities and/or DCD/DTR implemented. For these versions, I suggest that you use the AT&F %C0^M. The error correction/data compression box in 1.1 should be unchecked. If your calling a multi baud node in Canada with the 14.4 PC modem, we suggest that you lock the modem to modem speed with the S37=xN0 command. x should be equal to 6 for 2400 connections, 9 for 9600 connections and 11 for 14.4 connections. Be sure to add &K4 after the S37=xN0 command. When connecting with WinCim/DOSCIM, we suggest that you do use the latest versions of the software. To order the latest version of WinCim, type GO WCIMSOFT while on Compuserve. The software costs $10.00 and it comes with a $10.00 usage credit, which makes the upgrade essentially free. Charles _____________________________________________ > WIN'95 OS STR FOCUS! """""""""""""""""""" PRERELEASE VERSIONS OF WINDOWS 95 OPERATING SYSTEM ================================================== Announcing Combined Win32 SDK for Development of Applications for Windows 95 and Windows NT REDMOND, WA -- March 21, 1995 -- Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of prerelease versions of the Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 95 operating system and the merged Win32(R) application programming interface (API) Software Development Kit (SDK) through Level 2 membership in the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). Application developers immediately can begin early development and testing of applications for the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system, scheduled to be available later this year. The prerelease Win32 SDK upgrades the current Win32 SDK, allowing developers to write to a single API and target multiple software and hardware platforms. Besides targeting the Windows 95 platform, developers writing to the Win32 API also can target the Windows NT(TM) operating system platform, as well as the Apple(R) Macintosh(R) platform (with the Microsoft Visual C++(TM) development system Cross-Platform Edition). Win32 is also portable across hardware platforms: Windows 95- and Windows NT-based applications on the Intel(R) platform, Windows NT- based applications on Alpha AXP(TM) from Digital Equipment Corp. and MIPS(R) platforms. Adding to the nearly 50,000 beta sites that have been testing the Windows 95 operating system for some months now, this announcement marks the first time the Windows 95 operating system and the merged Win32 SDK are publicly available to millions of developers worldwide. Application developers now will be able to write applications that deliver to end users the advantages of the Windows 95 operating system. "Windows 95 will allow developers to write more powerful, new 32-bit applications incorporating multitasking, long file names, great new controls, support for Plug and Play, and more," said Cameron Myhrvold, director of Microsoft's Developer Mission. "ISVs and their customers will benefit from the great features of Windows 95. Corporate developers also will benefit from the ease of use and lower support burden Windows 95-based applications offer. Applications using Plug and Play will be more responsive to the dynamic hardware environment that Windows 95 provides. The new user interface elements in Windows 95 will reduce the learning curve associated with migrating end users to graphical user interface-based applications and really deliver on the benefits for end users of a graphical user interface." The Microsoft Developer Network Program --------------------------------------- First launched in 1993, the Microsoft Developer Network is a membership program that keeps developers up to date on the latest information and development technology from Microsoft. In addition to the prerelease versions of Windows 95 and the Win32 SDK, MSDN Level 2 members receive all of Microsoft's other software development kits and copies of Windows and Windows NT Workstation operating systems. The contents are updated at least once every quarter to help ensure that MSDN members are working with the latest released versions, which will become increasingly important as the Windows SDKs are revised from 16- to 32-bit after the release of the Windows 95 operating system. MSDN members also receive quarterly the award-winning Development Library, the comprehensive resource for programming information on all Microsoft development products and systems software. Pricing and Availability ------------------------ To obtain the prerelease version of the Windows 95 operating system and the Win32 SDK, software developers should join Level 2 of the Microsoft Developer Network. A one-year membership (which will deliver all the releases of Windows 95 and Win32 SDK over the course of the year, as well as new technical information and associated SDKs for Win32-based development each quarter) costs $495 in the United States ($695 in Canada), plus shipping and tax. To join, developers in the United States and Canada may call (800) 759-5474. Microsoft offers this program at no risk to developers: if you are not completely satisfied, simply return the CD-ROMs within 90 days for a complete refund (excluding shipping). In Europe, call +31 10 258 8864; in Japan, call 03-5600-5033; elsewhere, call (303) 684-0914 for local contact information. Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day. NOTE: Microsoft, Windows, Win32, Windows NT and Visual C++ are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. Apple and Macintosh are registered trademarks of Apple Computer Inc. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corp. Alpha AXP is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corp. MIPS is a registered trademark of MIPS Computer Systems Inc. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N FARGO PRIMERA PRO COLOR PRINTERS - 600DPI For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent to you that demonstrates FARGO Primera & Primera Pro SUPERIOR QUALITY 600dpi 24 bit Photo Realistic Color Output, please send a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope [SASE] (business sized envelope please) to: STReport's Fargo Printout Offer P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155 Folks, the FARGO Primera Pro has GOT to be the best yet. Its far superior to the newest of Color Laser Printers selling for more than three times as much. Its said that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. Send for this sample now. Guaranteed you will be amazed at the superb quality. (please, allow at least a one week turn-around) A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" :HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT: _________________________________ Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local Echo) Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN. GENIE Information Services copyright 1995 by General Electric Information Services/GENIE, reprinted by permission """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ___ ___ _____ _______ /___| /___| /_____| /_______/ The Macintosh RoundTable /____|/____| /__/|__| /__/ ________________________ /_____|_____|/__/_|__|/__/ /__/|____/|__|________|__/ /__/ |___/ |__|_/ |__|_/____ Managed by SyndiComm /__/ |__/ |__|/ |__|______/ An Official Forum of the International Computer Users Group *** STReport available in MAC RT *** ASCII TEXT for ALL GENIE users! MAC/APPLE SECTION (II) ====================== John Deegan, Editor (Temp) > WinCode STR InfoFile """""""""""""""""""" Wincode: Multi-Purpose Encoder/Decoder for Windows Snappy_Inc. (1993,1994) written by George H. Silva ***PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FREELY WITH ALL FILES INTACT*** Files: WINCODE.EXE the main executable program WCODEDLL.DLL dynamic link library of coding functions HOOKDLL.DLL dynamic link library of menu hook functions WINSORT.EXE a companion file-sort utility ZIPLINK.EXE executable link to PKZIP/PKUNZIP ZIPLINK.PIF ZIPLINK.EXE program information file SUM.EXE a BONUS "sum -r/size" DOS utility README.TXT this file HELPME.TXT Wincode basics and information for obtaining the HELP file (WINCODE.HLP) INSTALL.EXE the Install/Upgrade program INSTALL.HLP the Installer HELP file INSTALL.INF the Installer information file CHECKSUM.REF checksum reference file ***SEE THE HELPME.TXT FILE FOR MORE INFORMATION*** This file contains the following information: I. About Wincode II. Wincode Features (very brief list!) III. Coming Soon IV. Requirements V. Installing/Running Wincode VI. BONUS 'sum -r/size' Utility VII. Availability VIII. Other Snappy_Inc. Software IX. Mailing List X. Known Limitations XI. Note to AOL Users XII. Copyrights I. *** About Wincode *** Wincode is a Windows 3.1 program which converts 8-bit BINARY (EXE, COM,GIF, etc) files to 7-bit ASCII (Text) files (and vice versa) through a process known as bit-shifting. Wincode currently supports UU/XX and Base64 (MIME1.0 conformant) coding. This BINARY/ASCII conversion allows you to send and receive binary files via e-mail or any other ascii-based communications system. It provides a quick and easy way to distribute programs to people all over the world (it takes a few minutes, on average, for e-mail to reach across the world). UUcoding is a common practice on many Internet NewsGroups in which users wish to exchange binary data. Base64 coding is used by MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) conformant e-mail software as a method for attaching binary data to ascii e-mail. Both methods perform the same overall function (i.e. allow binary data to be safely transmitted through e-mail) but require different formatting algorithms. In the future, Wincode will also support BINHEX coding and *may* even handle the actual "e-mailing" of the data... Wincode and the associated executables and DLLs (NOT including the HELP file) are distributed as FREEWARE. However, we want to make a distinction: the program is FREEWARE, but it is NOT Public Domain. Snappy_Inc still retain the Copyright to the source code and to the use and distribution of the program. The HELP file is available for a small fee ($5.00 US) but is NOT required for Wincode to function correctly. Ordering the HELP file also entitles you to future updates and e-mail based support. The $5.00 fee is mainly to offset development costs and the amount of personal time invested. See below and the file HELPME.TXT for more information on obtaining support. Wincode is 100% compatible with all standard UUcoders and MIME 1.0 conformant software. The MIME (Base64) support was developed under the guidelines of RFC 1521 (September 1993) and is subject to our understanding of the document. We welcome all comments and error corrections. We have tried to incorporate as many extra features as possible to make the en/de-coding process painless. The average user may not need/use all of Wincode's features, but they *are* Free! NOTE TO DEVELOPERS: WCODEDLL.DLL contains ALL of Wincode's 'working' code (currently) accessed through 66 functions/procedures. We created this SIMPLE interface to allow Developers to integrate the Wincode Engine into any program. We will provide the API and royalty free usage to interested developers under certain conditions. Please contact Snappy_Inc for more details. II. *** Wincode Features (very brief list!) *** - Full featured Windows 3.1 program - Easy access ToolBar for hassle-free operation - Drag and Drop support (use for batch en/de-coding -> Wincode also allows multi-file selection from File Open dialogs) - SMART decoding (handles single files, multi-part files, can determine what is encoded or not, etc. -> see the HELP file for more information) - Fully configurable...We're not joking! - EMBL UUcode compatible - Supports UU, XX or User defined En/De-coding - Supports Base64 (MIME conformant) En/De-coding - Supports En/De-coding to/from the Clipboard! - Supports automatic ZIP/UNZIP (requires PKWare's ZIP/UNZIP 2.0) - Application menu hooking option to integrate Wincode's menu - Includes INSTALL program for upgrades - Integrated file-sorting companion program (separate executable for easier upgrading) which handles MANY types of file header formats - Multimedia support - see the HELP file for details - It's ALL FREE... III. *** Coming Soon *** - BINHEX en/de-coding support. - The ability to handle actual "e-mailing" of encoded data files. - User suggestions...? IV. *** Requirements *** - IBM compatible running DOS 3.3 or higher - 286 or higher processor with at least 2MB memory - Windows 3.1/3.11 running in standard or enhanced mode - About 500K of disk space without HELP file (~750K with HELP file) V. *** Installing/Running Wincode *** If you have not already done so, expand the ZIP archive into a temporary directory (or a floppy-disk). Start Windows, select FILE|RUN from Program Manager or File Manager and type in the full path of the INSTALL.EXE program (run it). The INSTALL program will copy/expand all the files to a directory you specify (overwriting older files), upgrade your WINCODE.INI (if you are running an older version of Wincode) and create a Program Manager Group and/or icon. See the HELPME.TXT file for basic instructions on using Wincode. ***IMPORTANT NOTE: ALL files (listed above) must be present in the same directory for Installer to function properly. You should INSTALL first, then move selected files to directories of your choice (i.e. delete the README.TXT, place SUM.EXE in your DOS directory, etc.). The install program uses the Windows LZEXPAND.DLL to decompress and copy the required files. If you receive any error messages during install, please contact Snappy_Inc for assistance. VI. *** BONUS 'sum -r/size' Utility *** We have included a small DOS executable which will quickly calculate UNIX 'sum -r/size' checksums. This program is useful for checking the integrity of files that have been transferred over communications lines that are questionable (or, to some extent, checking for virus infections). Wincode supports both line and/or file Checksum checking while decoding and will insert Checksums (line and/or file) while encoding. This utlity is provided as a stand-alone DOS program. For program usage, type 'SUM' (with no parameters) at the DOS prompt. The included file 'CHECKSUM.REF' contains the proper checksum values for all of the files in the Wincode package. VII. *** Availability *** Recent versions of Wincode (or other Snappy_Inc software) are always available at the following locations: - CompuServe (check the WinShare forum; keyword: Snappy, Wincode, etc.) - America Online (keyword: Snappy, Wincode, etc.) - The Nebuolic Cheese BBS [SysOp: Stephen Lau] phone# (415) 949-1788 - located in the Los Altos, Ca. area (USA) (this is an Official Snappy_Inc. Software Release Site for the West coast; We're the East coast release site - see below) - The Internet - OK, so this isn't *very* specific...but, if you have access to the internet, ARCHIE for: WNCODExx.ZIP where "xx" is the version number, i.e. WNCODE26.ZIP for version 2.6 We will also try to upload current versions to: ftp.cica.indiana.edu VIII. *** Other Snappy_Inc. Software *** We generally develop utility programs for Windows 3.1. We currently have a handful of programs that we're working on (including a Windows Program Uninstaller) which we will release as FREEWARE. We welcome all ideas for future projects. IX. *** Mailing List *** We have been trying to maintain a mailing list of all users who have offered advice, bug reports or helped in BETA testing. Being on this list entitles you to FREE upgrades (personally e-mailed pre-releases) and support. (in other words, you don't have to download Wincode from the Internet or an Online Service/BBS). For more information see the HELPME.TXT file. X. *** Known Limitations *** 1) Network Users: If Wincode is having problems opening and/or finding files on a networked drive, edit the WINCODE.INI file and change/add the following line: Network=1 This will activate a bypass which allows Wincode to view the file differently (i.e. not as a "DOS" file). If you still have problems, please contact Snappy_Inc. with a detailed description. 2) Certain video hardware/software combinations (such as ATI cards/drivers) are known to cause irregular displays of various Wincode dialogs. Common symptoms include misaligned text, irregularly spaced progress bars and "absent menus". The Hooking feature is also not fully supported by all applications. If you have problems hooking and application, try using the "Tune.." options. If you experience any other difficulties, please let us know. These known problems do NOT affect Wincode's coding functionality. XI. *** Note to AOL Users *** Here are answers to two common problems experienced by AOL Users: 1) When downloading USENET posts from AOL, be certain that you receive the ENTIRE message. You do this by pressing the 'More...' button until it disappears or grays-out. AOL downloads files in 28K chunks and usually does NOT receive the entire post when you select it. We have been told that the 'Logging' option is the way to go for capturing LARGE files. For more info, please contact the AOL support personnel. 