SILICON TIMES REPORT ==================== INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ============================= from STR Electronic Publishing Inc. A subsidiary of STR Worldwide CompNews Inc. May 26, 1995 No. 1121 ====================================================================== 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: * 4.5GB * of Download Files Operating with * Mustang Software's WILDCAT! 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""""""""""""""""" - CPU Industry Report - Frankie's Corner - Wizard Revealed - Corel Office - TCP/IP & CIS - The WEB & HTML - Creative Schoolhouse - QUAD DRIVE CD - PSINet & Creative - E3 Reports - People Talking - Jaguar NewsBits -* MICROSOFT NEARS WIN95 RELEASE! *- -* MICROSOFT DROPS INTUIT DEAL! *- -* NEW MAC TITLES FROM MS! *- ========================================================================== 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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We can pray to the Lord begging that these battles never need be fought again and at the same time, offer thanks. We do celebrate the holiday in solemn remembrance of those who bravely fought on the world's battlefields to preserve our way of life while forever paying homage to those who gave their lives in the fight for freedom and liberty for all. Please, if your celebrations include libations, appoint a designated driver. May all of us long remember the real significance and meaning of the Memorial Day Weekend. Of Special Note: ---------------- HTTP//WWW.ICBA.COM/STREPORT =========================== STReport is now ready to offer much more in the way of serving the Networks, Online Services and Internet's vast, fast growing site list and userbase. We now have our very own WEB/NewsGroup/FTP Site and although its in its early stages of construction, do stop by and have a look see. Since We've received numerous requests to receive STReport from a wide variety of Internet addressees, we were compelled to put together an Internet distribution/mailing list for those who wished to receive STReport on a regular basis, the file is ZIPPED, then UUENCODED. Unfortunately, we've also received a number of opinions that the UUENCODING was a real pain to deal with. So, as of May 12,1995, you'll be able to download STReport directly from our very own WEB Site. While there, be sure to join our STR list. In any case, our mailing list will continue to be used for at least the next eight weeks. At that time, however, it will be discontinued. Each of our readers will have by then, received their information packet about how they may upgrade their personal STR News Services. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 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......................... 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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 """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" SYSOP NEWS & CYBERWORLD REPORT ============================== The Leading Hard Copy News Source in the BBS & Online Telecommunications World Your own personal copy mailed to your home every month; STReport's special offer! Annual Subscription Rate of $15.95!! (normally 20.95). Include the STR offer number (STR-21) for your discount. You can send your subscription in to: ------------------------------------- BBS Press Services, Inc. 8125 S.W. 21st Street Topeka, KS 66615 Or, to order by phone, Please Call: 1-913-478-3157.....(Voice) 1-913-478-9239......(Data) 1-913-478-1189.......(FAX) Note: Checks, MasterCard & Visa ok, Please include Full Name, Address, ===== Phone Number, Card type, number & expiration date when ordering. If by mail, please _sign_ your personal order. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > STR INDUSTRY REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS """"""""""""""""""" Computer Products Update - CPU Report ------------------------ ---------- Weekly Happenings in the Computer World Issue #21 Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. ******* General Computer News ******* >> Microsoft Nears Final Win95 Disk << Microsoft Corp. apparently now is very near to having a "gold disk" - - the final version of a program sent to manufacturing -- of its much- anticipated Windows 95 operating system. Completion is "very close," general manager Brad Chase of Microsoft's personal systems group commented as executives gathered in New York to preview the system. "It's just fixing compatibility bugs ... both soft- ware and hardware." Chase is quoted as predicting Windows 95 will break every industry sales record after its launch, still scheduled for Aug. 24. "It's all compatibility," group manager Russ Stockdale said, "to make sure it works with the broadest base available. This is extremely close to what we will ship." As noted, Windows 95 has a new user interface replacing its current Program Manager icon where most user applications reside. The Win95 startup screen has new options: -:- My Computer. -:- Network Neighborhood. -:- Recycle Bin (where deleted documents are temporarily stored). -:- An Inbox. -:- A sign-up option for Microsoft's online service, The Microsoft Network. The interface also can be customized to include, for example, Shortcut files that are often used. Another feature is multitasking ability, through a task bar at the bottom of the screen that tells users how many programs are running. Users can click from one program to the next "like switching television channels," Microsoft said. Noting earlier trade press reports of problems with this feature, Chase said, "There were some bugs in multitasking and there was some misreporting. The multitasking is much better than in Windows 3.1." Microsoft also plans to offer a program called Microsoft Plus, to take advantage of higher powered PCs, including browser software called Internet Explorer for using Internet's hypertexted World Wide Web area. Chase declined to specify Microsoft's advertising budget for the up- coming launch, saying only, "Windows 95 will be the largest product ever launched in this industry." >> Ziff Offers New Internet Magazine << To go up against CMP Publications' NetGuide monthly and the new Virtual City magazine Newsweek has announced, Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. says it is launching a new quarterly to be called ZD Internet Life. Bill Machrone, ZD's vice president of technology and a columnist for its PC Week weekly newspaper, will be editor-in-chief of the magazine. Machrone commented in a statement that other Ziff-Davis publications, which include PC Magazine and Computer Life, experience a jump in sales whenever the Internet is a cover story and, "while our existing publications can't feature the net in every issue, that is Internet Life's mission." >> Time Warner Sets SD Operation << Time Warner's Warner Music Group and Warner Home Video say they have formed Advanced Media Operations, a manufacturing and marketing unit that will pioneer the production of Super Density (SD) Optical Discs. The emerging format carries 270 minutes of video in the MPEG II standard, as well as music, interactive games and other applications. The new unit will manufacture a line of discs for the consortium of 17 consumer electronics and entertainment firms known as the SD- Alliance. These firms have agreed to support the digital video disc format originally developed by Toshiba and Time Warner. >> Hyundai to Build Oregon Plant << South Korea's Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. Ltd. says it will build a new semiconductor fabrication plan in Eugene, Oregon, to be in operation by the end of 1998. Officials with Hyundai, which bought NCR Microelectronics from AT&T earlier this year, say the plant will have the capacity to process 30,000 eight-inch wafers a month and will initially make 16MB and 64MB memory chips. The U.S. was chosen for the company's first major overseas plant because the market is the largest in the world and also has the most advanced chip-making technology. Hyundai currently operates two chip fabrication plants in South Korea, with another due for completion by the end of the year, when they will have a combined capacity to process 55,000 eight-inch wafers a month. >> HP Offers Medical Handheld Unit << The handheld Palmvue wireless mobile unit has been unveiled by Hewlett-Packard Co. to allow doctors to see the vital signs of a patient in an emergency so they could make a diagnosis without having to be at the patient's side. Reports from HP's headquarters say PalmVue includes patient monitors, its HP 200LX palmtop computer and existing paging technology to link physicians outside the hospital to critical-care patients. The company said the system is available immediately and is priced at less than $25,000. "The standard configuration includes one dispatch station with modem, five HP palmtop computers pre-loaded with PalmVue OmniCare critical-care application software, an HP LaserJet 4L printer, training and installation." Also, HP said it will unveil PalmVue ECGstat this fall, an applic- ation which will allow cardiologists to receive and review a standard 12-lead ECG, a record of electrical activity of the heart, taken by an HP cardiograph. >> Microsoft Unveils Mac Titles << Microsoft Corp. has unveiled several new multimedia titles for Macintosh computers. The products include the Microsoft Encarta '95 multimedia encyclope- dia; the Microsoft Bookshelf '95 CD-ROM reference library; and Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores, an interactive science adventure series. Also in the line-up are The Ultimate Frank Lloyd Wright, an investigation of the noted architect's life and work; 500 Nations, an exploration of Native American culture; Microsoft Wine Guide; and Microsoft Ancient Lands, an examination of lost civilizations. The titles are scheduled to become generally available between June and this Fall at prices ranging from $39.95 to $99.95. >> HP Cuts Notebook Prices 20% << Hewlett-Packard has cut prices on its notebook computers by up to 20%. This brings the suggested retail price of its basic OmniBook 4000 model down to $2,418. The move aims to match price cuts by several competitors. Reports say that HP launched its first notebook last fall, joining a marketplace dominated by Apple, AST, Toshiba, Compaq and IBM. At the time, HP said it wanted to innovate in areas where there was growth potential, and that its research showed the small notebook market was emerging as a major category. Hewlett-Packard's notebooks contain several innovations including an instant-on, instant-off function that allows the user to turn the computer off in the middle of a document and then turn it back on without losing one's place. Company officials also said: -:- Has broadened its family of OmniBook 4000 notebook PCs to match products offered by Toshiba and Compaq. -:- Is planning a major move into the field of easy-to-use digital devices such as handheld communicators to marry the capabilities of printers and notebook computers. (The firm says it wants to introduce a $300 handheld organizer with telephone, fax and printer features later this year.) >> Brother Raises Printer Costs << Prices on Brother International Corp.'s entire printer line and accessories are being raised, an action the firm says is necessary because of the weakening dollar against the Japanese yen. Reports from headquarters of Brother's Printer Products Division, which offers laser, inkjet and dot matrix printers, say the price hikes come eight months after the company announced its HL-600 printer series. That has taken the Number Two market share position behind Hewlett- Packard Co. >> New LCD Technology Makes Debut << Polaroid Corp. and Motorola Inc. say they have developed a holographic reflective material that can greatly improves the image quality of liquid crystal displays (LCD) used in portable computers and communications devices. The companies note that their Imagix holographic reflector material improves image brightness and contrast by a factor of two or three and eliminates image degradation due to glare. They add that Imagix has the extra advantage of giving LCDs the appearance of having an internal source of illumination. "We believe that this is a revolutionary technology for devices that use liquid crystal displays and is an affordable feature in products from watches to laptop computers," says Jeremy Jones, director of Polaroid's