2) If you want to Hook the AOL menu, use 'America Online' as the Application Name (do NOT include the quotes). The point is that there are TWO spaces between 'America' and 'Online'. XI. *** Copyrights *** - portions of this program are copyright (C) 1991,1993 Borland - Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation - PKZIP/UNZIP are copyright 1989-1993 PKWARE Inc. All Rights Reserved. - GIF is a service mark of CompuServe Incorporated - WordPerfect is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. - Procomm Plus for Windows is copyright Datastorm Technologies, Inc. - Star Trek: The Next Generation is a registered trademark of Paramount Pictures Have fun! George.--- Snappy_Inc. ;-) Main Internet Address: George.Silva@wadsworth.org (preferred) CompuServe: 74640,1647 (74640.1647@compuserve.com) America Online: Snappy (Snappy@aol.com) [GHS 10/31/94] _______________________________________ > Wonderful World of Windows STR Feature """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" March 1995 ---------- Microsoft Windows 95 ==================== Questions and Answers --------------------- Microsoft is continually enhancing the Microsoft Windows operating system product line to deliver easy-to-use yet powerful products that exploit the latest advancements in microcomputer hardware technology. There is a great deal of interest in and speculation about Windows 95. It is the official name of the Windows "Chicago" project, which is the technology-development effort that will deliver the next major release of Windows for the mainstream desktop and portable PC. The purpose of this document is to answer the most common questions customers have asked about Windows 95. What Is Windows 95? ------------------- What is Windows 95? Why change from the name Windows "Chicago" to Windows 95? Windows 95 is the official product name of the next major version of Microsoft Windows. Windows "Chicago" was the code name for the development project to produce the successor to Windows 3.x and Windows for Workgroups 3.x, and this name was used until the official product name was decided and announced. What are the key benefits and features of Windows 95? What features will Windows 95 not have? Windows 95 will present a major step forward in functionality on desktop and portable PC platforms by providing a system that is even easier, faster and more powerful to use, and which maintains compatibility with the Windows and MS-DOS operating system based applications and hardware peripherals in which customers have invested. Ease of use will be improved through the Plug and Play architecture and a more intuitive user interface. With the introduction of the Windows 95 operating system, the engine of Microsoft Windows is being revamped to improve performance and provide smooth multitasking. Windows 95 will be a complete, integrated 32-bit operating system that does not require MS-DOS, although it can run MS-DOS based applications. It implements the Win32 API and provides pre-emptive multitasking and multiple threads of execution for 32-bit applications. Windows 95 will include reliable and open networking support and high performance, as well as messaging and dial-up network access services. As the successor to Windows 3.x and Windows for Workgroups 3.x, Windows 95 will meet a number of key requirements. First, Windows 95 will be compatible with applications and device drivers for both MS-DOS and Windows. When a customer upgrades to Windows 95, performance will meet or exceed performance of Windows 3.1, as long as the customer has an 80386DX or higher system with at least 4 MB of RAM for the same set of tasks. For systems with more than 4 MB of memory, performance will be improved over Windows 3.1. The transition to the new user interface will be easy for current users of Windows, and companies that want to make the transition at their own pace will still be able to run Program Manager and File Manager during the transition period. Windows 95 will not be processor-independent nor will it support symmetric multiprocessing systems. Windows 95 is also not designed to meet C2-level security specifications. If these features are important to a customer, Windows NT is the right operating system to use. What will be the hardware requirements for Windows 95? Windows 95 will run on Intel (or compatible) 80386DX or higher processors with a minimum of 4MB of memory (8MB recommended). A VGA-compatible video adapter is also required. Windows 95 is expected to use approximately 10-15 MB additional hard disk space as a typical upgrade from Windows 3.x or Windows for Workgroups 3.x, and MS-DOS. How does Windows 95 compare to the Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups and Windows NT operating systems? Windows 95 is designed to make mainstream PCs easier and more powerful. It will be the right choice for customers who want to run business and personal-productivity applications and for use on home computers. Windows NT is designed for the most demanding business uses such as development or advanced engineering and financial applications. Windows NT is the right choice for customers who need the highest level of protection for their data and applications. Windows NT is also the right choice for those who need scalability to multiprocessing and RISC systems. Why is Microsoft changing the numbering system for Windows? Until recently, version numbers have served us well. Version numbers helped inform customers that new versions were available and gave some sense for the significance of the improvements. However, our customer base has broadened to include less technical users, and our research indicates that even our most sophisticated customers find our current version-numbering scheme confusing. For example, Windows 3.1 provided far more new capabilities than a typical 0.1 release, and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 introduced dramatically more than the usual .01 release. We must make it easier for customers to understand which version of our software they are using, so they know when to consider upgrading to the next release. Does this numbering system mean Microsoft will release a new version of Windows every year? No. It means that the version numbers will help give users a sense for the "model year" of their software, in the same way that customers have a sense of the model year of their cars today. Why Will I Want Windows 95? Why will individual customers want to upgrade to Windows 95? The sheer quantity of the improvements included in Windows 95 represents a great value for customers. Top on the list of requested improvements was an easier way to work with the PC. As a result, a new user interface was designed in Windows 95 that will help make computing even easier for both less experienced users and experienced users who want greater efficiency and flexibility. Long file name support is one of many usability improvements in Windows 95. Improving ease of use goes beyond fixing problems with Windows it encompasses the hardware, applications and network as well. Plug and Play will make hardware setup automatic, and built-in networking will make starting a new network or connecting to an existing network server such as Novell NetWare and Windows NT Server just as easy. Customers also want greater efficiency and power and to get their work done faster. They want to run more than one application or task at the same time. They want to use their computers to access files, electronic mail, and public-information networks from any location at work, at home, or on the road. They also want better multimedia, whether for playing MS-DOS based games or for teleconferencing using TV-quality video resolution. The following are highlights of capabilities in Windows 95 that address these requests: PRE-EMPTIVE MULTITASKING. Windows 95 can perform multitasking smoothly and responsively for 32-bit applications. SCALABLE PERFORMANCE. The performance improvements that Windows 95 provides over Windows 3.1 increase as the amount of RAM increase, due to the high performance 32-bit architecture of Windows 95. SUPPORT FOR 32-BIT APPLICATIONS. Windows 95 supports the Win32 API, which means customers can look forward to a new generation of easier, faster and more reliable applications. INCREASED RELIABILITY. Windows 95 increases protection for running existing MS-DOS and Windows-based applications and provides the highest level of protection for new 32-bit applications for Windows. As a result, an errant application will be much less likely to disable other applications or the system. FASTER PRINTING. Windows 95 features a new 32-bit printing subsystem that reduces the time spent waiting for print jobs to finish and improves system response when jobs are printing in the background. BETTER MULTIMEDIA SUPPORT. Just as Windows 3.1 made sound a part of the system, Windows 95 now includes support for video playback. The video system and CD-ROM file system will provide high-quality output for multimedia applications. MORE MEMORY FOR MS-DOS BASED APPLICATIONS. Windows 95's use of protected-mode drivers means customers will have more than 600K free conventional memory in each MS-DOS session, even when they are connected to the network and using a CD-ROM drive and a mouse. MICROSOFT EXCHANGE CLIENT. Windows 95 includes the Microsoft Exchange client, a universal client that retrieves messages into one universal inbox from many kinds of systems, including Microsoft Mail, faxes, Internet Mail, The Microsoft Network, CompuServe Mail, and so on. SUPPORT FOR MOBILE COMPUTING. Users of portable PCs will benefit from the built-in support provided by Windows 95 for their hardware, with automatic hardware reconfiguration (through Plug and Play), integrated disk compression, and battery power management. Dial-Up Networking and the Briefcase help users stay organized and stay connected while on the road. Why will companies want to upgrade to Windows 95? Companies will want to move to Windows 95 because it will help reduce their PC support burden, help increase their control over the desktop, and help increase the productivity of their end users. Numerous studies have shown that as much as 80 percent of the cost of owning a PC over the long term are the costs associated with support, including installing, configuring and managing the PC, and training the PC user. The Gartner Group has concluded that Windows 95 will likely lead to significantly lower total cost of ownership compared to MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 (PC Research Note: Personal Computing Costs: A Windows 95 Model, Aug. 15, 1994). Their model estimates the support savings will be $1,180 per user per year. Over the five-year ownership period assumed in the analysis, this translates into savings of nearly $6,000 per user. Windows 95 includes numerous features designed to reduce the costs of supporting PCs and PC users, including the following: A simpler, more intuitive user interface that can reduce training requirements for novice users and enable experienced users to learn new tasks with less help. The start button, taskbar, Windows Explorer, wizards, a new help system and more will make Windows 95 easy to learn and make functionality easy to discover. Built-in networking support that is easier to set up and configure and is faster and more reliable to use. Whether you're running NetWare or Microsoft networks using NetBEUI, IPX/SPX or TCP/IP protocols, and using NDIS or ODI drivers, Windows 95 has integrated support for your network client, protocol and driver. Additional networks are added easily. Windows 95 includes 32-bit clients for both NetWare and Microsoft networks that are fast, reliable, and require no conventional memory. A Windows 95-based PC can have multiple network clients and transport protocols running simultaneously for connecting heterogeneous systems. In addition, Dial-Up Networking in Windows 95 makes it easy to access information on the network from remote locations in an easy, reliable, and secure manner. Plug and Play device installation to automate the difficult process of adding devices to a PC. Windows 95 supports the industry-standard Plug and Play specification to enable automatic installation and configuration of add-on devices. If you install Windows 95 on the system you have today and purchase a Plug and Play add-on device, you will be able to install that device by just plugging it in and turning on your system. Plug and Play takes care of the messy details of installation and configuration. Plug and Play also enables innovative new system designs that support such capabilities as hot docking and undocking. System-management capabilities that will simplify remote administration and enable new system-management applications. Windows 95 features an infrastructure for the management of PCs that leverages a hierarchical database of system-configuration information, called the Registry. The Registry holds all the pertinent information about the system hardware, software, user preferences and privileges and provides access to its contents over the network through a variety of industry-standard interfaces, including SNMP, DMI, and Remote Procedure Call. This infrastructure will simplify many administrative tasks by including tools for remote configuration of the desktop and will lead to a new generation of sophisticated system-management applications for managing the desktop, performing hardware and software inventorying, and supporting software distribution. System policies that enable an administrator to control a desktop configuration. Windows 95 supports policies, which are settings an administrator configures to define the operations users can access on their PCs. Policies also can be used to define the appearance of the desktop. For example, the administrator can set a policy to disable the MS-DOS prompt and the "Run" commands, to prevent users from arbitrarily running applications. Support for roving users. Windows 95 can present different configurations, depending on who has logged into the PC. This option allows users to log into different machines on the network and see their personal configurations. Built-in agents for automating backup of desktop systems. Windows 95 includes the software required to backup a desktop system using a server-based backup system. The backup agents included with Windows 95 work with the most popular server-based systems. In addition to reducing support costs and increasing control over the desktop, Windows 95 will help make end users more productive. In usability test studies, users of Windows 3.1 are able to perform a series of typical tasks that they perform today in 25 percent less time using Windows 95. These tests did not take into account many of the tasks that users would like to perform but which are too difficult today, such as installing a CD ROM drive and sound card or retrieving a file from the desktop system or the network, while using the computer at home or traveling on business. By making these capabilities much more accessible, Windows 95 will enable customers to be even more productive using PCs. Won't it be expensive to put Windows 95 on all the PCs in a company? Windows 95 has been designed to provide a safe and smooth transition to the new operating system. Windows 95 will work on the hardware and software you already have through support for existing device drivers and applications for MS-DOS and Windows. On mainstream systems those with at least 4 MB of RAM and an 80386DX processor Windows 95 will perform as fast or faster than Windows 3.1 if all you do is upgrade the operating system. The installation program will detect and maintain current system settings and enable automated installation through a variety of techniques, including login scripts and software-distribution applications. Users of Windows 3.1 will be productive quickly, as confirmed by the thorough usability testing Microsoft conducted with users of Windows 3.1 and the learning aids that will be included with the product. A study by Usability Sciences (October 1994) showed that after a 20-minute "play period" and with the help of a computer-based tutorial, users of Windows 3.1 using Windows 95 for just 90 minutes can perform a common set of tasks nearly 50 percent faster than with Windows 3.1 providing a dramatic increased in productivity. The savings achieved by using Windows 95 will outweigh the costs of making the migration. The Gartner Group has estimated that migration costs can be recouped in three to six months. Good planning and deployment techniques can help keep these costs to a minimum. Given the recent delays in the availability date, should companies delay their efforts to evaluate, test, and deploy Windows 95? Not at all. The delay actually gives corporations a good opportunity to begin their planning now, and the Windows Preview Program will make a prerelease version of Windows 95 available to support this effort. Microsoft is working hard to provide tools and assistance for corporations to do thorough migration planning these tools include TrainCast, where a series of free training programs covering Windows 95 migration will be broadcast to VARs, support professionals, corporate helpdesk personnel, OEMs, Authorized Training Education Centers and others interested in in-depth training; and the Windows 95 Resource Kit, which is the essential source of technical information and tools for MIS managers and network administrators. Thorough advance planning can save time and money as indicated in a recent Gartner Group migration analysis. The Gartner Group believes the cost of migrating to Windows 95 can be as low as $200 per desktop by carefully planning how to train end users and support staff, how to automate the actual deployment and how to take advantage of the new capabilities built-in to Windows 95. The best starting point for IS managers interested in learning more is to attend the upcoming Windows 95 TrainCast. Call 1-800-597-3300 for more details on TrainCast. Availability and Packaging Plans -------------------------------- When will Windows 95 be available? Windows 95 is scheduled to ship in August 1995. Why did the availability date of Windows 95 slip? Microsoft's commitment is to ship a great product. The intense testing period that the product is going through will help ensure a great release based on feedback from tens of thousands of beta testers. A mainstream operating system product must install smoothly and compatibility must be there. With tens of millions of potential upgraders, the complexity of assuring this is enormous. Every constituent we have talked with has said that whatever we do we shouldn't ship too soon, so we're taking the extra time we believe we need to get it right the delay until August will allow us to deliver a quality product. What different packages will you have for Windows 95? Packaging decisions will be made in the final stages of the development cycle. I understand there is a new logo for Windows 95. What will it mean to me? The new logo, which looks quite similar to the current logo, featuring the same Windows flag, will be used optionally by vendors to identify their hardware, software and peripheral products that take advantage of new capabilities in Windows 95. The logo will let customers know at a glance, for example, which CD-ROM drives are Plug and Play-enabled and which applications are 32-bit. Vendors can obtain detailed logo requirements by accessing the Microsoft Developer Solutions Phone-Fax service at (206) 635-2222 and requesting document 130. I hear rumors that Microsoft is working on versions of Windows 95 for non-Intel microprocessors. Is this true? No, Microsoft is not working on versions of Windows 95 for non-Intel microprocessors. Windows NT is Microsoft's portable operating system, and it's already available on high-end Intel, MIPS , Alpha AXP , PowerPC and Clipper computers. What will happen to MS-DOS? Microsoft will continue to enhance MS-DOS as long as customers require it. Future versions will be derived from the protected-mode technology developed in the Windows 95 project. Will MS-DOS 6.22, Windows 3.11, and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 still be available when Windows 95 ships? Yes. These products will still be available from the same channels you presently obtain them from. We will continue to make these products available as customer demand dictates. Windows Preview Program ----------------------- How can I become a beta tester for Windows 95? The beta test program for Windows 95 is no longer accepting new submissions for beta sites. However, the Windows Preview Program will provide an excellent opportunity to evaluate Windows 95 prior to its general availability. What is the Windows Preview Program? Microsoft will offer the Windows 95 Preview Program at the end of March, prior to final product availability. This program allows people interested in getting a head start on evaluating Windows 95 a chance to purchase a pre-release copy of Windows 95 along with documentation, and support, for the cost of materials and implementation, expected to be around $30 US. Further information and the ordering instructions about the Windows 95 Preview Program will be sent to all WINNEWS subscribers as soon as this the program is open. To subscribe to Microsoft's WINNEWS Electronic Newsletter, send e-mail to enews@microsoft.nwnet.com (which is an Internet mail address) with the words SUBSCRIBE WINNEWS as the sole text of your message. For more information on WINNEWS, see the "For More Information" section at the end of this document. User Interface -------------- How will the new user interface in Windows 95 make the PC easier to use? The goal for the user interface for future versions of Windows is to make computers easy for all people to use. The user-interface design in Windows 95 will achieve these goals through the most extensive usability-testing effort ever (thousands of hours of laboratory testing, with hundreds of users of all levels of experience) and through feedback from various sources, including testing at customer sites, reviews with experts on training in Windows, audits by user-interface consultants, feedback from focus groups, and analysis of product-support calls. We expect both inexperienced and experienced users will find that the changes being made to the user interface in Windows 95 make it even easier to learn and use. The system taskbar will make all the functions most users need accessible with a single click of a button. The taskbar will show all open windows and will make it much easier to switch between windows by just clicking on a button representing that window. Instead of mastering different kinds of tools (Program Manager, File Manager, Print Manager and Control Panel) to work with different resources on their computers, users of Windows 95 will be able to browse for and access all resources in a consistent fashion with a single tool. All resources in the system will have property sheets, which present tabbed notebook style interface settings that can be directly changed; a new integrated Help system makes it easy and fast to get help at all times. Won't a new user interface mean a lot of retraining for current users of Windows? No. The Windows 95 user interface is designed to make experienced users of Windows 3.x productive immediately, and usability testing has found this to be the case. After a few iterations of working with the Windows 95 environment, users of Windows 3.1 are able to complete common tasks faster with Windows 95. With subtle refinements in the user interface and the addition of migration training aids during the continued testing process, productivity can be expected to improve even more. Windows 95 will enable corporate customers and individuals who want to move gradually to the new user interface to continue running Program Manager and File Manager while they become familiar with the new user-interface features. Architecture ------------ Your performance goals sound very ambitious, considering all the functionality you're adding to Windows 95. How will you achieve those goals? The stated performance goal of Windows 95 is that when a customer upgrades to Windows 95, performance will meet or exceed performance of Windows 3.1 for the same set of tasks, as long as the customer has an 80386DX or higher system with at least 4 MB of RAM. (For systems with more memory, performance will be improved over Windows 3.1.) Windows 95 will meet this performance goal by implementing new technologies to better optimize the use of memory on low-end system configurations. The networking, disk, CD-ROM and paging caches will be fully integrated to scale better as more memory is added to the system. Protected-mode device drivers will be dynamically loadable to ensure that only the drivers that are immediately needed are consuming memory. Great attention will be paid to effective tuning, including hand-tuning source code. I've heard Windows 95 described as a 32-bit operating system, yet I've also heard that portions of Windows 95 are implemented with 16-bit code. Are both these statements correct? Windows 95 is a 32-bit, pre-emptive multitasking operating system that implements some 16-bit code to provide compatibility with existing applications. Windows 95 deploys 32-bit code wherever it significantly improves performance without sacrificing compatibility. It retains existing 16-bit code where it is required to maintain compatibility or where 32-bit code would increase memory requirements without significantly improving performance. All of the I/O subsystems and device drivers (such as networking and file systems) in Windows 95 are fully 32-bit, as are all the memory management and scheduling components. Many functions provided by the Graphics Device Interface (GDI) have been moved to 32-bit code, including the spooler and printing subsystem, the TrueType font rasterizer, and key drawing operations. Windows 95 includes a 32-bit implementation of OLE. Much of the window-management code (USER) remains 16-bit to help ensure application compatibility. Does Windows 95 improve limits on system resources? Yes. Windows 95 improves system-resource limits dramatically while maintaining compatibility with existing Windows-based applications. This means that users will not only be able to run more applications than Windows 3.1 or Windows for Workgroups 3.11, but will also be able to create more complex documents. Plug and Play ------------- What is Plug and Play? What benefits does Plug and Play provide? Plug and Play is a technology jointly developed by PC product vendors that will dramatically improve the integration of PC hardware and software. Windows 95 is a key enabling technology for Plug and Play. Plug and Play is built into all levels of Windows 95 and covers both common desktop and laptop devices, such as monitors, printers, video cards, sound cards, CD-ROM drives, SCSI adapters, modems and PCMCIA devices. With Windows 95, a user can easily install or connect Plug and Play devices to the system, letting the system automatically allocate hardware resources with no user intervention. For example, by simply plugging in a CD-ROM and sound card, a desktop PC can be easily turned into a multimedia playback system. The user simply plugs in the components, turns on the PC, and "plays" a video clip. Windows 95 also enables new Plug and Play system designs that can be dynamically reconfigured. For example, a Windows 95 Plug and Play laptop can be removed from its docking station, or disconnected from it's peripherals, while still running, and taken to a meeting; the system automatically reconfigures to work with a lower-resolution display and adjusts for the absence of the network card and large disk drive. Will Plug and Play devices work with my current system, or will I need a new system? What benefits will I receive when I purchase a Plug and Play device with my current system after I have installed Windows 95? Windows 95 and Plug and Play devices will provide complete backward compatibility to work with systems that were not designed according to the Plug and Play specification. And when you purchase a Plug and Play device for a non-Plug and Play PC running Windows 95, you still benefit from the automatic installation features of Plug and Play add-on devices. Application Support ------------------- What support does Windows 95 have for applications? Windows 95 supports applications for MS-DOS and 16-bit Windows-based applications supported by Windows 3.x as well as a new generation of 32-bit applications. It provides this support through the Win32 API, which is also available in Windows NT. This new generation of 32-bit applications will provide benefits such as greater robustness, smoother multitasking, long filename support, a new look and feel, and threads, to name a few. When will applications that exploit Windows 95 be available? Applications written for Windows 3.1 and Windows NT that follow guidelines provided by Microsoft will be able to run on Windows 95. There are hundreds of 32-bit Windows-based applications available today for Windows NT, and more are released every day. In addition, leading software vendors have already begun developing 32-bit applications for Windows 95, and we expect many to ship within 90 days of the ship date of Windows 95. Networking ---------- Will I need new networking software to connect Windows 95 to my network server? No. Windows 95 will continue to run existing real-mode networking components while enhancing the 32-bit protected-mode networking components first delivered with Windows for Workgroups. What improvements will the networking support in Windows 95 offer over the support in Windows for Workgroups 3.11? In addition to being backward compatible with today's network clients, Windows 95 will enhance the open and flexible, high-performance 32-bit networking architecture offered today with Windows for Workgroups 3.11 that enables customers to mix and match networking components. Windows 95 includes fast 32-bit, native clients for both NetWare and Windows NT Server networks; supports NDIS 2.x, 3.x and ODI drivers; and provides 32-bit NetBEUI, IPX/SPX and TCP/IP protocols. In addition, the network architecture in Windows 95 will make it possible for users to connect simultaneously to multiple networks using multiple protocols. Will there be a Windows 95 server product? Windows 95 will not be provided in a separate server product. Windows NT Server is the Microsoft product to use for production servers. Windows 95 does improve upon the peer-server capabilities offered in Windows for Workgroups by offering additional features for remote installation, control and administration. These features will make Windows 95 an even better product for an easy-to-use file-sharing and print-sharing LAN that is ideally suited for a small business, small department or remote office. Can Windows 95 connect to the Internet? Yes. Windows 95 includes the networking support you need to connect to the Internet. It includes a fast, robust, 32-bit TCP/IP protocol stack (TCP/IP is the language used by the Internet) as well as PPP or "dial-in" support. Windows 95 supports the large number of tools used to connect to the Internet, such as Mosaic, WinWAIS and WinGopher, through the Windows Sockets programming interface. Windows 95 also includes standard Internet utility support, such as telnet and ftp. In addition, the Microsoft Exchange mail client included with Windows 95 offers a mail driver that supports Internet electronic mail standards, including SMTP and POP, to make it easy to send and receive mail over the Internet. Systems Management ------------------ What specific desktop-management features will Windows 95 enable? The Windows 95 operating system can be set up from a network server and can be configured at the desktop to run locally or across the network. In each case, the administrator can establish a specific configuration for the installation, controlling which features are installed and which features can be accessed or altered by the end user. Windows 95 supports policies, which are settings an administrator configures to define what applications or services users or groups of users can access using their PCs. Using policies, for example, the administrator can disable the MS-DOS prompt and the "Run" commands to prevent users from arbitrarily running applications and can disable file-and-print sharing. To enable users to rove and use any system on the network, Windows 95 will provide user profiles. These profiles will be centrally stored, accessed when the user logs in to a Windows 95 system, and used to install the appropriate configuration and set the appropriate policies for that user. Windows 95 also enhances the security provided by Windows for Workgroups to include user-level security. Windows 95 also includes key desktop agents for popular server-based backup programs as well as SNMP and DMI. Finally, hardware installation and configuration will be made much easier and less costly with the implementation of the Plug and Play architecture in devices and systems. The Windows Registry will provide data about hardware resources. The data can be accessed by third-party vendors to provide inventory-management solutions. Messaging and Mail ------------------ What is Microsoft Exchange? Microsoft Exchange is a universal information client built into the Windows 95 user interface that can read and send electronic mail from different e-mail systems, including