industrial products group. "Several leading LCD manufacturers, including Optrex, Seiko Epson, and Seiko Instruments, have been qualified to incorporate this material into their displays." >> Apple, AT&T Team on Video << Desktop video conferencing reportedly will be offered this summer by a joint project of AT&T and Apple Computer. Reports say that AT&T will offer the service using Apple's QuickTime Conferencing, which lets users of Macintosh computers share information, video and sound with other Macs. Being able hold a video conference (or share documents) on a desktop PC rather than a larger unit should make the much-hyped business grow more rapidly -- and generate more income. Dataquest multimedia analyst Kathy Klotz says desktop video conferencing is expected to generate $276 million in revenue worldwide this year, and will grow to $1.04 billion by 1998. But watch out, Apple. Company is coming. Intel Corp. already has its own desktop conferencing product, Proshare, which connects Windows-based machines. MCI also offers desktop video conferencing. >> Kasparov Beats the Computer << In a rematch in Germany, world chess champion Garry Kasparov regained some respect in cyberspace this week by defeating the computer that beat him in September. The event, heavily promoted by Intel Corp., was held in the Cologne studios of Westdeutsche Rundfunk, the regional radio and television network. Intel says its processor can analyze more than 100,000 positions per second. Kasparov was under pressure in the first game but came back after the computer, playing black, sacrificed a solid position to gain a three-pawn advantage. The second game was a draw, giving Kasparov the match victory. Last September in London, Kasparov lost his first clash against the program, called the Premium Chess Genius 2, then could do no better than a draw in a second game. The loss eliminated him from the Intel World Chess Grand Prix, which had a $160,000 grand prize. In that match, humans held on to the bragging rights. The computer later was defeated twice by India's Viswanathan Anand, who then lost in a sudden-death playoff to Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk, another human. _________________________________________ > Frankie's Corner STR Feature """""""""""""""""""""""""""" The Kids' Computing Corner -------------------------- Thinkin' Things Collection 2 Dual-format CD-ROM for IBM and Mac ages six to twelve estimated retail $42 Edmark P.O. Box 3218 Redmond, WA 98073-3218 phone: 206-556-8484 IBM Requirements Mac Requirements CPU: 386DX-25 CPU: Color Mac or higher Graphics: 256-color VGA Graphics: 256 colors Hard disk: 3 megs Hard disk: n/a RAM: 4 megs Ram: 4 megs, 5 for SYS 7.5 OS: DOS OS: System 6.0.7 CD-rom: Double-speed CD-rom: Double-speed Sound: MPC compatible sound card Misc.: a microphone is recommended By Frank Sereno In volume 10, issue 51 of Silicon Times, I reviewed the floppy diskette version of "Thinkin' Things Collection 2." I still consider it one of the finer and more exciting educational programs that I have reviewed. "Thinkin' Things 2" doesn't teach children by forcing them to memorize facts. It instead teaches them how to learn and think by allowing the children to explore fascinating musical and spatial environments. TT2 has five activities. The Oranga Banga Band is an exploration of three-part rhythm. The child can play a game in which he identifies the band member doing a part in a song by the Oranga Band. The difficulty level gradually grows with the child's abilities or can be set manually. The child can also compose original music. These exercises will teach children rhythm, to read and write rhythm patterns and also enhancing auditory discrimination. Toony's Tunes allows children to compose and save original songs on unique xylophones. Toony also offers a memory game in which the child must repeat the notes that Toony plays. Difficulty will again increase as the child gains more skill. Toony's Tunes will aid the development of auditory memory, listening skills and recognition of musical pitch. Frippletration is concentration with a twist. Players can choose to play with audio or visual clues to build auditory or visual memory and discrimination. The game is for one or two players. The game will progress from sixteen cards to thirty-six to sixty-four. 2-3D BLOX encourages three-dimensional visualization by having children work with a variety of rotating 3-D objects. The child can use the rudimentary painting tools to create artwork which will be instantly mapped to the rotating shapes, create his own backdrops or he can use the stock items. Children can make customized shapes by using a lathe tool. Background music and text can be added to the 3-D masterpiece, which can be saved for later viewing. The program even provides suggestions to aid creative thought. The final activity is Snake BLOX. This activity allows children to layer background and foreground layers. This creates a perception of depth when snakes are run under and over the various features. Many tools are available to create background art. Numerous background music tracks can be used to create a music video. The Ideas section includes many designs that will fascinate and inspire the creativity in anyone. Masterpieces can be saved for later viewing and editing. This activity will enhance visual analysis and synthesis skills. TT2 features wonderful graphics and excellent sound. The interface has full audible help and verbal encouragement in the first three activities. In the BLOX activities, the child will use the intuitive point-and-click interface to the explore the many possibilities of creativity. TT2 will entertain children (and adults) for many hours. The educational value is excellent. Priced at approximately $40, TT2 offers an outstanding combination of fun learning activities at a moderate price. Thinkin' Things 2 CD-ROM has one enhancement over the diskette version of the program. Edmark Vice President Donna Stanger, an award-winning software designer, gives a video presentation to parents. The presentation includes information on learning theories, the learning objectives of each Thinkin' Things activity, and offers suggestions for proper parental involvement in computer learning. The information is very interesting and is beneficial to parent and child. The diskette and CD-ROM versions have the same retail price. If your system has a CD-ROM drive, I recommend getting the CD-ROM version. If you already have the diskette version, contact Edmark for details on costs to upgrade to the CD-ROM version. Ratings Graphics ........... 9.0 Sound .............. 9.5 Interface .......... 9.0 Play Value ......... 9.5 Educational Value ..10.0 Bang for the Buck .. 9.5 Average ............ 9.41 ### I would like to express my condolences to the victims of the Oklahoma City terrorist attack. To a small extent, all Americans are victims. The image of the United States as a free, friendly and safe country has again been tarnished. Over the past few years we have lost the freedom to walk the streets of many neighborhoods after dark. In some cities, it is unsafe to sit on a front stoop or to frolic in a playground in broad daylight. Children can longer trust a stranger to be friendly. This attack makes it clear that no one is totally safe anywhere. An attack of this sort shows the evil and capriciousness of man. But let us not give in to the fear and the evil. Keep in mind that most likely only a handful of cowardly individuals were involved in this act of terror. Instead, remember the hundreds of individuals who risked their safety to rescue the injured at the site. That bravery and self-sacrifice is much more typical of the nature of man. The good deeds of many do outweigh the evil deeds of a few. I would like remind everyone that there is one small sacrifice that most of us can make that can be of great importance to others. If you are a healthy adult, please consider becoming a blood donor. Donating blood takes about one-half hour, but that contribution can aid several lives. Most hospitals and trauma units constantly face blood shortages. Your donation can mean the difference between life and death. Thank you for reading. ______________________________________________________ > Office Companion STR InfoFile """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" COREL CORPORATION SHIPS COREL CD OFFICE COMPANION ================================================= Includes extensive libraries, business utilities, plus Internet and fax software Ottawa, Canada--May 24, 1995-- Corel Corporation has begun shipping Corel CD Office Companion for Windows 3.1 and 3.11. Featuring business graphics, an Internet browser, fax communications, a Personal Information Manager (PIM), multimedia utilities and system diagnostic software, plus extensive font, clipart and reference libraries, Corel CD Office Companion is positioned as the perfect complement to any office suite. "Corel CD Office Companion is full of value-packed libraries and utilities and will serve as an indispensable partner for everyone with an office suite and a CD-ROM drive," said Dr. Michael Cowpland, president and chief executive officer of Corel Corporation. Available now, Corel CD Office Companion carries a suggested retail price of $149 US/$199 CDN. Corporate license pricing is also available. For further details, please contact Mark Abdelnour at TEL: 613-728-0826 x1668. Corel CD Office Companion will also have a new technical support plan. For additional information, see the support plan details that follow. Corel CD Office Companion includes the following components: ------------------------------------------------------------ CorelFLOW 2.0 ------------- "Drag and Drop" business diagramming and flowcharting software that features 2000 predefined symbols, more than 30 connector styles, direct text and line editing, a customizable workspace and a built-in spell checker. Corel GALLERY 2 --------------- A powerful multimedia file manager, featuring 15,000 clipart images, 500 TrueType( fonts, 200 photos and 75 sound clips. Also included are Corel CAPTURE, a flexible screen capture utility, and a TrueType( font manager that allows for the manipulation of custom font groups. Corel PLANNER ------------- A Personal Information Manager that allows users to effortlessly organize and track their contacts, appointments, to-do's, activities, notes and more. It features daily, weekly, monthly and yearly planning calendars, an integrated address book and contact manager, a dedicated notes section, plus goal and expense tracking capabilities. Corel's PIM is based on technology licensed from Time Systems Inc., of Phoenix, Arizona. Time Systems, Inc. has 17 years of paper-based time management and two years of electronic time management experience. Corel BOOKCASE -------------- Features electronic references including the Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Webster's II New Riverside Dictionary, The Information Please( Almanac, The Information Please( Business Almanac, The Information Please( Sports Almanac and Simpson's Contemporary Quotations. Corel BOOKCASE is based on technology licensed from Inso Corporation of Boston, Massachusetts. Inso is the leading provider of multilingual software products that help people enhance the quality of their written communications, provide them with access to information from authoritative sources and make it easier for them to locate, retrieve and view information, regardless of format or structure. CorelFAX -------- Fax communications software licensed from Mississauga-based 01 Communique Laboratory, Inc. It includes an integrated phone book and allows users to fax directly from within any Windows application. Highlights include delayed fax scheduling, the ability to send and receive faxes in the background, normal and broadcast faxing, and more. Corel Web Mosaic ---------------- A Genuine Mosaic World Wide Web browser based on technology licensed from Spyglass, Inc. Features include built-in JPEG and GIF viewers, direct support for AIFF and AU audio formats, and a hot list/history box to keep track of users' favorite Web sites. Also includes the Internet e-mail capabilities of Eudora licensed from QUALCOMM, Inc. Additional utilities include: ----------------------------- CD Audio: plays audio CDs on a standard CD-ROM drive. CD Office Screen Saver: create your personal screen saver using your favorite photos. Wallpaper Flipper: changes your wallpaper automatically every time you start Windows. Wintune tm 2.0: System diagnostic software from the editors of WINDOWS( Magazine. WinDAT WAV File Editor: allows users to record and edit sound clips. Corel CD Office Companion also features extensive libraries that include the following: 15,000 clipart images from the Corel GALLERY 2 collection in CMX format. 