LAN-based systems such as Microsoft Mail, Internet mail, or mail on remote on-line system services such as CompuServe or The Microsoft Network, and can send and receive faxes and other remote messages. Microsoft Exchange in Windows 95 also includes Microsoft Fax software for sending and receiving electronic fax messages. Microsoft Exchange also provides an effective way to organize, sort, categorize and filter messages. Will support be provided for sending Fax messages? Yes. Microsoft Fax is integrated into Windows 95 as a MAPI transport service provider, leveraging Microsoft Exchange's universal inbox, rich-text message creation, and browsing capabilities to deliver ease of use and consistency to the management of fax messages. The fax provider coexists with other information or messaging services that users may have installed, and leverages Microsoft Exchange's common address book and inbox. Windows 95 users can take advantage of Microsoft Fax innovations that provide the secure exchange of editable documents. Users can send faxes from within mail-enabled Windows based applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel, by using the File/Send command. Additionally, a fax printer driver lets users "print" documents to their local fax modems, either via the File/Print command or by dragging the documents to a Fax icon on the Windows 95 desktop. Microsoft Fax leverages the power of the Windows 95 operating system through the Win32 API. As a 32-bit application, Microsoft Fax integrates seamlessly with other Windows 95 applications through its support for MAPI, TAPI, and OLE. In addition to tight integration with Windows 95, Microsoft Fax incorporates Microsoft At Work technologies that support Binary File Transfer (BFT), security, and high-quality document rendering. These technologies put powerful desktop fax messaging at the fingertips of Windows 95 users. The Microsoft Network - Online Service -------------------------------------- What is The Microsoft Network? The Microsoft network is a new on-line service that Microsoft is developing to help bring the rapidly expanding world of electronic information and communication to mainstream PC users. The Microsoft Network (MSN) will bring all Windows 95 customers affordable and easy-to-use access to electronic mail, bulletin boards, chat rooms, file libraries, and Internet newsgroups. Microsoft Windows 95 customers worldwide will be able to access MSN with a local phone call. The Microsoft Network will offer a wide range of online information and services, and in particular Microsoft customers will find MSN the single best place to go to get information and support for Microsoft products. The MSN client's tight integration with Windows 95 allows customers already familiar with Windows 95 to leverage their learning, and feel comfortable on-line immediately. Why is Microsoft getting into the online services business with The Microsoft Network? Microsoft has long believed in "Information At Your Fingertips," and we believe that the Microsoft Network represents a major opportunity for us to deliver on that vision. Enabling PC users to easily communicate and access information is the next great opportunity in our industry. The online service business has great promise to provide consumers with that easy communication and information access, but it's still in the infancy stage and many factors must come together to make it a mainstream phonemena. Online services must offer a more compelling multimedia-rich set of publications, shopping services, games, etc., that will both attract and retain a large audience. This will require investments by both the providers of information and services, and new tools and infrastructure investments by the online service companies. Microsoft hopes to help expand this market by enabling the providers of information and services with better technology and tools, while motivating them with a more attractive business model. Mobile Computing ---------------- What improvements will Windows 95 offer for people who use a portable PC or a computer at a remote location? Windows 95 is the first version of the Windows operating system to include features designed to meet the needs of mobile computer users. Specifically, Windows 95 supports the special characteristics of portable PC hardware, includes features to help mobile and remote users "stay connected" to the information they need, and provides a means to keep data and work organized between a desktop PC or corporate network and a portable PC or remote system. SUPPORT FOR PORTABLE PC HARDWARE. For most purchasers, portable computers are a big investment. Many of Windows 95's mobile computer features were designed around the goal of maximizing the benefits from today's newest technology, as well as helping to extend the useful life of previous purchases of portable computing hardware. Windows 95 includes built-in support for PCMCIA devices, docking stations, and port replicators. Windows 95 automatically adapts to different hardware configurations, eliminating time-consuming manual setup and complex boot procedures. Hot-swapping of PC Card (PCMCIA) devices is directly supported by Windows 95, with no separate card/socket services software to worry about. And, Windows 95 includes integrated disk compression and power management to help get the most out of existing portable PCs. STAY CONNECTED. Many portable or remote PC users can be thought of as being "away from the desk," and thus away from the network, email, telephone, fax, and other communications and information resources found on a physical desktop. Dial-up Networking technology enables users and applications to access network resources in a consistent manner regardless of whether the connection to the network is direct (using a network cable) or via a modem. Users connect to network resources the same way, and applications use the same APIs to control network connections. Exchange Mail and Fax provide extensive remote connectivity features. The Exchange Inbox has features like Direct Header Download which are specifically designed to improve the efficiency of interacting with a remote mail system over a slow network link. Microsoft Fax support enables mobile users to easily send and receive facsimile documents using their portable PC and a fax modem. STAY ORGANIZED. The nature of the mobile work environment introduces significant, time-consuming organizational challenges many of which can be addressed through software. Windows 95 has been designed to minimize the amount of drudgery required to work effectively in a mobile environment. The Briefcase simplifies the process of keeping files "in synch" between a desktop PC or network and a portable PC or remote machine, and deferred printing manages print jobs created on the road. How are the remote-client capabilities in Windows 95 different from those in Windows for Workgroups 3.11? Clients running Windows for Workgroups could dial into Windows NT Server or Windows for Workgroups-based servers only. Windows 95 supports a much more diverse remote-access environment; it can connect to the majority of the dial-in systems in common use today. Windows 95 dial-up networking has been extensively tested with Windows NT Server and other PCs running Windows 95, NetWare servers running NetWare Connect, popular network devices such as the Shiva Netmodem, and many Internet service providers. Windows 95 includes built-in protocol support for Windows 3.1 RAS, PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol, the emerging standard for dial-up networking and Internet access), SLIP, and NetWare connect. All dial-up networking and communications services are fully 32-bit, in order to increase performance and reliability. Does Windows 95 offer any improvements in ways to roll out and support remote network access in an organization? Yes. Windows 95 greatly simplifies remote network access. System administrators can supply end users with pre-configured network shortcuts and pre-defined connections to remote networks. Double-clicking on a shortcut will dial the phone, log users into the network, and open the desired network resource (such as a file folder on a remote server). Alternatively, a "New Connection Wizard" steps users through the process of setting up a remote access client or server. Users no longer need to know how to set up a modem, establish a connections, or operate a remote communications package. For small organizations, a Windows 95 PC can operate as a dial-in server. A Wizard assists with the setup process. Dial-in server functionality can be disabled, if desired. Has Windows 95 improved support for PCMCIA cards and other hardware like docking stations? Yes. Windows 95 offers vastly improved support for PCMCIA cards and other mobile computing devices. PCMCIA support is built into the core of Windows 95. The operating system will automatically load the necessary drivers for each card as it is inserted, and unload the drivers once the card is ejected. No real-mode card or socket drivers are required. When a new card is first inserted, Windows 95 will detect the card and install the appropriate drivers automatically. If you use a docking station or port replicator, all pertinent system settings, including video resolution, keyboard, pointing device, and network, are automatically re-configured "on the fly" when your computer is inserted or removed from the dock or port replicator. On systems featuring a Plug-and-Play BIOS, no reboot is required. On non-Plug-and-Play machines from the leading manufacturers, multiple configurations are supported automatically when the system is restarted. I use both a desktop PC and a portable PC. What support does Windows 95 offer for this environment? Windows 95 introduces the Briefcase, an easy-to-use interface for keeping multiple versions of files "in sync." For example, if you copy several files from your desktop PC to your laptop, the Briefcase automates the process of comparing your (perhaps edited) files to the original versions, and performing any needed copy operations to keep all the files up-to-date. The Briefcase also enables applications to provide "reconciliation handlers" that merge documents together when both the original and the copy have changed. To simplify the process of exchanging files between two machines, Windows 95 implements "Direct Cable Connection." Direct Cable Connection provides a simple, fast, network-like connection (including security) between two machines, using a parallel or serial cable. For More Information -------------------- How can I obtain the latest information directly from Microsoft about Windows 95? To help keep you informed of the latest information on Windows, Microsoft has created the WinNews information forum, which serves as an easily accessible electronic-distribution point for new white papers, press releases and other pertinent documentation. If you have a modem or access to the Internet, you can always get up-to-the-minute information on Windows 95 direct from Microsoft on WinNews. Use the following electronic addresses to access further information: On The Microsoft Network Computers and Software, Software, Microsoft, Windows 95, WinNews On the Internet ftp.microsoft.com/peropsys/win_news On the Worldwide Web http://www.microsoft.com On CompuServe GO WINNEWS On Genie WINNEWS Download area in Windows RTC On Prodigy Jumpword WINNEWS On America Online Keyword WINNEWS To subscribe to Microsoft's WINNEWS Electronic Newsletter, send e-mail to enews@microsoft.nwnet.com with the words SUBSCRIBE WINNEWS as the only text of your message. *** Microsoft, MS-DOS, Windows, and Win32 are registered trademarks and Windows NT is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. PowerPC are trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Novell and NetWare are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc. CompuServe is a registered trademark of CompuServe, Inc. America Online is a registered trademark of Quantum Computer Services, Inc. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. MIPS is a registered trademark of MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. Alpha AXP is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. Clipper is a trademark of Computer Associates International, Inc. TrueType is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Shiva is a registered trademark of Shiva Corporation. GEnie is a trademark of General Electric Corporation. Prodigy is a trademark of Prodigy Services Company. T h is document is provided for informational purposes only. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to change in market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND FREEDOM FROM INFRINGEMENT. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and the use of this document. This document may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions: 1) All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included; 2) All copies must contain Microsoft's copyright notice and any other notices provided therein; and 3) This document may not be distributed for profit. Copyright 1995 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved. ********************************************************************** IMPORTANT NOTICE! ================= STReport International OnLine Magazine is available every week for your reading pleasure on DELPHI. 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Then, just answer the questions and within a day or two, you'll officially be a member of DELPHI! DELPHI-It's the BEST Value and getting BETTER all the time! -* ANNOUNCING: DELPHI INTERNET JET *- -------------------------------------- Windows-based graphic interface for the otherwise text-only Delphi online service. In addition to providing the user with a graphic interface, Delphi Internet Jet can be configured to automatically gather Delphi Internet e-mail and forum messages, and place them into a QWK packet for the user's existing QWK mail reader! Complete instructions for setup, operation, Delphi membership, and a FREE five hour trial included in the INTJET.TXT file. ************************************************************ ATARI/JAG SECTION (III) ======================= Dana Jacobson, Editor > From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""""""""" What appears to be the biggest Atari show so far this year, in North America, is almost upon us. Next weekend, the ACE '95 show will be held, sponsored by the Toronto Atari Federation group. If you can make it, you probably don't want to miss this show! The latest update for the show events and scheduled exhibitors is below. This will likely be the last update that we'll be able to offer before the show, so check it out carefully. Best of luck to the folks at TAF for a successful show - to the attendees, have a great time, wish I could be there with you! The latest news that helps to affirm that Atari is distancing themselves from the computer market is the recent sale of its parts inventory to Best Electronics. I can't think of a better company to handle this support. Brad Koda and company have been a tremendous source of help in this regard over the years. It's nice to see their support being rewarded by being selected over other bidders in this sale. If you're looking for _any_ parts for your Atari computer, give them a call! Until next time... ******** ******** ACE'95 VISITORS & EXHIBITORS INFORMATION!! ******** "If you miss ACE'95, you're going to miss ... EVERYTHING!" April 1st & 2nd, 1995 - Toronto April 1st & 2nd, 1995 - Toronto ****************************************************** NEWS RELEASE 18: THE TORONTO ATARI FEDERATION PRESENTS - ACE '95!! ****************************************************** ========================================================== ACE '95 *** THE SHOW OF THE DECADE *** ACE '95 ========================================================== LLLLLLLL LLLLLLLL EVERYTHING YOU WANT WILL BE AT ACE'95! LLLLLLLL JAGUARS LLLLLLLL COMPUTERS LLLLLLLL MIDI LLLLLLLL THOUSANDS OF PROGRAMS, APPLICATIONS, GAMES, LLLLLLLL IDEAS & PRODUCTS LLLLLLLL DEALERS & DEVELOPERS LLLLLLLL >ACE'95 is being held at the North York Civic Center. It is a GREAT >complex: Shopping, Restaurants, Subway, Theatres, Hotel and - of >course - MEMORIAL HALL & ACE'95!! THE NOVOTEL HOTEL is located >directly adjacent to the Exhibition area. It's a great place to >stay! PLAN ON TAKING IN ALL OF ACE'95 (... you really should!!). >The *GREATEST*ATARI*EXHIBITION*IN*YEARS* is happening on April >1st & 2nd, 1995, in TORONTO!! This is the ACE '95 Exhibitors >List: LLLL Gribnif Software (NEODESK 4, Geneva!) LLLLL TOAD Computers (just your basic SUPERSTORE!) LLLLLL Branch Always Software (GEMulator!) LLLLLLL Cybercube Research (Cyrel Sunrise Card, CaTTamaran!) LLLLLLLL DMC Publishing (Calamus, Outline Art 3, Invision Elite!) LLLLLLLLL Scarborough Computers (*THE* Toronto Atari Dealer!) LLLLLLLLLL Missionware Software (Flash II, lottODDS, Cyberdrome!) LLLLLLLLLLL ICD INC/4Play/Black Cat Designs! LLLLLLLLLLLL It's All Relative (every CD imaginable, Photo Show!) LLLLLLLLLLLLL ABC Solutions (SARA, Edith Professional, tbxCAD)! LLLLLLLLLLLLLL Esquimalt Digital Logic (OMEN!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLL GEnie Information Services! LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Suzy B's Software (& CDs!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL chro_Magic (RAM Gizmo, Pianistics, Crawly Crypt!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Clear Thinking (EditPlus!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Schauzmoll Soft (ORBIT - The first GUI BBS)! LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Anodyne Software (ExtenDOS, ExtenDOS Pro)! LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Oregon Research Associates (Diamond Edge 2!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Computer Direct (DirecTT030, MagicMAC and an LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL enormous lineup of Atari products!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Binary Sounds (SMPTE, Edit Track Platinum!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Fine Tooned Engineering (MIO2, Sweet 16!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Compuworld (Service, Parts, Drives, Upgrades!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Encore Music (Falcon MIDI systems, Cubase!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Wizztronics (The Falcon Rack, Barracuda!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL Steinberg/Jones (Cubase, Cubase Score!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL SKWare One Software (Seurat!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLLL BEST Electronics (everything part imaginable!) LLLLLLLLLLLLLL COMPO (That's Write 3, SpeedoGDOS 5!) LLLLLLLLLLLLL SPECTRUM Atari Group of Erie (SAGE!) LLLLLLLLLLLL STUG (ST User Group of Winnipeg!) LLLLLLLLLLL The ExtremiST (the NEW independent Atari Newsletter!) LLLLLLLLLL Red Hot BBS (Atari Support Network!) *W*H*A*T *A* *G*R*E*A*T* *L*I*N*E*U*P* There are some SEMI-EXHIBITORS(?) we should mention too: ASTMUM (Atari ST/Mega Users of Montreal), will be represented by Kest Carter-Morgan. Kest is providing support for ESQUIMALT DIGITAL LOGIC (OMEn), and SCHAUZMOLL SOFT (ORBIT Tele-Information System). Nima Montaser will be showing his superb AUDIO CD Player in the IT'S ALL RELATIVE booth (and Damien Jones will be running the *brand new* TT version of Photo Show Pro in the It's All Relative booth!) >>>>>>>>>> *it doesn't get much better than this* <<<<<<<<<< =-=-=-=-=-=- The ACE'95 SEMINAR/LECTURE SCHEDULE: =-=-=-=-=-=- SATURDAY APRIL 1 SUNDAY APRIL 2 ------------------------------------------------------ 9 AM | Telecommunications & | Internet with | Stephen Christian 10 AM Cybercube Research | National Atari Newsletter Ralf Dowich | User Group Co-operation | Reg Loeppky 11 AM Branch Always Software | Suzy B's Software/CD GEMulator | Michael Burkley Darek Mihocka 12 NOON Missionware, Flash II | Secrets of ... Everything! John Trautschold | Al Fasoldt 1 PM DMC Publishing | Binary Sounds Calamus SL | MIDI for Beginners Mario Georgiou | Rick Ladage 2 PM SARA CD Software | Esquimalt Digital Logic Peter Zalesak | OMEn Craig Carmichael 3 PM Gribnif Software | Xwindows/Xmosaic Neodesk 4 & Geneva | for Atari! Internet Dan Wilga | Sam Mesbah 4 PM Oregon Research Diamond Edge 2 Bob Luneski 5 PM Steinberg Jones Cubase Ray Williams >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> What a TERRIFIC lineup! Some of >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> the GREATEST PROGRAMMERS who ever >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> keyed in a line of code! Atari >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> users are lucky to have these >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> guys! Don't miss this RARE >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> OPPORTUNITY to hear the LATEST >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> AND GREATEST! =-=-=-=-=-=- Check our WORLD WIDE WEB pages: http://www.io.org/~schrist/taf.html =-=-=-=-=-=- or http://www.io.org/~schrist/ace95.html ******* FEATURE EXHIBITOR - Cybercube Research of Thornhill, Canada ******* It is said that Ralf & Gunther & Ulrich Dowich belong to a secret society. It's said that the society is dedicated to one thing: **** SPEED **** Race your 'stock' TT against a CaTTamaran ... I dare you! Of course there is another group of people who believe that all Cybercube ever sees are colors ... millions and millions of colors! The Cyrel Sunrise Card will dazzle and amaze you. Absolutely! And there are at least a dozen other spectacular products that will be on display in the Cybercube booth (#4). Prepare to be amazed! MIDI, DTP, Wordprocessing, Graphics, JAGUAR GAMES, Power Computing, Software Libraries, Utilities, Accessories, Databases, Spreadsheets, Accounting, Animation, Custom Solutions, Games, Education, Internet, BBS, Networks, Accelerators, Emulators, 6502 support, 68000 support, 68030 support, 68040 support, Mosaic, Modems, Upgrades, Telecommunications, JAGUAR STATION, User Group Center, INCREDIBLE SALE PRICES, Software, Hardware, Advice, Service and EVERYTHING you need to get the VERY BEST out of your Atari! ================================================ GETTING TO ACE'95 IS *EASY*. Toronto is directly accessed by Highway 401 or the Queen Elizabeth Way, or Highway 400/69. Crossing the US/Canada border at Detroit, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Ft. Erie, Ogdensburg, Kingston, etc., will lead you directly to Highway 401 or the Queen Elizabeth Way. Take the Yonge St. Ramp north off the 401 and drive to 5110 Yonge St. (5 lights) If you take the Queen Elizabeth Way, follow the signs to get to Highway 401. *ANY* AAA or CAA or other Motor League can provide you with a map of Toronto, Ontario & Canada. Please call us if you have any trouble! Pearson International Airport is only 15 minutes away! Toronto Transit subway access is direct, too - there's a subway stop at the Civic Center! ================================================ BOOK YOUR HOTEL & YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE! Call or e-mail for info: for INDIVIDUALS, USER GROUPS, ORGANIZATIONS, DEVELOPERS & DEALERS! The Show Site (North York Civic Center, Memorial Hall Exhibition Facility) has hotel, shopping, restaurants and more! NOVOTEL HOTEL: $89 Cdn PER NIGHT (single OR double occupancy) ** Call Novotel direct* @ 416-733-2929 and ASK FOR A ROOM WITH THE TORONTO ATARI FEDERATION GROUP! ** ACE'95 TICKETS: $6 PER DAY $10 WEEKEND PASS SHOW HOURS: Saturday April 1 - 9 AM to 6 PM Sunday April 2 - 9 AM to 5 PM You can also call 416-752-2744 FOR HOTEL or TICKET RESERVATIONS ================================================ Meet Dan Wilga, Darek Mihocka, Bob Luneski, Peter Zalesak, John Trautschold, Craig Harvey, Nathan Potechin, Mario Georgiou, Greg Kopchak, Al Fasoldt, Rick Ladage, Jim Fouch, David & Jennifer Troy, Michael Burkley, Roger Burrows, DARLAH, Craig Carmichael, Tom Harker, Chris Krowchuck, Jim Collins, Ralf Dowich, Shawn Tedder, Mike Wilhelm, Mike Hohman, Christian Ernst, Michael Snape, Ray Williams, Stuart Watt, Stephen Christian, Steve Cohen, Jeff Neveu, Sonny Ang, Bill Annand, Stuart Watt, Robert Engberson, Suzy B, Nima Montaser, Damien Jones and couple of thousand show visitors! Don't miss it! "ATARI *IS* THE GREATEST!" ================================================ ACE'95 IS BEING HELD AT: North York Civic Center Memorial Hall Exhibition Facility 5110 Yonge St. (at Parkhome Ave.) Toronto, Canada April 1-2, 1995 *CALL US* 416-752-2744 or 416-225-5823 *CALL US* Saturday 9AM - 6PM Sunday 9AM - 5PM ~~ Howard Carson, ACE'95 Chief Organizer ~~~ E-Mail: GEnie - H.Carson1 Atarinet - Howard. Carson@51:5/6 Internet - h.carson1@genie.geis.com howard.carson@canrem.com hcarson@io.org TAF Online - Howard. Carson ________________________________________ > STR WEB NewsNotes """"""""""""""""" Atari Web Pages Latest News ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~ Version 1.0 ~~~~~~~ ~~~ Date 27/2/95 ~~~~ ~~~~~~~ by Mark Stephen Smith ~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ 4th Update ~~~ ~~~~~~ ==================== Foreword ~~~~~~~~ Hello and welcome to the news item on the Atari Web pages. This document will describe the Atari Web pages as provided by Mark Stephen Smith and will include a list of the latest updates for the month. Each month I hope to update this text with the very latest additions and news on the Atari Web pages. Hopefully these pages will provide an invaluable service to their users, but they are still at an early stage and developing all the time. As such any feedback and support you may have for these pages is more than welcome, it is in fact encouraged. The more input I get from its users the better, as then I will know what is good and bad about these pages and can change them appropriately in the hope of increasing their value to their readers. Now on with the show. News and Changes ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ Well since the original description a lot has happened. I'm now involved in several projects, and submit work to several Internet and diskmag sources for inclusion. I have also officially took over the maintenance of the Atari FTP list from Hallvard Tangeraas of which there have been a couple of updates. New items in this document since the last copy will be marked with **, updates will be marked with a U. All new items are also listed below according to the date they were added. The new items this month are: 27/2/95 -- Towers II : Plight of the Stargazer Update! 27/2/95 -- Falcon Owners Group Magazine No.8. 23/2/95 -- Atari FTP List Update 22/2/95 -- HENSA Atari TOS Newsletter Volume 8. No.4 22/2/95 -- HENSA Atari Falcon Newsletter Volume 8. No.2 22/2/95 -- HENSA Atari MiNT Newsletter Volume 8. No.2 22/2/95 -- MIDI Grid Review by Andy Curtis 8/2/95 -- Utopus Two player shootem' up (STE) 231K 8/2/95 -- Downloadable files in Falcon/ST sections now have file sizes listed 7/2/95 -- Hyper Image pages link (contains Hover Hunter news) 7/2/95 -- Mail to me directly using this link 7/2/95 -- New inlined Atari logo for Web pages by Frank Charlton 7/2/95 -- AEO Newsletter Volume 4. Issue.2 in text and ZIP format 6/2/95 -- Pinball Dreams and Llama Zap Falcon News 6/2/95 -- News and Announcements section added 6/2/95 -- HENSA Atari TOS Newsletter Volume 8. No.3 2/2/95 -- Lynx FAQ updated 2/2/95 -- Jaguar FAQ updated 2/2/95 -- Connect Review by Frank Charlton 2/2/95 -- Zero 5 Review by Frank Charlton 1/2/95 -- Atari FTP List Update 31/1/95 -- AtariNOS FAQ 30/1/95 -- CAIN Newsletter Volume 2. No.1 What are the Atari Web pages? ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ These are a collection of pages covering all formats of the Atari. In these pages may be found the latest news, reviews, software for downloading, and various other information and links to other places of interest to Atari users. I have tried to make the structure of these pages easy to follow and as intuitive as possible but there is still a lot of work to be done yet. How do I access them and what is the Web? ~~~ ~~ ~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~ First of all I shall look at what the Web is or to use its full name the World Wide Web. The Web is new way of accessing the Internet, unlike previous methods where you were required to enter commands into the program you were using the Web uses a more user driven method of getting around the Internet. This method is much more graphical than former methods and as such is much easier to get to grips with. When using a Web browser (the name given to a program used to access Web pages) the control method usually consists of a point and click operation. A Web page will consist of text and graphics which are sometimes highlighted in some way to indicate that they are selectable and link to more information or a particular piece of data. Such a link is referred to as a hyperlink. In fact the whole system is a variation on hypertext and uses a script to create each page. Each script is written to a HTML (HyperText Markup Language) standard which contains the main body of text in the page and a few command tags for the browser as to how to format the page and what to do with links, etc. Web pages may contain text, graphics, sounds, and animations, although the later two are normally supported through external software. It is also possible using the Web to gain access to newsgroups, ftp sites, and gopher services all through the one program. As such this makes this a very powerful tool for Internet access, and coupled with its ease of use this has suddenly became the big thing in the recent Internet explosion into the media. Browsers can handle all properly written HTML scripts but may vary in operation when scripts are incorrect or contain mistakes. Browsers can be divided into to distinct types, graphical and text only. Popular graphical browsers include NCSA's Mosaic and the recent new browser NetScape. On the text side Lynx is the most popular textual browser (NOTE: text browsers don't show any form of graphics). To access the Web you must either use one of the above mentioned browsers on a machine such as a Sun, PC or Macintosh, or if you want to access it via your Atari you will need a copy of the Lynx browser as unfortunately there aren't any graphical browsers YET for the Atari. Next month I will give full details on how to access the Web using the Atari. Where do I find the Atari Web page? ~~~~~ ~~ ~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ From your Web browser choose to open URL and enter the following address: http://WWW.dl.ac.uk/MISC/ATARI/atari.html If you can store a hotlist of addresses or something similar on your browser then it may be worth including this address for quick access in the future. Once you've done that you should see my main page so I hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to write with your thoughts. What you will find in the Web pages every month. ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ From the main menu you have several links available to you, some under miscellaneous and others specific to a particular machine, or collection of machines. It is now possible to mail me directly from the Web pages, special thanks also to Frank Charlton for the new Atari Logo. First I will look at what will be in the Miscellaneous section. Atari Related links, Documents, FAQ's and Newsletters ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ First in the list are "Atari Related Links", these links are to other sources of Atari information or data (such as files, etc.). There is a link to many of the major Atari holding FTP sites on the Internet. Links to several Web pages by different people on the Atari. This will grow as worthwhile sites come up. At the moment you can visit: - HENSA to download Atari files (Moderated by Denesh Bhabuta) - ZFC's Atari Pages by Annius V. Groenink. This has links to various Atari related places, along with talk of his own work on Edith and his new Drive U Project. Annius is also working on a version of the Mosaic browser for the Atari and the best of luck goes to him on that. - Christer Gustavsson's Atari Gem Programmers Page. Very useful information for programmers grappling with Gem and the operating system. Also offers help via his questions answers page. Some links can be found to Atari related places. - CAIN Atari Pages. CAIN is the Central Atari Information Network and they create a newsletter which is updated monthly on all things new to do with the Atari. There are also links available here. - Martin Maisey's Atari Pages. Contains information (downloadable) on programs written by himself for the Atari. Again there are links to other Atari places. - Toad Computers Pages. Stockiest and retailer of many Atari goods. - ST Format Pages. Information and previews of ST Format issues. **Hyper Image Pages. Contains Hover Hunter Jaguar news. This section will have a page dedicated to it this month as over 30 new Atari related links are added. Documents ~~~~~~~~~ Useful documents will appear in here. At the moment there is: - Atari FTP List by Mark Stephen Smith (essential for the latest news on who provides Atari FTP sites). - Atari TOS Desktop Survival Kit by Thomas J Hopper. An essential guide to getting the most out of your DESKTOP.INF and NEWSDESK.INF files. - Recommended list of software for the Atari by Denesh Bhabuta. List compiled by Denesh for me of his best software for the Atari (updates coming soon). Mostly PD and Shareware, this list contains links to download most of the software mentioned. - Information