500 TrueType( fonts from the Corel GALLERY 2 collection. 2000 symbols from the CorelFLOW 2 collection. 75 sound clips from the Corel GALLERY 2 collection. 200 BMP images for use as screen savers or in documents. 700 standard business form letters for a variety of business correspondence needs. New Technical Support Plan for Corel CD Office Companion: --------------------------------------------------------- Corel will offer a free period of technical support on a toll line. This warranty period is valid for 30 days after the customer places the first technical support call. The toll line for Corel CD Office Companion support is 1-407-333-1967. When the initial 30 days of free support have expired, Corel offers the following options: a new annual plan on a toll-free line for $99 US. individual calls at $25 US/$30 CDN. U.S. customers may call 1-900 896-8880 to access technical support personnel at a charge of $2.00 per minute. Corel Corporation ----------------- Incorporated in 1985, Corel Corporation is recognized internationally as an award-winning developer and marketer of PC graphics and SCSI software. CorelDRAW, Corel's industry-leading graphics software, is available in over 17 languages and has won over 200 international awards from major trade publications. Corel ships its products through a network of more than 160 distributors in 60 countries worldwide. Corel is traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (symbol: COS) and the NASDAQ--National Market System (symbol: COSFF). *CorelFLOW 2 module in Corel CD Office Companion includes all the functionality of the standalone version of CorelFLOW, but has modified clipart and photo libraries. **Corel GALLERY 2 libraries included in Corel CD Office Companion have been altered in comparison to the standalone version. Photos have been changed and reduced and video clips have been removed. All products mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. Corel is a registered trademark of Corel Corporation. CorelDRAW, CorelFLOW and Corel GALLERY are trademarks of Corel Corporation. _____________________________________________ > Internet & CIS STR InfoFile TCP/IP & FTP Information """"""""""""""""""""""""""" CONNECTING TO COMPUSERVE USING A CIM PRODUCT THROUGH THE INTERNET So, you want to know how to login to CompuServe using a CIM product through the Internet? Well, this is the file for you. It describes how to login through a shell account and a TCP/IP connection. Some quick definitions would probably be a good idea: Shell Account: A text-based account. This type of account is typically accessed using a terminal emulation software package. They login to an Internet host by providing a User ID and password like they do when accessing CompuServe and are usually presented with a command prompt that looks like ">" or "$". TCP/IP Connection: A binary connection to the Internet. Those accessing this type of account actually ARE an Internet Host - at least for a short time. This type of connection is established by using PPP, SLIP, or sometimes a direct Ethernet connection. CompuServe's Internet Dialer and WinSOCK are examples of this type of connection. See the notes at the end of this document for some of the common problems. Shell Account ============= Logging in through a shell account is the same in all versions of CIM (WinCIM, DOSCIM, MacCIM, and OS2-CIM). The main requirements for logging in through a shell account is an Internet Network script, and a Dial Type of Manual. You can get the Internet Network script by downloading the current scripts from the CSSCRIPTS area. The Manual dial type is available in WinCIM 1.2, DOSCIM 2.2, MacCIM 2.4, and all versions of OS2-CIM. It is possible to connect with earlier versions, but it is much more difficult. Please upgrade to these minimum versions before attempting this type of connection. It does not appear to be possible to connect in this manner with CSNav. 1. Set the baud rate in the Connection settings to the baud rate that you wish to receive information from CompuServe (300, 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14,400 - do NOT set it to any other baud rate - it will confuse the Internet script). 2. Set the Network setting to "Internet" 3. Set the Dial Type to Manual and select OK to save these settings. 4. Select a GO command or other command that will connect you to CompuServe - a Manual Connect window will open up. 5. Type any commands into the manual connect window that are necessary to connect you to your Internet provider. (i.e.: "ATDT" followed by the phone number to dial, type in your User ID, password, etc.). 6. Connect to CompuServe using the telnet protocol. Telnet must be setup to disable the escape sequence, and establish a binary (8-bit) connection. A binary connection is also sometimes called "character mode" In many cases, this is done by using the command telnet -e "" compuserve.com however, not all versions of telnet support these command line parameters. You will need to check your local telnet documentation, (on most systems this can be done by typing "man telnet" at a command prompt) or contact the Administrator of your Internet provider for details. 7. When you receive the CompuServe "HOST NAME:" prompt, select the "Continue" button. The Internet script should take over and finish the connection. 8. You should now be connected to CompuServe through the Internet. TCP/IP Connection ================= Establishing a connection to CompuServe using CIM using a TCP/IP connection is a bit more complicated, and because every operating system has a different way to communicate with this of connection, each of the CIM versions has a different procedure. It is possible to connect to CompuServe through the Internet with WinCIM, CSNav, OS2-CIM and MacCIM, however, I know of no way to connect using a TCP/IP connection using DOSCIM (if you find a way to do this, please let me know). WinCIM TCP/IP Connection ------------------------ Requirements: * Version 1.4 or above of WinCIM. Earlier versions did not support this type of connection directly. Those using earlier versions can connect using a tool called ComT which is available in the Internet Resources forum (GO INETRES). A description of how to setup WinCIM for use with ComT is included in the ComT documentation. * An established Winsock compliant TCP/IP connection. 1. Install the Winsock software as described in the documentation and establish a connection. 2. Set the baud rate in the Session settings to the baud rate that you wish to receive information from CompuServe (300, 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14,400 - do NOT set it to any other baud rate - it will confuse the Internet script). 3. Set the Network setting to "Internet" 4. For the Dial Type, select the "Direct" radio button. 5. For the Connector setting select "WINSOCK" 6. From the Connection Settings dialog select the "LAN..." button. 7. On the WinSock Setting dialog, place "compuserve.com" in the box labeled "Host Name". Except for extraordinary situations, you should not provide the Host IP Address. They may optionally set a Connection Timeout. 8. Select the "OK" button on the WinSock Settings screen. 9. Select the "OK" button on the Session Settings screen. 10.WinCIM is now setup to access CompuServe through the Internet. Simply select a GO command as if you were using a normal Modem connection. CSNav TCP/IP Connection ------------------------ Requirements: * Version 1.1 or above of CSNav. (Earlier versions MAY work by using the same procedure for WinCIM listed above) * An established Winsock compliant TCP/IP connection. 1. Install the Winsock software as described in the documentation and establish a connection. 2. Set the baud rate in the Session settings to the baud rate that you wish to receive information from CompuServe (300, 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14,400 - do NOT set it to any other baud rate - it will confuse the Internet script). 3. Set the Network setting to "Internet" 4. For the Dial Type, select the "Direct" radio button. 5. For the Connector setting select "WINSOCK" 6. From the Connection Settings dialog select the "LAN..." button. 7. On the WinSock Setting dialog, place "compuserve.com" in the box labled "Host Name". Except for extrordinary situations, the you should not provide the Host IP Address. They may optionally set a Connection Timeout. 8. Select the "OK" button on the WinSock Settings screen. 9. Select the "OK" button on the Session Settings screen. 10.CSNav is now setup to access CompuServe through the Internet. Simply run a script as if you were using a normal Modem connection MacCIM TCP/IP Connection ------------------------- Requirements: * Version 2.3.1 or above of MacCIM. * A Macintosh Communications Toolbox tool installed for Telnet connections. * An established TCP/IP connection (usually using MacTCP). NOTE: The only tool that I am currently aware of and have tested with MacCIM is the TCPack Demo which is available in the MacCIM Support Forum. 1. Install the Telnet tool in your Extensions folder by dragging it to the System Folder. 2. Set the baud rate in the Connection settings to the baud rate that you wish to receive information from CompuServe (300, 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14,400 - do NOT set it to any other baud rate - it will confuse the Internet script). 3. Set the Network setting to "Internet" 4. From the "Port" pulldown, select a telnet tool from the list. 5. Select the "Configure" button in the lower right-hand corner of the Connection Settings dialog. This will bring up the telnet tool's settings. 6. Configure the telnet tool for a connection to "compuserve.com", and establish a binary (8-bit) connection, and disable escape sequences. Then select "OK" to save the telnet settings. 7. Select "OK" on the Connection Settings screen to save these settings. 8. Select a GO command or other command that will connect you to CompuServe. 9. The telnet tool should connect you to CompuServe, and the Internet script will log you into CompuServe. CIM for OS/2 TCP/IP Connection ------------------------------ Requirements: * Version 2.0 or above of CIM for OS/2. * Ray Gwinn's comm drivers for OS/2 with Vmodem. Current versions of this driver are available in the SIO Support section of the OS/2 B Vendor Forum (GO OS2BVEN). * IBM's TCP/IP (for OS/2) version 2.0 with August 1994 CSD applied, or the IBM Internet Access Kit (IAK) supplied with OS/2 Warp. 1. Install the SIO drivers as specified in the included SIO User's Guide (SIOUSER.TXT). When setup for use with the Internet, this will create a virtual modem on one or more commport. Questions about installation should be referred to the SIO Support section of the OS/2 B Vendor Forum. 2. Set the baud rate in the Session settings to the baud rate that you wish to receive information from CompuServe (300, 1200, 2400, 9600, or 14,400 - do NOT set it to any other baud rate - it will confuse the Internet script). 3. Set the Network setting to "Internet" 4. For the Connector setting, select one of the virtual modem ports that were setup during the installation of the SIO driver. This will usually be COM3 or COM4. 5. For the Phone number, enter " compuserve.com" (without the quotes). The space before "compuserve.com" IS important. 6. Select the "Modem..." button. 7. On the Modem Control Strings screen place ATZ^M in the Initialize string box. 8. Select the "OK" button on the Modem Settings screen. 9. Select the "OK" button on the Session Settings screen. 10.Establish the TCP/IP connection using the Dialer included with the Internet Access Kit, or IBM's TCP/IP package. Questions on how to do this should be referred to the OS/2 Support Forum (GO OS2SUP) or the Internet Resources forum (GO INETRES). 11.From an OS/2 Command Prompt, startup the VMODEM program. This is a background program that controls the redirection to the Internet, and displays status information. 