on picture formats by Dave Baggetta. Lots of information on the format of different picture files for the Atari. FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions) ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ Useful FAQ's will appear here. At the moment there is: - Atari ST SLIP FAQ. This is a guide to connecting your Atari to a network. All you want to know about networks and the Atari. - Atari CD FAQ. Information on getting and using CD's on the Atari. Regular updates to this can be found in my pages. - GDOS FAQ by Gerd Castan. Got a question on GDOS then this is the place to look. - MiNTNet FAQ by Christer Gustavsson. Everything you wanted to know about MiNTNet. **AtariNOS FAQ by Frank Charlton. Answered questions and information on NOS. Newsletters ~~~~~~~~~~~ Although there may be more to come the following newsletters are updated promptly as I receive them. These have been re-organised to make it easier to keep track of. At the moment there is: - CAIN Newsletter containing the latest Atari news. - HENSA Newsletter containing the latest updates to the HENSA Atari archive. - AEO newsletter containing the latest Atari news. Newsgroups ~~~~~~~~~~ Atari related newsgroups. Send updates. The currently supported news are: comp.binaries.atari.st comp.sys.atari.advocacy comp.sys.atari.announce comp.sys.atari.st comp.sys.atari.st.tech comp.sys.atari.programmer rec.games.video.atari alt.games.lynx Questions and Answers ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ Submit your questions to here and get them included in this page. Answers are open to anyone who has something valid to say, and help is provided to me on Programming and Music questions by several knowledgeable sources. Please support this section, only by your interaction and questions will it survive. All answers are included in this page for anyone else with the same question and answers are also sent back to the person who submitted the question for those without Web access. If you feel you have an expertise in a particular area concerning the Atari and would be willing to answer questions on that area when and if I submitted them to you, then please let me know and you can join the team. Programming and Music are fairly well covered and I can cover Graphics programs, help with Technical questions would be appreciated. Reviews ~~~~~~~ Here I hope to include reviews of Atari products both new an old. So far I have the following reviews: - Kobold review by Andy Curtis (ST Format) - Flash 2 review by Frank Charlton (ST Format) - Edith Professional review by Frank Charlton (ST Format) - MagiC review by Andy Curtis (ST Format) - Stello v2 review by Mark Stephen Smith (Myself) - Sportster Modem review by Frank Charlton (ST Format) - Storm Tracker review by Andy Curtis (ST Format) **Connect review by Frank Charlton (ST Format) **Zero 5 review by Frank Charlton (ST Format) **MIDI Grid review by Andy Curtis (ST Format) There are several reviews on the way by the above mentioned people as well as some by myself (finishing review of Apex Media for the Falcon). This section is now growing well. Again if you feel you would like to submit reviews for inclusion then please write to me. Please note these pages don't include Lynx and Jaguar Reviews, as they are contained within their own pages. **News and Announcements Pages ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ Latest Atari news, and announcements from the Atari World. Currently contains the following: **Universal Virus Killer Book Announcement Updates and Information on these Web Pages ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~ All updates and news on the Atari Web pages goes in here. Previews of what's to come soon are included and new item or updates to the pages are listed according to date with the most recent being first. Most updates contain links to the new material for instant access. Other things to be found in here are the number of accesses to the Atari pages. Unfortunately the way the logs are now stored prevent me from calculating the number of accesses to these pages in the future. This now concludes the Miscellaneous section. Now onto the Other Pages. These pages are specific to a particular machine, or collection of machines. These are going to go through some major changes and you can expect a fair number of changes to be made to these in the next month or so. Falcon Page ~~~~~~ ~~~~ This will contain information and files relevant to the Atari Falcon, currently this page is divided into the following areas: News and Previews ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~ In here expect to see any news or previews that come my way, whether they be small descriptions or full features with pictures. At the moment there is: **Pinball Dreams and Llama Zap News. - Apex News. This contains some information I got on Apex Media for the Falcon when I spoke to Douglas Little on the phone a few weeks back. Not very detailed unfortunately, but I'm waiting on my copy of Apex to give a full review so expect that to be rectified soon. - Dextrous News. Small description of some of the features of Dextrous with a picture. Only at an early stage of development, if I hear more it will go in here. - Towers II : Plight of the Stargazer. Pictures and description of this great looking Falcon only sequel to Towers. Expect the demo soon. **Towers II : Plight of the Stargazer Update! The latest news on developments. - Newsletters from HENSA on Falcon section of archive. Misc ~~~~ Miscellaneous information on the Falcon, including: - Falcon Demo FAQ. List of Demos for the Falcon, including some form of information on each. - Compatibility list of games with Falcon. - Compatibility list of applications with Falcon. - Falcon Specifications and Information compiled by Rod McCall. New Software ~~~ ~~~~~~~~ The latest Falcon/enhanced software available for download. Major revisions to be done with updates here. All files now list there size so you can see how large they are before downloading. At the moment the following software is included, with more to come: - Super Bomber Man (freeware) - Ply mpeg v0.70 by M.D.Griffiths (shareware) - Speed of Light v3.5 (shareware picture viewer) - Scape a planetary landscape generator. - Digital Tracker demo of commercial version. - Obsession 1 level demo. - FOG issue 8 diskmagazine for Falcon. Other software worth having ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ Software worth using on the Falcon. - Backward v2.52. For compatibility with the ST. Please send any versions which are newer than this. - MultiBlow. Configurable overscan utility. - Starball. Excellent pinball game (Falcon enhanced). - Berzerk. Excellent version of Berzerk (Faster on Falcon). - FOG issue 7 diskmagazine for Falcon. - FOG issue 6 diskmagazine for Falcon. Atari ST/STE/TT/Mega STE Page ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~ This will contain information and files relevant to all the above mentioned Atari formats, currently this page is divided into the following areas: News ~~~~ In here expect to see any news or previews that come my may, whether they are small descriptions or full features with pictures. At the moment there is: - Newsletters from HENSA on TOS section of archive. New Software ~~~ ~~~~~~~~ The latest (most recent versions) software available for download. Major revisions to be done with updates. All files now list there by size so you can see how large they are before downloading. At the moment the following software is included, with lots more to come: - Speed of Light v3.5 (shareware picture viewer). - ST Zip v2.6. Latest version of ST Zip. - Obsession demo. 1 level of this great pinball game. Other Software worth having ~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~~ Software worth having on the Atari. - Utopus. Two player shootem' up (STE only). - Ozone. Good platform/puzzler. - Starball. Excellent pinball game. - Berzerk. Excellent version of Berzerk. Lynx Page ~~~~ ~~~~ All the latest news and reviews on the lynx, along with cheats, etc. This page is divided in to the following areas: News ~~~~ News on the Lynx and related material. At the moment there is: - Lynx Summer Steal Deal Extended to the Fall. News of price reductions for a limited period. Reviews ~~~~~~~ Reviews for just about every Lynx game ever released will appear in here. All reviews are by Robert Jung. At the moment the following reviews are included: APB Awesome Golf Baseball Heroes Batman Returns Basket Brawl Bill and Ted's BlockOut BattleWheels Blue Lightning California Games Checkered Flag Chip's Challenge Crystal Mines II Dino Olympics Dirty Larry:Renegade Cop Dracula the Undead Double Dragon Desert Strike Electro Cop European Soccer Chal. Ultimate Chess Chal. Gauntlet:3rd Encounter Gordo 106 HardDriven' Hockey Hydra Ishido: Way of Stones Jimmy Conners' Tennis Joust Klax Kungfood Lemmings Lynx Casino Malibu Bikini Volleyball Ms.Pac-Man NFL Football Ninja Garden Ninja Garden III : The Ancient Shop of Doom Other Lynx Stuff ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ Other items of interest to Lynx owners. At the moment there is the following: - Lynx FAQ - Lynx Tips and Tricks New Software Announcement ~~~ ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~ Currently empty. Jaguar Page ~~~~~~ ~~~~ All the latest news and reviews on the lynx, along with cheats, etc. This page is divided in to the following areas: News and Preview ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~~ All the latest news and preview information I can find related to the Jaguar. - Jaguar CD Specifications - Rebellion Development News - Sinister Developments News - Sensible Soccer News - Coming Soon! - Hand Made Software News Reviews ~~~~~~~ A collection of reviews from different sources, hopefully I will be contributing more to this section myself. Reviews so far include: Cybermorph Raiden Tempest 2000 Wolfenstein 3D Aliens vs Predator Trevor McFur in Crescent Galaxy Brutal Sports Football Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story Checkered Flag There are many more reviews to come. Other Jaguar Stuff ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ Miscellaneous information on the Jaguar. Information included presently is: - Jaguar FAQ - Raiden Tips - Jaguar Game Cheats - Kasumi Ninja FAQ - Ultra Vortex FAQ update for Jaguar Other Jaguar Pages ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~~ Other pages specific to the Jaguar included in here. Currently there is: - Atari Jaguar Homepage by Christian Svensson There are others that will be included, some containing more recent news, but the one above is the most organised and intuitive one I've came across. 8 Bit Atari Page by Ivo van Poorten ~ ~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~ Not maintained by me these pages cover the 8 bit formats of Atari machines and are very comprehensive. Nearly everything you could hope to find is contained within these pages. What to expect in the future ~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~ Some structural changes are likely to appear in the next months. I have introduced an announcements page where you can tell the World of anything you have to announce. Please send news of updates to your programs, Atari stuff for sale, and any other Atari announcements here (NOTE: Commercial companies should send information on products to be included in here and in the news sections). Also coming soon will be a monthly editorial. In this I will try and sum up the month past and to give my opinions on how I saw things for Atari at that time. Hopefully I will be able to look back over many good developments in my pages and summarise them as they happened. There is an outside possibility of starting a programmers and MIDI section in these pages but this is as yet undecided. I will judge whether or not to do this based on the kind of response I have. I do not want to repeat any of the good work done in these fields however by other Web page writers such as Christer Gustavsson. More support is needed for the questions and answers pages, although initially successful people just stopped posting their questions. Although the odd one is still coming and answers are still forthcoming. Please support this, it is of benefit to anyone who uses it. The Jaguar section should have a lot more news, pictures and reviews in the future. I have tracked down a fair bit of news and am in contact with a few companies now and hope to get news from them on their products. Extra pictures will appear due to my recent access to a colour scanner, enabling me to scan the latest pictures before they exist elsewhere on the Internet. I also hope to slowly get all the maps for AvP into these pages somehow? Both the ST and Falcon sections should contain much more news in the future, along with more of the best PD/Shareware, and PD/Shareware reviews. I should have several demos hopefully in the near future for games coming out on these formats. The Lynx section is to continue to get reviews and I will update the news as and when I get it. Expect more links to Atari related pages in the future, this section will be getting its own dedicated page as over 30 new Atari related links are to be included this month. There will be more newsletters, documents, updates to the FAQ's. Expect further reviews from Andy and Frank, along with myself (watch out for the Apex Media review). Hopefully I can include more screenshots, and do a few program tutorials. Also Claus J. Pedersen (Stello author), Bob Brodie (former Atari employee) and Steven Davies have all offered to support these pages with contributions in the future. Please write with your ideas, criticisms, comments, submissions (software, news, reviews, questions, etc), to me and don't forget that I am now the official maintainer of the Atari FTP list originally by Hallvard Tangeraas. All updates to this list should now be sent to me. Thank you and see you with the updates to these pages next month! +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + Mark Stephen Smith : msh@dl.ac.uk + + Atari Web Pages : http://www.dl.ac.uk/MISC/ATARI/atari.html + + + +=====================================================================+ + Atari FTP List maintainer, Atari Web Page creater and maintainer. + + Atari 1040STF, 4Mb Falcon 127Mb HD, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > STR NewsPlus """""""""""" -/- Senate Unveils Telecom Bill -/- The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee has approved by a vote of 17-2 a proposal that would drastically change the nation's 60-year-old telecommunications laws, lifting many restrictions on telephone and cable companies. Associated Press writer Jeannine Aversa reports from Washington, D.C. that the measure would free telephone and cable companies to enter businesses previously off-limits. Those in favor of the changes say the new freedom would give companies incentives to build competing networks that could transmit voice, video, and data, driving prices down and giving consumers more choices. However, critics insist companies with monopoly power would prevent others from competing. A last-minute compromise to the bill would require local telephone companies to abide by slightly tougher conditions before entering the long-distance business. The cable compromise would maintain rate regulation on the lowest tier of service, which generally consists of broadcast signals, access channels, and a few cable networks until local competition develops. It would also deregulate rates for all other program services unless a cable company's rates exceeded the national average, notes AP. _________________________________ JAGUAR SECTION ============== Acclaim Signed!! NBA Jam TE! Frank Thomas Baseball! Jaguar Under $160! CATnips! Tempest 2000 CD News Update! And much more! > From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is! """""""""""""""""""""""""""" You know, speculation can be entertaining, and devastating. We all know that the Jaguar's CD-player and a group of games will be coming out soon. Atari has been pretty open that there will be a CD pack-in, when the hardware arrives. What's been amazing is that there have been numerous rumors trying to figure out what game will come with the player. The comments, sometimes heated, have been bandied about for months! With the Jaguar, we got Cybermorph. Regardless of how you felt about that game (I think it's great!), the game was included in the price of the system. The same will hold true for the CD-player. So what if the game might be Blue Lightning or Dragon's Lair, or something else? These are good games, and good choices, for many. Users (and potential buyers) have stated pros and cons about these possible games being included in the deal. You can't please everybody, but like Cybermorph, you will please many. There's one potential CD game being considered as the pack-in, among the reported six to be available. That game is VidGrid. Many of you may not know what this game is, so let me summarize it for you. VidGrid is reminiscent of those "slider" puzzle games that we all have seen when we were kids. You know the ones I mean. These are the flat, square plastic toys that usually contained sliding tiles, usually fifteen (each one being numbered 1 through 15), with one empty space allowing the player the ability to slide each tile, one space at a time. The object of the game was to move the tiles around so that you ended up with the tiles in numerical order: 1 - 4 on the top row, 5 - 8 on the second row, 9 - 12 on the third row, and 13 - 15 on the bottom row. This took some time and strategy to achieve, and it was fun. Well, the Jaguar will take this game into the 90's. Not only will you have to move "tiles" around, but instead of numbers or letters, you'll have to form a picture. Add to that is the fact that each "tile" has music "attached" to it so that as the tiles are moved around, they'll also play back a tune according to the order of the tiles. Some tiles will be facing backwards, upside down, etc.; and the music will play accordingly. Who knows what pictures will appear once you have them in order, but that's unimportant at this point. The puzzle game sounds somewhat entertaining, but not something I'd think I'd want as a leading-edge Jaguar 64-bit CD game. What is important, and something that I think Atari needs to hear from all of us, is that there hasn't been a single message online that gives me the impression that anyone wants this game, regardless of the fact that it's a free pack-in! Sure, I don't get online on every service available to me; nor do I read every single message on those that I do. However, the messages that I have seen have ALL been negative toward this game being possibly considered as the pack-in. This is not ..a some like it, some don't kind of thing. This is the kind of message that's saying: "I don't want it even if it's free!" Atari has to listen to this feedback. VidGrid sounds like a no-brainer non-seller type of game. It might be cute, and turn out to have some appeal for some once they play it. However, it doesn't have the kind of appeal that would convince me that this is the kind of game that I'd expect to see showing off the Jaguar's CD capabilities. I want the CD to show me the next generation of superb games. I want to see great graphics, great game-play, and mind-boggling fun! I don't want to see potential customers, or current users, see a CD game come out as the pack-in that's been generating negative feedback BEFORE it's even out! Can you imagine what kind of potential negativity will be generated once it's out? Atari: listen to the feedback on this potentially disastrous decision. Bring the game out, but let the customers give their feedback at the cash register. To the users, I'd suggest that if you have bad vibes about this game and the decision to possibly include it as the pack-in - let Atari know about it. Drop them e-mail about it. If you want, send me your e-mail (at dpj@delphi.com) and I'll pass it along to the right people, for you. Make your voices heard. Until next time..... ____________________________________ > Jaguar Catalog STR InfoFile - What's currently available, what's """"""""""""""""""""""""""" coming out. Current Available Titles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER J9000 Cybermorph $59.99 Atari Corp. J9006 Evolution:Dino Dudes $49.99 Atari Corp. J9005 Raiden $49.99 FABTEK, Inc/Atari Corp. J9001 Trevor McFur/ Crescent Galaxy $49.99 Atari Corp. J9010 Tempest 2000 $59.95 Llamasoft/Atari Corp. J9028 Wolfenstein 3D $69.95 id/Atari Corp. JA100 Brutal Sports FtBall $69.95 Telegames J9008 Alien vs. Predator $69.99 Rebellion/Atari Corp. J9029 Doom $69.99 id/Atari Corp. J9036 Dragon: Bruce Lee $59.99 Atari Corp. J9003 Club Drive $59.99 Atari Corp. J9007 Checkered Flag $69.99 Atari Corp. J9012 Kasumi Ninja $69.99 Atari Corp. J9042 Zool 2 $59.99 Atari Corp J9020 Bubsy $49.99 Atari Corp J9026 Iron Soldier $59.99 Atari Corp J9060 Val D'Isere Skiing $59.99 Atari Corp. Cannon Fodder $69.99 Virgin Syndicate $69.99 Ocean Troy Aikman Ftball $69.99 Williams Theme Park $69.99 Ocean Available Soon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER CatBox $69.95 ICD Hover Strike $59.99 Atari Jaguar CD-ROM $149.99 Atari Hardware and Peripherals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CAT # TITLE MSRP MANUFACTURER J8001 Jaguar (complete) $189.99 Atari Corp. J8001 Jaguar (no cart) $159.99 Atari Corp. J8904 Composite Cable $19.95 J8901 Controller/Joypad $24.95 Atari Corp. J8905 S-Video Cable $19.95 >Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Contact: Ron Beltramo, Atari Corporation, (408) 745-8852 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ATARI AND ACCLAIM JOIN FORCES IN MAJOR SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION AGREEMENT Sunnyvale, CA, March 22, 1995 -- Atari Corporation (ASE:ATC) and Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:AKLM) are proud to announce an agreement which will bring the most popular contemporary video game titles to the 64-bit Atari Jaguar Multimedia system. The new alliance includes three stellar Acclaim titles that Atari will distribute: * NBA Jam - Tournament Edition - planned release: fourth quarter, 1995 * Frank Thomas 'Big Hurt' Baseball - planned release: fourth quarter, 1995. * The third title will be announced later this year for release in early 1996. "Atari's focus will continue to be to deliver great software on the world's best video game system available. The agreement with Acclaim is substantial milestone in our commitment to the Jaguar gamer," stated Sam Tramiel, CEO of Atari Corporation. "We are delighted to work with Acclaim and to include these titles in the expanding library of Jaguar sports and action games." NBA Jam - Tournament Edition With more than 100 NBA players, cross-court slam dunks, new codes and secret characters, Jaguar gamers will not only play basketball, they'll feel it with this fast-paced action experience that features incredible graphics. Frank Thomas 'Big Hurt' Baseball Two-time MVP Frank Thomas headlines this innovative title that will feature Thomas' actual baseball movements using Acclaim's motion capture technology. Atari Corporation markets interactive multimedia entertainment systems and software including Jaguar, the world's first and only 64-bit system, and the only video game system manufactured in the United States. Atari is headquartered at 1196 Borregas Avenue, Sunnyvale, California 94089. Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. with offices in Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom, is a leading worldwide entertainment publisher of software and peripherals for major video game hardware systems, personal computer and CD-ROM software, coin-operated arcade games, and comic books. Acclaim also operates motion capture and blue screen studios and A.D.I., a global sales and distribution company for products from a variety of entertainment publishers, including Acclaim, Digital Pictures and Marvel Software. Acclaim, which recently formed a new company with Tele-Communications, Inc. is publicly traded on the NASDAQ National Market System under the Symbol AKLM. ### Jaguar is a trademark of Atari Corporation. Atari is registered trademark of Atari Corporation. Other product named may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their owning companies. CONTACT: Ron Beltramo, Atari Corporation, 408-745-8852 For Immediate Release ATARI ANNOUNCES MASS MARKET PRICE FOR 64-BIT JAGUAR Sunnyvale. Calf. (March 21, 1995) -- Atari Corporation today announced that the 64-Bit Jaguar Interactive Multimedia system will have a suggested retail price of under $160. This Atari Jaguar system will be called the "64-Bit Power Kit" and includes the Jaguar console, a controller, power adapter and video cable (game cartridge not included). "64-Bit Power Kit" packages will be specially marked to highlight the "Mega-Power, Maximum Value" that the new price point represents. "With this new Jaguar price, and the great software now available in stores-- with more to come-- the Atari Jaguar will lead the next generation of video games into the homes of America. This price puts the 64-Bit Jaguar within the grasp of a broad market looking for the most advanced system at an affordable price," said Sam Tramiel, President of Atari. Technological advances have allowed Atari to take this aggressive pricing action, as the cost of components has been reduced through a planned chip set integration and further design advances. Tramiel further stated, "We are very excited to provide these great values, and look forward to strong sales for both the 64-Bit Jaguar Hardware and Jaguar software.The current library includes such major hits as 'Tempest 2000', 'Alien Vs. Predator', 'Doom', 'Troy Aikman Football', 'Val D'Isere Skiing' and 'Iron Soldier'. As the Jaguar software library increases with great titles like 'Fight For Life', 'Hover Strike', 'Rayman' and 'Super Burnout', we expect solid hardware sales growth. Our Retail Dealers are equally excited about the new pricing, and anticipate that a broad base of consumers will rush to the store to buy the Jaguar." To launch the new Jaguar unit, Atari will deliver a targeted marketing campaign to build awareness of the new Jaguar system value and the great current games (and pending new titles). Advertising is scheduled to commence in the spring. Special in store merchandising materials have been developed to reinforce the Mega-Power/Maximum Value message and encourage the consumer to "Do the Math". Atari Corporation markets the Jaguar, the world's first and only 64-Bit interactive multimedia entertainment system. Atari is headquarters at 1196 Borregas Avenue, Sunnyvale, California 94089. ### Jaguar is a trademark of Atari Corporation. Atari is a registered trademark of Atari Corporation. Other products named may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their owning companies. ____________________________________ > Jaguar Developers STR InfoFile - Current Developer Lists & Titles """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Game Title Date Game Type MSRP Publisher ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Air Cars 1Q/95 Racing $59.99 Midnight Ent. Alien vs Predator NOW Role Play/Adventure $69.99 Atari Arena Football 1Q/95 Sports TBD V Reel Assault 1Q/95 Action/Combat $59.99 Midnight Ent. Barkley Basketball 2Q/95 Sports TBD Atari Battlemorph 1Q/95 Flying/Action $59.99 Atari Battle Wheels 1Q/95 Racing/Combat TBD Beyond Games Blue Lightning (CD) 1Q/95 Flying/Action $59.99 Atari Brett Hull Hockey (CD) 2Q/95 Sports TBD Atari Brutal Sports Football NOW Sports/Combat $69.99 Telegames Bubsy NOW Action/Adventure $49.99 Atari Burnout 1Q/95 Sports TBD Atari Cannon Fodder NOW Action/Adventure Virgin Checkered Flag NOW Racing $69.99 Atari Club Drive NOW Racing $59.99 Atari Creature Shock (CD) 1Q/95 Adventure/Sci-Fi TBD Atari/Virgin Cybermorph NOW Flying/Action $59.99 Atari Dactyl Joust 2Q/95 Action TBD Atari Demolition Man 1Q/95 Action/Combat $59.99 Atari Doom NOW Action/Combat $69.99 Atari Double Dragon V 1Q/95 Action/Adventure $59.99 Williams Dragon:Bruce Lee Story NOW Combat $59.99 Atari Dragon Lair (CD) 1Q/95 Adventure TBD Ready Soft Dreadnought (CD) 2Q/95 Adventure TBD Atari Dungeon Depths 1Q/95 Action/Adventure $59.99 Midnight Ent. Evolution: Dino Dudes NOW Puzzle/Adventure $49.99 Atari Flashback 1Q/95 Action/Adventure TBD US Gold Fight For Life 1Q/95 Combat TBD Atari Hardball Baseball 2Q/95 Sports TBD Atari Highlander (CD) 1Q/95 Action/Adventure $59.99 Atari Horrorscope 1Q/95 Combat TBD V Reel Hover Strike 1Q/95 Action/Combat $59.99 Atari Iron Soldier NOW Action/Strategy $59.99 Atari Jack Nicklaus Golf(CD) 2Q/95 Sports TBD Atari Kasumi Ninja NOW Combat $69.99 Atari Rage Rally 1Q/95 Racing TBD Atari Raiden NOW Action/Adventure $49.99 Atari Rayman 1Q/95 Action/Adventure TBD UBI Soft Robinson Requiem 1Q/95 Adventure TBD Atari Soccer Kid 1Q/95 Sports TBD Ocean Space War 1Q/95 Action/Adventure $59.99 Atari Star Raiders 1Q/95 Space Simulation TBD Atari Syndicate NOW Simulation TBD Ocean Tempest 2000 NOW Action/Adventure $59.99 Atari Theme Park NOW Simulation $69.99 Ocean Tiny Toon Adventures 1Q/95 Action/Adventure $59.99 Atari Trevor McFur NOW Action/Adventure $49.99 Atari Troy Aikman NFL Ftball NOW Sports $69.99 Williams Ultimate Brain Games 1Q/95 Puzzle TBD Telegames Ultra Vortex 1Q/95 Action/Adventure $69.99 Beyond Games Val D'Isere Skiing... NOW Sports $59.99 Atari White Men Can't Jump 1Q/95 Sports TBD TriMark Wolfenstein 3D NOW Combat/Action $59.99 Atari Zool2 NOW Action/Adventure $59.99 Atari [Editor's note: Titles, scheduled release dates, and prices are verified from Atari and Edelman Public Relations - all subject to change] _____________________________________________ > Jaguar Easter Eggs/Cheats/Hints STR InfoFile - Solving Those Riddles! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Sb: Val D'Isere Codes Fm: SYSOP*Jeff Kovach 74777,3071 To: All From the Internet's Jaguar mailing list comes some new cheat codes for Val D'Isere Skiing & Snowboarding: -------------- From: aeo.4@genie.geis.com At the main option screen where you can select your race and number of players, enter the following: 4,0,8,5,7,4,1,4 This will bring you to a SECOND option screen. This is what is available. They are all listed on the screen. 0 = Music On/Off 1 = Podium 2 = End of Ride 3 = Gold Cup 4 = Silver Cup 5 = Bronze Cup 6 = All Runs Open (Free Ride) 7 = Show Game Over Select A Challenge - Fire A and number Select A Race - Fire B and Number Select Music - Up/Down on Joypad Select Sound F/X - Right/Left on Joypad Same Sound F/X - Fire C Mark "Stingray" Santora ------------------------------------------------------------------------> - Video/Film Production Services ----------------------------------> - Screenwriting Services ---------------------------------> - Special Effects and Make Up --------------------------------> --------------------------------------------------aeo.4@genie.geis.com--> ----------------------------------------------------Santora@delphi.com--> ________________________________________ > Jaguar Online STR InfoFile Online Users Growl & Purr! """""""""""""""""""""""""" CATnips... Jaguar tidbits from Don Thomas... I hope as many of you as possible may be able to attend an online conference scheduled on GEnie with Jeff Minter as the honored guest. Jeff is the author of Tempest 2000 and is currently working on Defender 2000. The conference will take place in the Jaguar RoundTables at 7:00 pm PST on Wednesday, March 29th. CATscan BBS is coming along although script writing has taken a back seat to another project this past week. I expect to get back on that as early as this weekend and restore favorite features such as the T-Shirt lottery and dealer referrals and add new ones such as a real-time glossary. In the meantime, if you were a member of CATscan, you will have to rejoin due to the new software. The number is 209/239-1552. Look for the newest issue of Atari Explorer Online in the libraries of CompuServe, GEnie, Delphi and CATscan within the next few days. I have been promised there will be new software reviews. As always, STReport is available in the libraries every Friday night. Remember to look for those issues as well. I have more Jaguar bumper stickers. Send your SASE to: Atari Corporation P.O. Box 61657 Sunnyvale, CA 94089-1657 I have a limited number of AvP and IS cinema-quality posters too. They are still free to onliners with a prepaid S&H $4.95 (U.S.). [North American addresses only]. A few of you have received the tubes from the Post Office in less than desirable shape. Thanks for letting us know so we could make it right with you. Here's a nifty Internet message copied to me in E-Mail recently... -------------------------------- Date: Fri, 17 Mar 1995 02:34:07 -0500 From: Lenorah@aol.com Subject: T2K audio CD Sender: Listserv@ctrc.fs.saci.org I just received the Tempest 2000 audio CD today (Thursday). At first I thought "What have I gotten myself into?", and near the end of the CD I thought "I don't want to leave!" Gee, the people at Ima Digitec Design write weird music (that's good)! The best thing about it is that I put my order in the mail LAST THURSDAY! Figuring 2 each way in the mail that leaves only 1 day for processing since they probably don't work on weekends (or do they?). I was expecting it to take at least 2 weeks. Thank you Atari for you quick response. Now just get that CD player out so I can really get into this CD. Anybody order that Jaguar strategy guide that was supposed to be available last month? I'm guessin that they are waiting for the games they have in the guide to be