12.WinCIM is now setup to access CompuServe through the Internet. To Simply select a GO command as if you were using a normal Modem connection NOTES ===== If you receive the error "Unable to Establish Protocol", chances are that a binary (8-bit) connection is not being established, or escape sequences are not being disabled. The default telnet connection is 7-bit, and some versions of telnet do not have an option to create an 8-bit connection. You will need to check your documentation and make sure that you can establish an 8-bit (also known as "character mode") connection to CompuServe. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a tool for transferring files on the Internet. FTP uses a standard protocol for file transfer so that you can exchange files between two computers, no matter their make and type. You can use FTP to receive files from a remote system or to send files to remote computers from your desktop. When using the Internet, you are using a completely different physical network than the CompuServe network. The CompuServe network is centralized and uniformly managed. The Internet is maintained independently at thousands of sites around the world. The reliability, availability and performance of resources accessed via the Internet are beyond CompuServe's control and are not warranted or supported by CompuServe in any way. If many people access a site at the same time, performance will deteriorate. Be prepared to wait for the remote system to respond to your requests if you are using it during periods of peak demand. While you may use any version of the CompuServe Information Manager interface to access FTP you will need WinCIM V1.3 or higher, or MacCIM V2.4 or higher to see the iconic buttons. WinCIM 1.4 and MacCIM 3.0 (when available) are recommended. Be sure that the "show graphic menus" option is enabled in the SPECIAL PREFERENCES menu of your CIM software. This option is enabled by default. To use this service GO FTP and enter the name of the site you wish to access or choose from one of the sites on the menu. Once you discover files you want to download, just mark the box next to the file name. When you have marked all the files you want to download in one specific directory, select the download button. You will be prompted for the location on your own computer where the files will be stored. _______________________________________ > BLIND FANATICS?? STR Spotlight Destroying Your Constitutional Rights """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" THE DEATH OF THE FOURTH AMENDMENT ================================= EXCLUSIONARY REFORM ACT OF 1995 HOUSE BILL # 666 "LAWMAKING AT ITS VERY WORST!" by Ralph F. Mariano Friends, how deeply horrified were you when you watched the historical motion picture accounts; "The Holocaust" and "Schindler's List"?? Did you find it particularly upsetting to see those Gestapo (German Police) THUGS crashing and busting their way into people's homes with little or no respect for the rights of the inhabitants and owners of those homes? How about the way in which the possessions of those folks was blatantly stolen and liquidated by either the authorities or the individual officers with impunity? Well now, then you might agree that the founders of this country had a good deal more "on the ball" than the simple times they lived in. You see, they too, were experiencing the very same type of treatment at the hands of the King of England's Men. Throughout the Colonies the British Troops would do the same thing in "handling the tax evading colonists". While they didn't have the concentration camps with their ever present ovens or gas chambers the Nazi's will long be remembered for, the British Soldiers wantonly killed any colonist as a rebel for objecting to any type of unlawful search and/or seizure. Another outrage of the time was "forced billeting". The Brits would actually force a colonist to take a number of troops into his/her home to live without compensation to the colonist. I swore to myself some time ago that I would not get all fired up over wacky politics. But I gotta tell you this one is one very dangerous and sinister package that's being rammed through the House and Senate by the "Egomaniacal, Ultra Conservative" action group within our respected law-making bodies of government. Its the name OF THIS BILL.. It is so innocent sounding its almost impossible to believe just how dangerous it really is. Its called "EXCLUSIONARY REFORM ACT OF 1995" - HOUSE BILL # 666 Imagine that! The House Bill number is ironically the same as the "Mark of the BEAST"! Yes sir, this bill is at the heart of a very serious effort on the part of the "fanatics left in office" following the recent elections. Could it be they are paying the nation back for having voted OUT all their "good buddies" thus effectively neutralizing the democratic grip on the country and its affairs? Folks, if you treasure your family home and its security, make certain you ring the alarm bells in your Congress Critter's and Senate Thumper's offices. Let them know loudly and clearly that this HR 666 belongs in the trash! While at the same time reminding them that you are a registered voter. This Bill gives law enforcement officials of every level unilaterally unbridled Search and Seizure Powers. No more having to answer to a court judge, no more having to justify a search warrant before its issued, no more search warrants and no more curtailment of illegally obtained "evidence" that can be ruled inadmissable to possibly protect the innocent. Can you see it now?? We have seen the horror stories many times before but now.. if this bill passes, the horror stories are going to become far more plentiful and serious. Just this past week the train cops in NYC had to "apologize" for wrongfully detaining and searching a passenger, because the passenger fit a "predesigned profile". Can you imagine the abuse when there are no laws to slow down these abuses? One can almost hear it now... "Vere iz you paperz?? Paperz pleaze!! Being spoken loudly across America because of this crazed HR Bill # 666 and Exon's misguided campaign. Save and preserve the power of the Fourth Amendment. While its not perfect now, the direction Exon wants to take this country in is straight to hell in a hand basket. Please don't let it happen. Not so much for us.. but for our successors in generations yet to come. They do not deserve this fetid can of Exon worms. This so-called, self righteous, "Clean up the Internet" campaign being led by Jim Exon Dem. Nebraska, is an absolute outrage that's easily comparable to almost every injustice perpetrated upon entire populations from The Inquisitions to The Nazi Pillages and Slaughter of Europe. If this bill, HR #666, along with Exon's that literally GUTS the Fourth Amendment Passes... Sen Exon's name along with his "pack" will long be remembered along with many other infamous names in the history of the persecuted and downtrodden members of mankind. If I'm not mistaken, part of the oath of office these "elected officials mutter and stutter" is to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Why are these same officials trying so hard to destroy the very foundations of our Great Nation? The Bill of Rights and The Constitution! Exon and his crew may not be aware of this, but the Internet is, without a doubt, the most powerful form of super fast communications the world has ever known. We need each and every citizen of this country that's truly concerned about protecting the Bill of Rights, The Constitution and the Spirit of the Law the way our Founding Fathers intended it to be to make themselves loudly heard. This business of giving the Government, Federal, State, and Local complete and unmitigated police powers of search and seizure is rediculous. There is no National Emergency! If there were, the President could easily declare Marshal Law and bring in the Military. These self-appointed "patriots" seemingly want to tear down not only the Internet and its communicative freedoms, but the basic foundations of our country through overbearing, Human Rights clobbering legislation. In so doing, they will simultaneously cripple the US Constitution and your rights as citizen of this country. No longer will our citizenship be something to be proud of. Sen. Exon's name will be very easy to remember at the ballot box. His name reminds one of another recent disaster of monstrous proportions. Valdez, Alaska.. Where another "Exxon" was directly involved in an equally grotesque exercise in horror. The good Senator Exon ought to put as much, if not more of his zealot-like energy into CLEANING THEIR OWN HOUSE & SENATE! Exon should be busy trying to nail PACKWOOD for abusing and molesting the women who have to work there for a living. Exon ought to remember that those women violated by Packwood were all housewives and/or mothers. He should be busy persuing the creeps that siphoned off millions from the Congressional Post Office. Why is it that Old, "Danny Boy" Rostenkowsie is seemingly OFF the HOOK??? If John Q. Public were to pull some of the stunts Dan and his buddies are/were accused of they'd put the poor slob UNDER the JAIL. Yet Rostenkowskie and his gang WALK and they all do so with a BIG FAT GOVERNMENT PENSION that we are all paying for. This being Memorial Day Weekend... a time when the Nation is remembering, praying for and paying homage to the millions of GI's who valiantly gave their lives in defense of this Nation's lofty Principles and Its Constitution. A Constitution that, at one time or another, has been the envy of every other nation on Earth... It is most fitting on this holiday to point out a few of the less than responsible actions undertaken by elected officials in our government who are trying to ruin this country and its freedoms by destroying its constitution. Instead, they should be defending it as they swore to in their oath. Stop them from trying to steal away your freedom in the name of "Justice". Certainly its not "Justice for All". More like; "Injustice for All"! God help us if they should succeed! ___________________________________ > THE WEB & CIS STR Spotlight """"""""""""""""""""""""""" H O M E P A G E S F O R C O M P U S U R F E R S April 28, 1995 by Benoit Marchal [100345,354] Keywords: homepage html page publishing url web www Now that CompuServe offers full Internet access, including the World Wide Web (WWW), more subscribers want to setup their own homepage and publish information to the ever growing Internet community. It is not really difficult to have your own page on the Web if you know the rules of the game. With surprisingly little investment you can achieve a real nice looking result. There are plenty of good reasons to publish on the Internet. Whether to promote your business, your local association, or just for fun. It takes a book to cover Web publishing completely. In this introduction paper I'll show you where to start and point you to more information. Think of this paper as a road-map, I don't intend to cover every aspect of Web publishing but to provide enough guidance to get you on the right track. This paper was written for CompuServe users and covers Internet access from CompuServe. Currently all the Internet services available from CompuServe are clients, i.e. you access the Internet from CompuServe but you cannot publish. Theoretically you could install a server on your own computer and make it accessible through the PPP connection but it requires being on-line a 24 hours/day and believe me, at $1.95/hour, you don't want to do that. Beside CIS assigns you a different address each time you log in. Probably one day CompuServe will rent Web space but in the meantime you'll have to go with another presence provider. CIS has all the tools you need to install and maintain your homepage on a third party system though. Here are the five steps to successfully setup a page: 1. practice Internet access; 2. surf the Web; 3. write your page; 4. sign with a presence provider on Internet; 5. advertise your page. 1. Practice Internet Access CIS offers two forms of access to the Internet. Its Internet Made Easy(sm) program wraps selected Internet applications under the familiar CIM interface while All the Internet, All the Time(sm) offers direct connection to the Internet. With the exception of email, all the services available as part of Internet Made Easy are also available through the direct connection with appropriate software. At the time of writing, Web browsing is available through the direct connection only. All Internet services on CIS are available by GOing INTERNET. To setup and maintain your homepage you will use at least a Web browser, FTP and email. I suggest you become familiar with at least those services before going any further. It is not a bad idea to try other Internet applications like Telnet, Usenet, Gopher, IRC, etc. You can receive guidance on all aspects of Internet in the Internet New Users forum (GO INETFORUM). 