released. Stephen -------------------------------- Keep sending me the hot tips! I appreciate everyones feedback... In the meantime, if you're not online,... you'd better be playing Jaguar! -- Don Thomas Atari Corporation ____________________________________ > ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" PEOPLE... ARE TALKING ===================== On CompuServe ------------- compiled by Joe Mirando CIS ID: 73637,2262 Hey there folks! I don't know about you, but I've got a touch of that old spring fever already. It won't be too long before I have to get a loooong telephone cord, my Stacy, and my portable modem, and log on to CompuServe from under the big oak tree in my back yard... nah, I'd feel like that self-important putz in the AT&T commercial, faxing someone from the beach while he runs off into the surf (with the appropriately pretentious mood-music in the background, of course). Well, at any rate, I know that I _could_ do it if I wanted to. I'm assuming that you've got better things to do than read my free association, so I'll get right to the good stuff. Sit right down in that comfy chair and check out all the cool things happening on CompuServe... From the Atari Computing Forums =============================== David Bulpitt asks us to indulge him while he asks... "...a couple of (probably) basic questions? I am using Teddyterm in VT VT100 and am loathe to change as it runs well, however......... Occassionally I get a very swift message inviting me to join someone, /21 was in there last time! I spoke with the chap in the conference room. Presumably he had been able to detect that I was using the forum. Also is there any etiquette other than the obvious in joining these? Do you just say Hi? Do they know who you are? I believe in windows you can see the others who are in the conference. Am I likely to benefit from using e.g. Connect? I have been loathe to as it is a little intimidating!" Sysop Bob Retelle (who knows ALL the tricks related to CompuServe, by the way), tells David: "The person who invited you to "Join" a conference was likely using WinCIM on a PC compatible computer. We don't have any equivalent program like that for our Atari computers, unfortunately. Connect would be very similar to what you're using now. Just about everything the "graphical front end" programs can do can be duplicated from your terminal program, if you know the "secret words".. For example, to show who else is here in the Forum, just type SHOW USERS at any of the ! prompts. Then if you'd like to send them a "one liner" message, to invite them into the conference area for example, just type SEND # Message That is, the # is the number preceeding their name when you did the SHO USERS command, and the Message is whatever you'd like to send to them (try to keep the message down to about 80 characters to avoid having it truncated). As long as you're happy with the program you're using now, there's no reason to switch to anything else..." Our own Atari Section Editor, the inimitable Dana Jacobson, tells Bob: "Actually, I think the "SHOW USERS" command is 'UST'". Jeez, here I am "talking up" Sysop Bob and he goes and gives someone the wrong info. Well, I guess we'll let this one slide, as he has a good excuse. Sysop Bob posts: "... Sorry about that..! The actual command to see who else is here in the Forum is just USERS at the ! prompt... (I was just using a VAX, and my brain hadn't switched gears yet..!)" Actually, the full command is 'USTATUS', but 'UST' does exactly the same thing. David Ellis asks for help in viewing Spectrum512 pictures on his PC: "I have IBM system, would like to view the SPF format. What utility will run on IBM dos and convert SPC to GIF, or at least allow for SPC viewing from within DOS??" Sysop Bob redeems himself by telling David: "We have several utilities in our software library that will allow PCs to view the various Atari specific graphics formats, including the Spectrum .SPC files you mentioned. Browse with keyword of IBM to find them." Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Online Magazine adds: "There is a program in the library that allows you to view SPC pictures on the PC. You can search the lib using the keyword IBM." Kevin Henning asks for help in finding an old friend: "Hello everyone. I am new to the forum as you probably already guessed. I am hoping someone at Atari may be able to help me. I am searching for a friend of mine I seem to have lost contact with over the past year or so. His name is Dave March and he is an artist by trade, but a fiddler in his heart. The last I knew he was working for Atari near the San Francisco area. He is very proficient with the Apple Macintosh and has done some amazing animation work with and without his computer. If anyone knows of Mr. Dave March, I would appreciate if you forward this message to him, or have him contact me at my address above. He should be on the Net somewhere by now!" Sysop Bob Retelle tells Kevin: "You know, that name sounds awfully familiar for some reason.. probably the best thing to do, just in case they don't happen to see your message here, would be to drop a line directly to any of the Atari folks here... I don't have the user IDs handy with me right here, but the best place to find everyone would be in the Atari Gaming Forum (GO ATATIGAM).. look for Don Thomas's ID there, as he might be one of the best ones to ask.. if he doesn't know Dave March, then he might be able to suggest someone else to contact." You know, it's funny, but online reunions do happen. In the past six months, I've run into old friends that I haven't thought of in years... There was my computer science professor (from 1979), an old college buddy (1979 also), and a friend from high school (class of '78) that was browsing the membership directory and dropped me e-mail saying "I just knew that _you'd_ be a traveler on the Electronic Highway... how've you been?" I've kept in touch with all three of them... an amazing result for me, and I, of course, keep up with all of my other online friends as well. Will the wonders of computers never cease? Meanwhile, John Devlin asks: "Can anyone help a friend of mine with an Atari STFM (TOS 2.06 or 1.40), set up BATFAX, he is having no end of problems. He has a SupraFax modem V32BIS but cannot get the software to work, has anyone managed to get the package to work." Ethan Mings of Pendulum Planning tells John: "Sad news, you're not alone. I tried off and on to get the software to work. The author does respond to questions, you may want to contact him. In the long run, I gave up. For what it is worth, I am running a USRobotics external 14,400 fax modem on an atari megaST4 with 250 hard drive running tos 2.06" Mike Myers adds his experiences: "I've been having a problem trying to download "BATFAX". I've used two differant types of LZH decompressors, and two differant Types of software to download it. Every time I do, I wind up with "last 113 bytes garbage". I'm looking for a new Fax program, and that seems to be it. Any ideas?" No one has replied to Mike yet, but I downloaded the file after reading his post and have had no problems with decompression. I haven't set it up yet, but when I do, I'll let you know how it comes out. Harry Davis posts this about an Atari emulator for the Mac: "I found a MaciCMac Demo on *ahem* another service... but it is entirely in German! (Documentation, too!) It looks rather interesting... but, of course, I have no idea what I'm doing. LOL! (I haven't touched an ST/TT in years, which doesn't help at all, and neither does living in the US. Truth be told, I wasn't aware that Atari computers still had enough of a following to generate an emulator. :X ) Assuming that the release in the UK is going to be in English... do you know if there is a demo of the English version? This thing flies on a Q650! :D I wonder if there's a PowerMac native version? (Hmm.. System 7.5, SoftWindows AND this? Woo!)" Chris Roth asks for help: "I have some problems with tar: I am not able to extract files from an archive because tar doesn't create the subdirectories... any hints? I looked for special parameters to use, but it seems I'm doing alright.. All that happens on a Falcon with MiNT 1.12 on a Minix partition." Carl Barron tells Chris: "Every version of TAR I have used creates needed directories, MINT or no MINT. But I don't have a falcon, almost every model of the ST line is included in my testing, including the TT. Question 1: Are the directories in the tar file? tar tvf filename >listing to double check this. Extract all files from tar: tar xf filename.tar list all files in a tar file tar tf filename.tar" Markus Schacher tells us: "Several years ago I've developed a program on my Atari 1040ST. In the meantime I bought a PC but I still want to use this program. Does anybody know whether there exists an Atari emulator (hardware or software) running on IBM compatibe PCs?" Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Online Magazine tells Markus: "There is a product called GEMulator which is a hardware/sofwtare product to run Atari ST software on the PC." Sysop Bob Retelle tells Markus: "Try sending e-mail to darekm@microsoft.com and ask Darek for more info about the GEMulator, and for info about his distributors in Europe... The newest pricing on the GEMulator, at least here in the US was $99 for the board and software, and about another $69 for the TOS ROMs that are needed." Ed Pomelear yells out: "Hey, everybody! I need some help, please. I'm using a 520ST with a singe 3.5" drive and a very low budget, but I need some help with software. I see some I'd like to try in the libraries, but I don't have an unZIP program. Is there a decent one in a library? Do you have recommendations on a decent spreadsheet program, a database program, or a fexible mail list program? They must of course run in 512K RAM." Sir Albert of Dayes tells Ed: "There is ST-ZIP v2.6 in the library. It is compatible with PK-ZIP v2.04g on the PC side of things. What type of database are you looking for? A flat file or relation mode or rather model?" My old pal Brian Gockley of ST Informer Magazine asks Ed: "Are you looking for shareware or commercial stuff? Most of the up to date stuff in the commercial area is pretty good, Mailing Manager (from FOUCH SOFTWARE 1823 WEST 8th STREET ERIE, PA 16505-4938, phone (814)455-1294 is an excellent start! As far as spreadsheets go, I used Opus for a while, when I had a 1040..." Charlie Steiner asks: "Is there an easy way to transfer an Atari ST file into a DOS format?" Sysop Bob tells Charlie: "It depends on what exactly you want to do... You can transfer Atari files TO an IBM compatible computer fairly easily, either by a serial port hookup, or by using floppy disks. If you want to convert an actual file that's currently in some special Atari format to the format used by a particular DOS application, it depends on the formats. There are a few conversion programs that will help in transferring word processing files for example, and some graphics conversion programs. Let us know what it is you're wanting to do, and we can try to come up with some more detailed answers for you..." Yves Aubut posts: "Hello everybody, It's me again the guy in between an IBM compatible and a friend with an Atari. I appreciated the help that I received the last time (How to transfer from my IBM to my friend's Atari). Everything went fine. The only problem seems to be with the screen resolution. The wordprocessor DBWriter seems to work only in high resolution and my friend's computer has a monitor that works in low and medium resolution (color monitor). What can we do to resolve this problem? Is their a driver like on my IBM that he could load? Is the only solution to use another word processor? Does DBwriter work on medium resolution?" Albert Dayes tells Yves: "Glad that everything went well in the transfer. There are some mono-monitor emulators in the library. I have never used them so I can't speak to how well it works. You can use ST-Writer (version 4.8x is the latest release) which is a word processor that works in all resolutions. I have used it in Medium and Low res without any problems." Sysop Bob adds: "I think Albert's suggestion to use STWriter is probably the best answer. We have it in our library here, and as he mentioned, it should work on your friend's medium resolution color monitor. I've used the monochrome monitor "emulator" that Albert mentioned, but it's not a very good substitute for the "real thing"." Michael MacDonald asks for help for his mother: "Does anyone have an idea where I can get ATARI formatted diskettes of shareware? I gave my ST to my dear sweet broken down ma-ma, and she would like to get a copy of a word processor. I could download the ST Writer to my system, but it would then be a Windows formatted diskette... No, she doesn't have a modem, and this is an internal one..." Sysop Bob tells Michael: "You're in luck..! The Atari ST and the PC share almost exactly the same floppy disk format, so you actualy CAN download files for your mama and give them to her on diskettes... The "secret" is.... format the floppy on the PC to be certain the disk is compatible, AND.. format it as a 720K diskette. (The ST can't read High Density 1.44 Meg disks) I'm not sure exactly how Windows formats disks, but there should be an option to format disks like that... if you were to format from DOS, the command line would be: FORMAT B: /F:720 <--substitute A or B, whichever your 3.5 inch drive is. Also.. since almost all of our files are compressed in some way, they would have to be uncompressed before she can use them. Fortunately the compression methods are compatible too, so you could unZIP the files for her before you put them on the flopy, so they'd be ready to use right from the disks. Files here in the Atari areas that are ZIPped should be compatible with the latest version of PKUNZIP or WINZIP. Anything with a .LZH extender can be uncompresses with LHA.EXE and for any older .ARC files use ARCE.COM (if you don't already have these PC utilities, they're available in the PC Forums here on CompuServe). Let us know if you or she have any problems with all this stuff, and we'll do our best to get you going..!" Albert Dayes adds: "Format a 720K floppy disk on the PC. Then you can download ST Writer v4.8x to your system (PC) and then copy it to the 720K disk for use on the ST. I assume that you have a double sided drive (720K) on the Atari side of things." From the Portfolio section of the Palmtop Forum, Patrick Hart asks: "I have previously asked this question, but my software is old and isn't retrieving older messages, and/or not posting my questions. We would like to load a DOS Program onto our Atari Portfolio. How do we do this?" Jon Sanford tells Patrick: "Your message obviously got posted this time. You need a serial or parallel attachment for the portfolio. The Parallel is easier and it is also necessary to use a printer. With the Parallel interface there is a DOS disk with transfer program also instructions." Well folks, I know that this week's column is short, but it's getting late and it's been a long week. So I'll end here, and invite you back next time to listen to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON" """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > A "Quotable Quote" A true "Sign of the Times" """"""""""""""""" "THE BUSINESS THAT CONSIDERS ITSELF IMMUNE TO THE NECESSITY FOR ADVERTISING SOONER OR LATER FINDS ITSELF IMMUNE TO BUSINESS..." """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport International OnLine Magazine -* [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport *- AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE ON OVER 70,000 PRIVATE BBS SYSTEMS """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STR OnLine! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" March 24, 1995 Since 1987 copyright 1995 All Rights Reserved No.1112 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" All Items quoted, in whole or in part, are done so under the provisions of The Fair Use Law of The Copyright Laws of the U.S.A. Views, Opinions and Editorial Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the editors/staff of STReport International OnLine Magazine. Permission to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue number and the author's name. STR, CPU, STReport and/or portions therein may not be edited, used, duplicated or transmitted in any way without prior written permission. STR, CPU, STReport, at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. STR, CPU, STReport, are trademarks of STReport and STR Publishing Inc. STR, CPU, STReport, its staff and contributors are not and cannot be held responsible in any way for the use or misuse of information contained herein or the results obtained therefrom. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""