1.1. Web Browser Currently the WWW is available only through the direct connection. It does not really matter which Web browser you use but it is one of the primary tool of a Web author. So I encourage you to spend enough time learning how it works. You will use it to surf the Internet and to test your homepage. Apart from normal Web surfing try the following options: - load a page from disk (all Web browsers support this); - display source code and/or save it to disk. Some older browsers may not support this. Although not required, it is a nice feature to have. By the way to save source code with SPRY Mosaic (part of the free Internet Launcher toolkit), select File|Document Source... and then File|Save As from the source code window. In general, it will save you money if you learn how to view documents off-line. 1.2. FTP File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is Internet standard application to exchange files between computers. You will use it to upload your page to your presence provider. From CIM, GO FTP. 1.3. Email CompuServe mail has a gateway to the Internet. Use this format to send mail to Internet users: internet:user@domain For example, my address on another system is , from CIS it translates into: internet:benoit.marchal@ping.be Your CompuServe address for Internet users is: userid@compuserve.com where you replace the coma with a dot. E.g. my CompuServe address [100345,354] becomes <100345.354@compuserve.com> on the Internet. Mind the dot! Internet mail is surcharged (i.e. you pay to read it), make sure you accept surcharged mail. It is a good idea to leave your email address on your homepage for visitors to comment. Also some presence providers accept pages sent by email. 2. Surf the Web The best place to learn about the Web is the Web itself. Visit as many pages as possible to find ideas on how to present your information, practice with indexes and meta-indexes like Aliweb (Archie-like Indexing for the Web) available at: http://web.nexor.co.uk/aliweb/doc/aliweb.html, EINet Galaxy (http://www.einet.net/galaxy.html) and Yahoo (http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/welcome.html). Try to find pages with interests similar to yours, you will link to them from your page. Also some sites maintain lists of related resources. Most will be happy to link to your page once it is available. It is also a good time to start learning HMTL and URLs (Cf. section 3). Don't be shy and whenever you see a nice looking page, view the code (if your browser supports it) or even better save it to disk for later examination. Try to understand how a particular effect is achieved. It is best to record your discoveries in a notebook. Write down interesting addresses, source code, etc. Record as much information as possible, you will need these notes later. If you are a regular user of Internet services on CIS, you may want to join the Internet Club for reduced access rates. If you surf more than 9 hours/month, the Internet Club will save you money. To join The Internet Club GO INTERNET and choose Special Pricing - The Internet Club. 3. Write your Page Now it is time to write your own page. Web pages are written in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) which is an application of SGML. HTML files are text files so you can create them with any word processor which saves as ASCII. Windows Notepad suffices. Familiarize yourself with URL, a scheme to write addresses on the Web. Some knowledge of graphics file format (at least GIF) also helps. HTML is really easy to use. You simply mark elements in your text as being of a given type. As an illustration here is a very small page. Simple page This minimal example takes you to my homepage. and which surround the word 'minimal' mark it as emphasized. Typically, 'minimal' will be italicized by Web browsers. and mark 'my homepage' as an hyperlink, i.e. a link to another document. HREF specify its address in the form of an URL. Similarly, the whole document is surrounded with and to mark it as an HTML document. Easy isn't it? All you do is recognize elements in your text and mark them accordingly. HTML specifies valid tags and their relationships. You can copy this simple page into another file and open it with your browser. Note: some browser determines the type of a file based on their extension, they will only recognize an HTML file if it has the .htm or .html extension. For a comprehensive introduction to HTML refer to http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html. A guide of good practice is also available from http://www.willamette.edu/html-composition/strict-html.html. A guide to URLs is available from http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/url-primer.html. Also check http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Provider/Overview.html for general information on Web documents. For more on SGML, refer to my article at http://www.ping.be/~ping0049/sgml.html. You can preview your page as you write it with the Open Local File feature of your browser. It is a good idea to download at least another Web browser to further test your page. Remember you can start writing your page even before you have an account with an Internet provider but it is not a good idea to wait too long before putting it on-line. You'll learn a lot from early visitor comments so it is best to put your page on-line as soon as possible and later improve it. Try to organize your page for easy and convenient access to information but don't worry if your first attempt doesn't look great, things will improve with time and practice. Don't wait until you have something perfect! Unlike traditional publishing, Web publishing is real fast. It takes only a few minutes to replace an obsolete document so don't be shy and publish as soon as possible. It is a good practice to state clearly when your page is still under development and to date it as an help to potential visitors. If you write many pages download a specialized editor like HoTMetaL, Web Assistant or Microsoft Internet Assistant. Browse the Internet Resources forum libraries (GO INETRES). Although it is fun to write your page yourself, you can also request help from a specialized writer. I (and others) can help you writing Web pages. 4. Sign with a Presence Provider on Internet You first homepage is now ready. It's time to put it on the Internet. Basically you have three solutions to obtain Web space: - you can sign with an access provider which include Web space in its package; - you can sign with a presence provider. Unlike access providers, presence providers only rent Web space (sometimes FTP and gopher too). You use CompuServe Internet access to maintain your page. Since they focus solely on Web publishing these sites are usually cheaper and/or deliver better services. There's a list of presence providers at http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/www/leasing.html; - you can upload your page to the HomePage Provider which is free. HPP is at http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu//HomePage. As you can expect from a free service, the site is overcrowded but it is perfect for early testing. When selecting a presence provider test it: try to connect at various time of the day and night (this is global networking, daytime for you is night for another user). Try to contact current users and find how active is the site. Remember a page nobody access is useless. The best choice depends on your page, the level of service you expect and how much you are willing to pay for it. E.g. some systems offer additional services like FTP server, mailing list server, etc. Others are cheap but sells limited space. Be careful with some real cheap offers: with some provider you pay to update your page or you pay per access! This can be really costly in the long run. 5. Advertise your Page Once your page is ready and running, advertise it. You want others to find it. Here are some techniques: - add your homepage URL to your signature; - add your page to indexes and meta-indexes; - visit those places in your notebook which relate to your page and see if you can't have a link added; - always remember to be polite when people comment your page. I know it has been hard work but others have the right to criticize. Listen to them, they may have a point. You will find more at: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/gdr11/publish.html. Above everything experiment and have fun! As always I welcome comments and suggestions on this paper. --------- (C)opyright 1995, Benoit Marchal. You may freely redistribute this document in any form for educational and non-profit purposes provided you retain this copyright. Benoit Marchal is a computer scientist and freelance writer specialized in technology-related matters. Ben can be contacted on CompuServe at 100345,354. His homepage is at http://www.ping.be/~ping0049. _______________________________ > SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT! STR Spotlight """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" PURPOSE AND OPERATION OF THE REGISTRATION WIZARD A recent trade publication article contained inaccuracies regarding the purpose and operation of the Registration Wizard, the on-line registration application in Windows 95. The purpose of the Registration Wizard is to offer an electronic version of the paper-based Registration Card that traditionally comes with all Microsoft products. The Registration Wizard asks for similar information to that listed in the paper-based registration card, such as your hardware configuration and applications usage. Just like with a traditional registration card, providing this information is optional. A customer using the Registration Wizard receives dialog prompts asking them whether they would like to send this information. They must actively click 'send' for any information to be sent. There are lots of benefits to customers that provide this information - such as product update mailings and improved product support because the product support engineer can refer to your exact system configuration information on-line. In the end, though, sending this information is optional and a conscious decision by the user. Microsoft traditionally does not make information gathered during the registration process available to third-parties. If the customer chooses to send system and software information to Microsoft with the Registration Wizard, it is a one-way, one-time occurrence and takes place at the time the customer selects 'send.' """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 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 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ___ ___ _____ _______ /___| /___| /_____| /_______/ /____|/____| /__/|__| /__/ /_____|_____|/__/_|__|/__/ /__/|____/|__|________|__/ /__/ |___/ |__|_/ |__|_/_____ /__/ |__/ |__|/ |__|______/ ________________________________________ /_______________________________________/ MAC/APPLE SECTION (II) ====================== John Deegan, Editor (Temp) > Creative Technology NEWS STR InfoFile """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Creative Announces Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x Best Selling Educational Kit is Upgraded to Include Quad-Speed CD-ROM Technology SINGAPORE -- May 23, 1995 -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF) today announced Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x, the most recent addition to its expanding line of best-selling quad-speed multimedia kits. Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x takes the highly successful Digital Schoolhouse multimedia kit and combines it with leading edge quad-speed CD-ROM technology. The consumer can now find industry standard Sound Blaster audio, plus quad-speed access to information and the strongest collection of educational titles available in the upgrade kit marketplace. Creative has included targeted educational software titles with value-added technology to offer the most to the home multimedia market. Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x will be available at retail outlets in June for a projected price of $349. "Creative is committed to the introduction of new multimedia products that incorporate the most recent advancements in technology and address the needs of the family multimedia market segment," said Arnold Waldstein, vice president of U.S. software and product marketing for Creative Labs, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Creative Technology. "Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse offers families an ideal multimedia solution, combining the most trusted brand name in multimedia, the latest in CD-ROM technology and a Sound Blaster compatible library of educational titles. This product represents a great value for the home computer user." Features of Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x ------------------------------------------------ Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x includes Creative's quad-speed IDE CD-ROM drive, a wave table upgradeable Sound Blaster 16 audio card and stereo speakers, along with software titles from leading publishers. The quad-speed drive provides a 600KB per second transfer rate, a better-than 250ms access rate and compatibility with the Kodak Photo CD. Its IDE interface is best suited to handle the high-speed transfer rates of quad-speed drives and allows users to obtain optimum performance of software titles. In addition, the kit's Sound Blaster 16 card provides CD quality stereo sampling and playback and is upgradeable to wave table synthesis for real instrument sounds and digital sound effects. Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x's high-value software bundle features six audio utility programs from Creative and the following educational titles: T/Maker's Four Footed Friends T/Maker's Stradiwackius Davidson and Associates' Spell It 3 Davidson and Associates' The Cruncher Davidson and Associates' Kid Works 2 Electronic Arts' Peter Pan: A Story Painting Adventure Electronic Arts' Scooter's Magic Castle Electronic Arts' Eagle Eye Mysteries: The Original Electronic Arts' Eagle Eye Mysteries In London Grolier Electronic Publishing's Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Knowledge Adventure's Speed Opcode Systems' Allie's Playhouse "Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x is perfect for parents who want to turn their computer into a multimedia school room to enhance their child's learning experience," said Kim Federico, product marketing manager, multimedia kits for Creative Labs, Inc. "With this entertaining interactive environment, children of various ages can develop early computer skills while mastering subjects such as spelling, math, reading, history and science." Creative's growing quad-speed multimedia kit line now includes Sound Blaster Multimedia Home 4x, Sound Blaster Discovery CD 4x, Digital Schoolhouse 4x and Blaster CD 4x. From the full-featured Multimedia Home 4x edutainment and productivity kit to the entry level Blaster CD 4x CD-ROM upgrade kit, Creative's quad-speed line serves a broad spectrum of consumer needs and interests. ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300 Expand Creative's Communications Family of Products New Macintosh-Based Products Are Only To Offer Mac to PC Video Conferencing Over Regular Phone Lines SINGAPORE -- May 2, 1995 -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq:CREAF) today introduced ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300, the only desktop video conferencing products to support cross-platform connectivity between Macintosh and PC computers over a regular telephone line. ShareVision Mac3000 is a complete desktop video conferencing solution for AV Macintosh model users, providing simultaneous video, voice, application sharing, file transfers and interactive Whiteboards. ShareVision Mac300 is a cost- effective alternative for AV users who already own a video camera. In June, ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300 will be available from retailers and value added resellers (VARs) for an approximate price of $1,149 and $749 respectively. "Creative continues its role as an industry leader by offering the only POTS-based (Plain Old Telephone System) cross-platform product on the market," said Rich Sorkin, vice president, communications and business products for Creative Labs, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Creative Technology, Ltd. "With ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300, Creative has extended its communications family to meet increasing consumer demand for a cross-platform solution. These products demonstrate Creative's ongoing commitment to providing productivity tools that fit the needs of both SOHO (small office/home office) and corporate users." ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300 provide simultaneous voice, video and data communications over one regular telephone line, when used with the Power Macintosh 7100 AV or 8100 AV or the Macintosh Quadra 840 AV. ShareVision Mac300 can also provide simultaneous voice and data functions when installed in any 68030 (or faster) Macintosh computer. ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300 include the NuBus ShareVision Mac Communication Card, an external V.34 28.8K bits per second data/fax modem, ShareVision software, a hands-free audio headset and all the necessary cables. In addition, ShareVision Mac3000 also includes a color video camera with stand. ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300 allow users to share applications and collaborate on documents, even if the application software is installed on only one user's system. For example, both users can edit documents in word processing, data management, spreadsheet, presentation or graphics programs in real time through an analog telephone connection. Users can also concurrently annotate documents or full-color snapshots using the built-in Whiteboard. ShareVision products are programmable and upgradeable, enabling users to take advantage of emerging standards. "We're looking forward to selling the ShareVision Mac3000 and Mac300 products," said Jay Cohn, president of Vision Technology, a Northern California reseller specializing in desktop video conferencing. "We've been successful with both the ShareVision products for the PC, and the previous generation of ShareVision products for the Mac, ShareView. Our clients are anxious to upgrade to the cross-platform video, voice and whiteboard capabilities of the Mac3000." Creative introduced the first desktop video conferencing products for the Macintosh computer, ShareView 3000 and ShareView 300, in 1993. In 1994, Creative unveiled its two PC-based products, ShareVision PC3000 and ShareVision PC300. Since this introduction, these Macintosh and PC-based products have been adopted by a wide range of users, including those in federal agencies, universities, multinational corporations, product and packaging design firms, creative services agencies and law firms. In addition, ShareVision PC3000 has received numerous awards for excellence, including the Winter Consumer Electronics Show's Innovations '95 Award, Germany's CeBit Innovation '95 Award and France Telecom's Innovation '95 "Best Multimedia Product" Award, among others. Creative Labs Launches Wave Blaster II-GamePak and Blaster CD 4x At E3 New Products Expand Family of Wave Table Synthesis and Quad-Speed CD-ROM Offerings LOS ANGELES -- May 11, 1995 -- Creative Labs, Inc., the U.S. sales and marketing subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd., today unveiled Wave Blaster II-GamePak and Blaster CD 4x at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). Wave Blaster II-GamePak extends Creative's family of wave table products, providing Sound Blaster 16 upgradeable audio card users with the next generation of Sound Blaster audio technology. The product also includes four wave table ready games on a single CD-ROM. Blaster CD 4x is an entry level addition to Creative's growing quad-speed line of multimedia kits, offering consumers an opportunity to upgrade to the latest CD-ROM technology for an attractive price. It also features Grolier Electronic Publishing's award-winning encyclopedia. Consumers will be able to find Wave Blaster II-GamePak in June, and Blaster CD 4x in May, at retail outlets for projected prices of $129.99 and $219.99, respectively. "Creative's Sound Blaster standard has played a key role in the electronic entertainment industry and we will further extend that standard to continually enhance consumers' multimedia experience with innovative products," said W.H. Sim, chairman and CEO of Creative Technology. "With Wave Blaster II-GamePak's high performance wave table synthesis capabilities, users who already own an upgradeable Sound Blaster 16 card can incorporate the next generation of Sound Blaster audio technology into their PC. Blaster CD 4x, our entry level quad-speed CD-ROM kit, is another example of Creative's dedication to offering a full range of multimedia solutions." Features of Wave Blaster II-GamePak ----------------------------------- Wave Blaster II-GamePak is a solution for PC gamers and multimedia enthusiasts who want to upgrade their 16-bit sound card for real instrument sounds and digital sound effects. In addition, it includes GamePak, a single CD-ROM with four interactive wave-table titles, featuring: id Software Inc.'s Doom, Episode 1 Interplay( Productions, Inc.'s Descent Destination Saturn id Software Inc.'s Heretic, Episode 1 Blizzard Entertainment's WarCraft, Special Edition. Wave Blaster II is a General MIDI, wave-table synthesis daughterboard for Creative's upgradeable line of Sound Blaster 16 audio cards. It uses E-mu Systems' patented digital sample playback synthesis to provide 128 real instrument sounds, 10 drum kits and 46 sound effects in 2MB of ROM. Wave Blaster II incorporates 32-note, 16 channel polyphony; supports General MIDI, Sound Canvas and MT-32 standards; and offers chorus, reverb and Q-Sound. For serious musicians, Wave Blaster II can also be connected to Creative's award-winning Sound Blaster AWE32 for 64 note polyphony, allowing users to create rich orchestration with 64 simultaneous voices. Features of Blaster CD 4x ------------------------- Blaster CD 4x is a cost-effective way for consumers to upgrade to quad-speed CD-ROM technology for enhanced software performance. Blaster CD 4x's quad-speed CD-ROM drive includes an IDE interface card, enabling it to run on systems with or without audio boards. The drive has a 600KB per second transfer rate and a better than 250ms access time; and it is multi-session, Kodak Photo CD-compatible. In addition, Blaster CD 4x also features The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia from Grolier Electronic Publishing. "Both Wave Blaster II-GamePak and Blaster CD 4x demonstrate Creative's responsiveness to consumers and our commitment to providing leading-edge technology," said Arnold Waldstein, vice president of U.S. software and product marketing for Creative Labs, Inc. "Wave Blaster II-GamePak brings consumers an upgrade option with all the advantages of Sound Blaster and advanced wave effects, while Blaster CD 4x provides PC users with a way to add high performance quad-speed CD-ROM technology to their systems for an entry-level price." Creative Announces Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x Best Selling Educational Kit is Upgraded to Include Quad-Speed CD-ROM Technology SINGAPORE -- May 23, 1995 -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF) today announced Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x, the most recent addition to its expanding line of best-selling quad-speed multimedia kits. Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x takes the highly successful Digital Schoolhouse multimedia kit and combines it with leading edge quad-speed CD-ROM technology. The consumer can now find industry standard Sound Blaster audio, plus quad-speed access to information and the strongest collection of educational titles available in the upgrade kit marketplace. Creative has included targeted educational software titles with value-added technology to offer the most to the home multimedia market. Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x will be available at retail outlets in June for a projected price of $349. "Creative is committed to the introduction of new multimedia products that incorporate the most recent advancements in technology and address the needs of the family multimedia market segment," said Arnold Waldstein, vice president of U.S. software and product marketing for Creative Labs, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Creative Technology. "Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse offers families an ideal multimedia solution, combining the most trusted brand name in multimedia, the latest in CD-ROM technology and a Sound Blaster compatible library of educational titles. This product represents a great value for the home computer user." Features of Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x ------------------------------------------------ Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x includes Creative's quad-speed IDE CD-ROM drive, a wave table upgradeable Sound Blaster 16 audio card and stereo speakers, along with software titles from leading publishers. The quad-speed drive provides a 600KB per second transfer rate, a better-than 250ms access rate and compatibility with the Kodak Photo CD. Its IDE interface is best suited to handle the high-speed transfer rates of quad-speed drives and allows users to obtain optimum performance of software titles. In addition, the kit's Sound Blaster 16 card provides CD quality stereo sampling and playback and is upgradeable to wave table synthesis for real instrument sounds and digital sound effects. Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x's high-value software bundle features six audio utility programs from Creative and the following educational titles: T/Maker's Four Footed Friends T/Maker's Stradiwackius Davidson and Associates' Spell It 3 Davidson and Associates' The Cruncher Davidson and Associates' Kid Works 2 Electronic Arts' Peter Pan: A Story Painting Adventure Electronic Arts' Scooter's Magic Castle Electronic Arts' Eagle Eye Mysteries: The Original Electronic Arts' Eagle Eye Mysteries In London Grolier Electronic Publishing's Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Knowledge Adventure's Speed Opcode Systems' Allie's Playhouse "Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x is perfect for parents who want to turn their computer into a multimedia school room to enhance their child's learning experience," said Kim Federico, product marketing manager, multimedia kits for Creative Labs, Inc. "With this entertaining interactive environment, children of various ages can develop early computer skills while mastering subjects such as spelling, math, reading, history and science." Creative's growing quad-speed multimedia kit line now includes Sound Blaster Multimedia Home 4x, Sound Blaster Discovery CD 4x, Digital Schoolhouse 4x and Blaster CD 4x. From the full-featured Multimedia Home 4x edutainment and productivity kit to the entry level Blaster CD 4x CD-ROM upgrade kit, Creative's quad-speed line serves a broad spectrum of consumer needs and interests. PSINet Provides Instant Internet Access to Creative Labs, Inc.'s Modem Blaster Products Partnership to Provide Customers with a Fast, Affordable High Performance Communications Solution HERNDON, VA & MILPITAS -- May 16, 1995 -- Creative Labs, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF) and Performance Systems International, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSIX) today announced the bundling of PSINet's InterRamp service with Creative's Modem Blaster( family of communications products. This partnership furthers Creative's commitment to serving the diverse communications needs of consumers. With Modem Blaster 28.8 and Modem Blaster 14.4, users can gain instant affordable access to the Internet via "Instant InterRamp," PSINet's personal Internet access service.The agreement also enables PC users to browse the World Wide Web, send and receive files, participate in interactive forums and utilize a variety of information and resources found on the Internet. "This multimedia communications bundle signifies a dramatic change in providing Internet access to the mass market, making it easier for home users and telecommuters to get connected to the worldwide web of networks," said Martin Schoffstall, senior vice president and chief technical officer at PSINet. "Never before has it been easier for the PC user to get connected directly to the Internet and enjoy the power of running any open systems TCP/IP software." Creative's Modem Blaster 28.8 and Modem Blaster 14.4 are the only high performance modem products -- in one complete package -- to enable PC users to browse the World Wide Web, utilize a variety of information and resources found on the Internet, play games modem-to-modem, send and receive e-mail, participate in interactive on-line forums and take advantage of on-line services. Creative's Modem Blaster products therefore offer the most affordable all-in-one modem solutions currently available. InterRamp is PSINet's personal connection to the Internet for the single user needing full power Internet access to run any, commercial or public domain, TCP/IP applications. InterRamp users can connect directly to the world of networks at up to 28.8K bits per second for the fastest World Wide Web access available today. InterRamp service is projected to be available in 120 cities in the U.S. by the end of 1995. "With the introduction of its new communications family of products, Creative is redefining the way users interact on-line. We are providing our customers with an affordable, all-in-one communications solution that provides everything users need to get on-line quickly and easily," said Richard Sorkin, vice president of communications products at Creative Labs, Inc. "Creative's communications products are well positioned to serve the ever-growing universe of Internet-savvy PC users in both the SOHO and entertainment marketplaces." Modem Blaster 28.8 and Modem Blaster 14.4 are the first products to combine this broad range of functionality with the fast and affordable Internet access of InterRamp. Priced at $219.99 and $99.99 respectively, Modem Blaster 28.8 and 14.4 bundles are currently available from Creative Labs, Inc. The bundle price includes a 7-day free trial period for the InterRamp service. Following the trial period, InterRamp will offer users a rate of $1 an hour for Internet access. PSINet is a leading provider of Internet access and integration services. Internet access options range from modem dialup and ISDN for telecommuters and small office LANs to dedicated high-speed circuits for corporate connectivity. PSINet defines industry standards and leads in technological innovation and new service development. The company has its headquarters in Herndon, Virginia, with sales and field service offices across the US and in Tokyo, Japan. CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY REPORTS THIRD QUARTER RESULTS ================================================= SINGAPORE --May 5, 1995 -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF), the leading provider of multimedia products for personal computers, today announced financial results for the third quarter ended March 31, 1995. Sales for the third quarter of fiscal 1995 were $280.5 million compared with $181.2 million for the same quarter last year. Sales for the nine months ended March 31, 1995, were $931.7 million compared to $477.5 million for the comparable period last year. Net income for the quarter was $11.2 million compared to $28.0 million for the third quarter 1994. Net income for the nine months ended March 31, 1995, was $50.5 million compared to $82.2 million for the corresponding period of the prior year. Earnings per share were $0.13 compared to $0.31 for the third quarter last year. Earnings per share for the nine months ended March 31, 1995 were $0.56 compared to $0.93 for the corresponding period last year. Results for the nine months ended March 31, 1995, included a one-time charge of $7.0 million for the write off of in-process technology due to the acquisition of Digicom Systems, Inc. Excluding this one-time charge, net income and earnings per share for the nine months ended March 31, 1995 would have been $57.5 million or $0.64 per share, respectively. In commenting about Creative's third quarter results, W.H. Sim, chairman and CEO of Creative Technology, made the following statement: "The multimedia market is expanding and making major headway in the OEM PC market. And multimedia technology is further growing to embrace communications technology. We believe Creative is the only company to provide a full spectrum of multimedia communications products that covers modems, audio-telephony and video conferencing products. As a key player in the multimedia marketplace, we plan to expand our line of quad-speed upgrade kits and aggressively move forward into business communications, telephonic computing, interactive gaming and the OEM chipset market." CONTACT INFORMATION ------------------- Theresa Pulido Lisa Kimura Creative Labs, Inc. Copithorne & Bellows (408) 428-6600, ext. 6416 (415) 284-5200, ext. 209 Greg Peverill-Conti Karen Gordon GCI Jennings Copithorne & Bellows (415) 974-6200 (415) 975-2215 Christopher Callendar Theresa Pulido PSINet Creative Labs, Inc. (703) 904-4100 (408) 428-2329 Patrick Verderico, CFO Susan Breshears Creative Labs, Inc. Copithorne & Bellows (408) 428-6600, ext. 6102 (415) 975-2216 Creative Technology Ltd. develops, manufactures and markets a family of sound, video, software and telephony multimedia products for PCs under the B l a ster family name, and the ShareVision line of desktop video conferencing products for Macintoshes and PCs. The company's Sound Blaster sound platform enables PCs to produce high-quality audio for entertainment, educational, music and productivity applications, and has been accepted as the industry standard sound platform for PC-based software. Creative Technology Ltd. was incorporated in 1983 and is based in Singapore. Creative Technology's U.S. subsidiaries include Creative Labs, I n c ., E-mu Systems, Inc., Digicom Systems, Inc. and ShareVision Technology, Inc. Creative also has other subsidiaries in Australia, China, Europe, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The company's stock is traded on Nasdaq under the symbol CREAF and on the Stock Exchange of Singapore. Sound Blaster is a registered trademark and Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse, Sound Blaster Discovery CD, Sound Blaster Multimedia Home, Blaster CD and Blaster are trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd. E-mu is a registered trademark of E-mu Systems, Inc. and ShareVision is a registered trademark of ShareVision Technology, Inc. All other products mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby recognized as such. _____________________________________ > Gallup POLL STR FOCUS! TRENDS OF HOME COMPUTER USERS """""""""""""""""""""" FIRST EPSON HOME TECHNOLOGY POLL BY GALLUP DETAILS TRENDS OF HOME COMPUTER USERS Key Findings: Computing technology recognized as a magnet to family-wide home-based activities; Kids turning to equipment for school projects and entertainment; Home-based users want more power, color printers, CD-ROMs, scanners TORRANCE, Calif., April 17, 1995 -- A new computing poll, commissioned by EPSON from the Gallup Organization, provides valuable insight into the burgeoning home marketplace. The saturation of computer products in the business sector has manufacturers, like EPSON, looking for additional market share from home computer users. Research from the poll reflects home users' computer technology fears and usage patterns. Key findings of the EPSON Home Technology Poll by Gallup indicate that computing technology is recognized as a magnet to family-wide home-based activities, kids are turning to computer equipment for their school projects and entertainment, and home-based users want more powerful computers, color printers, CD-ROMs and scanners. BATTLING OBSOLESCENCE --------------------- According to the poll, personal computing has penetrated over a third of U.S. homes (37 percent). The PC has infiltrated the family's work, play and learning habits. As households allow the PC to become an important tool in their lives, they fear most its becoming obsolete (31 percent). No other issue is as important, although cost runs a close second (27 percent). Those surveyed have owned their equipment for an average of 3.5 years. During ownership, respondents reported they must try to counter obsolescence. Hence, 22 percent of the home users interviewed plan to upgrade their current PC this year, buy another PC for the home (16 percent), or purchase a CD-ROM (12 percent). The most interesting news for printer manufacturers is that 29 percent of homes now operate a dot matrix printer, a machine that represents an opportunity for upgrade. In fact, one-fifth of home users plan to upgrade to a new printer in the next five years. Currently, 30 percent of homes have an ink jet or laser printer. One out of five users have a color-capable printer. HOW IS THE PC BEING USED IN THE HOME? ------------------------------------- The PC in the home serves more than one master; the primary PC user is driven to the keyboard by professional necessity. One-quarter of a primary user's time at the home PC is spent on work brought home from the office. Those aged 35-54 are most likely to work at home. Education and entertainment are also frequent primary applications for the home PC (22.6 percent and 18 percent, respectively). However, these activities are most likely among younger age groups, under 24 years old. Home finance receives less activity, about 13 percent of the PC's primary function. A few characteristics of the primary home PC user emerged from the poll. Males are more frequently the primary user (46 percent), and college graduates perform 50 percent of all home computing. While PC ownership is not exclusive at any income level, homes with an income of $45,000 or more own 60 percent of PCs. The home computer is a shared tool. A third of the time the PC is in use, secondary users are determining its purpose. Of this time, the type of user is equally divided among spouse, children and others in the home. The two most frequent uses by adults are work brought home from the job and entertainment. As expected, children are equally likely to use the PC for education and entertainment. When asked to describe the most creative output, newsletters/ bulletins/flyers/pamphlets and greeting cards are cited most frequently (16 percent). However, specific projects mentioned are quite interesting. These include: Writing novels and other books, creating maps, producing a program for a daughter's wedding, preparing a home automation program, designing a boat, chronicling local history for a nonprofit organization, writing a magazine with color photos, creating artwork, regression analysis on greyhound racing, generating scientific graphics, creating invitations for baby brother's fifth birthday party and preparing an arrangement for an 18-piece jazz band. HOW DOES THE HOME USER GET STARTED AND STAY CURRENT? ---------------------------------------------------- Professional necessity is again a key driver for getting started on a PC. A third of the poll participants started using PCs on the job. Slightly fewer started in school (28 percent), and 26 percent are self-taught or use books or manuals to start. The quality of documentation will continue to be important as users learn independently. Users are relying on the ease of the software or the manuals to reduce complexity for them. One interesting gender difference revealed by the survey was in the way people first learn PC skills. The survey showed the three most common ways to learn are on the job, in school or through self-teaching. Men are most likely to learn through self-teaching, while women are most likely to pick up their first PC skills on the job. Surprisingly, friends and family teach the user only 13 percent of the time. Staying current in this quickly changing software and hardware market is most frequently accomplished by reading books and manuals (26 percent). One-quarter prefer to be self-taught (21 percent) while only 15 percent of education comes via word-of-mouth or other people. HOW DOES THE PC FIT IN THE HOME? -------------------------------- As the PC becomes more integrated into the operation of the household, its size becomes a key buying feature. Sixty-nine percent of owners surveyed say this was important/very important to their purchase decision. Moreover, half of the owners acquired furniture especially designed to accommodate PC equipment. More households have a separate office in which the PC is placed (39 percent). However, 10 percent use it in the master bedroom, 10 percent in the living room and 10 percent in the family room. WHAT DO PEOPLE LIKE ABOUT THEIR PC? ----------------------------------- Overwhelmingly, people like their PC because it saves time (21 percent) and is easy to use (17 percent). These two benefits rate consistently as satisfying all types of users. Those surveyed cited the two most frustrating aspects of using a PC are their own lack of knowledge and their perception that PCs can be hard to use. PC users appear loyal to specific programs. When asked to identify a favorite feature or program, one-fourth easily replied with the name of a their preferred word processing software. This trend confirms the primary user's current goal of job-related work as the basic task of the home PC, with entertainment as a secondary task. WHERE DO PEOPLE GET THEIR PCS ----------------------------- Three-quarters of PCs are new. Ten percent are second-hand, usually from friends or co-workers. Eleven percent are gifts, most frequently given by parents. Computer superstores were the preferred sales source, receiving 23 percent of the new sales. These stores were followed closely by computer electronic stores (17 percent of sales). All others held 8 percent or less market share. METHODOLOGY ----------- The Gallup Organization conducted these telephone interviews during the month of November 1994. This survey is based on 750 respondents who were randomly contacted throughout the United States. The standard error is plus or minus 3.7 percent. EPSON offers an extensive array of high-quality technology products including ink jet, laser and dot matrix printers; scanners; portable and desktop computers; PCMCIA products; and for the OEM market, a variety of component and electronic devices. Founded in 1975, Epson America, Inc. is an affiliate of Seiko Epson Corporation, a global manufacturer and supplier of technology products that meet customer demands for increased functionality, compactness, systems integration and energy efficiency. EPSON AMERICA INC. 20770 Madrona Avenue Torrance, California 90503 310-782-0770 _________________________________ > GOOD NEWS for HAYES! STR FOCUS! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" HAYES TO EXIT CHAPTER 11 BY FALL 100 PERCENT PLAN PAYS CREDITORS IN FULL ATLANTA, GA, 16 May 1995 -- Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. on Monday, 15 May 1995, filed in Federal Bankruptcy Court its Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization which will lead to its exit from Chapter 11 in less than one year from the company's original bankruptcy filing. The plan provides for 100 percent payment of claims to creditors. When the plan is confirmed by the bankruptcy court, Hayes will pay creditors with valid claims the entire amount due within 40 to 60 days. In execution of the plan, Hayes will obtain approximately $60 million in new capital funding to be comprised of a combination of equity investments and new credit facilities. "We are working closely with our financial advisory team at Robinson-Humphrey to procure the funding to complete our plan," said Dennis C. Hayes, Chairman and CEO, Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. "This is great news for our creditors, our customers and our employees who have been a constant source of support." Creditors can contact Hayes by calling the Claims Processing Department at (404)840-9200. Best known as the leader in microcomputer modems, Hayes develops, supplies and supports computer communications equipment and software for personal computers and computer communications networks. The company distributes its products through a global network of authorized distributors, dealers, mass merchants, VARs, systems integrators and original equipment manufacturers. For further information please contact: --------------------------------------- Angela Hooper/Susan Merkel Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. Phone: 404/840-9200 Facsimile: 404/441-1238 ______________________________________________ > MORTIMER STR InfoFile """"""""""""""""""""" LUCASARTS TAKES CHILDREN ON THE FLIGHT OF THEIR LIVES IN MORTIMER AND THE RIDDLES OF THE MEDALLION, THE COMPANY'S FIRST GAME JUST FOR KIDS San Rafael, CA -- The day begins normally enough. Sid and Sally are outside playing with the dog when the pooch chases a calico through a nearby hedge. When neither Scout nor Waffles emerges from the foliage, the kids crawl into the bushes in pursuit. What they find is definitely not the neighbors' backyard. Before them stand Scout and Waffles -- frozen in their tracks! And towering high into the clouds stands a great mushroom -- with a door and windows! So begins the modern day fairy tale of Mortimer and the Riddles of the Medallion, LucasArts Entertainment Company's first game created especially for the early entertainment market. Targeted to the 4-9 age group and appealing to both boys and girls, Mortimer combines action and discovery with a delightful story, marvelous characters and dazzling locales. The game is planned for release in the first quarter of 1996 for the Windows and Macintosh CD-ROM platforms. Once Upon a Time ... -------------------- The evil Lodius has stolen a magical medallion from his former mentor, the kindly Professor Lazlow (proprietor of the giant mushroom). Because its magic was intended only for good deeds, the medallion exploded into pieces that scattered around the world -- but not before Lodius had used the medallion to steal all the power from the animals and turn them into statues. According to Professor Lazlow, there's only one hope if the animals are to be saved. It's up to Sid and Sally and a very special (and very large) snail named Mortimer to unfreeze the animals and find all the pieces of the medallion before Lodius can cause any more trouble. But they have to act quickly, because if the animals aren't freed within 24 hours, they'll remain frozen forever. In the race to save the animals, children choose to be either Sid or Sally. With one piece of the medallion they've already found, they hop into Mortimer's super-charged, deluxe shell of surprises. The first surprise is that Mortimer's shell transforms into a cockpit and players suddenly are able to fly. Entertaining a New Market ------------------------- Because LucasArts is best known for its adult-targeted action and adventure games, on the surface Mortimer may seem like a bit of a departure for the company. But a compelling story with memorable characters and strong gameplay against a backdrop of stunning high-resolution graphics and engaging sound and music makes Mortimer a logical extension of the proven LucasArts' magic. "Most people know LucasArts because of its award-winning games like Rebel Assault and Sam & Max Hit the Road," said LucasArts President, Jack Sorensen. "Over the years, however, LucasArts has developed critically acclaimed educational multimedia programs for schools with partners like the National Geographic Society and the National Audubon Society. Additionally, George Lucas is very committed to enhancing the lives of children through technology. Based on this heritage, it's a natural that LucasArts enter the early entertainment market." A "Know"ble Deed ---------------- "I've always wanted to develop a game that lets children have lots of fun and secretly teaches them something along the way," said Mortimer Project Leader Collette Michaud. "In Mortimer, children discover all sorts of facts about a variety of animals, while actually flying through different environments." Sid, Sally and Mortimer's task is to travel to different areas of the world and free the animals that have been turned into statues. Players fly through several locales, including the icy arctic, the wide savanna, the harsh desert and the wooded Timberland, in search of frozen animals. As players zip around clouds and over mountains and tree tops, they must free the animals by zapping them back to life with the patented "Revitascope." When an animal is saved, information about it is recorded in Mortimer's cockpit computer. After saving the animals in one area, Mortimer finds a gate that guards the next locale. To pass, players must solve a riddle, the answer to which is the name of an animal that has been freed. When players solve the riddle they get a shiny new piece of the medallion, bringing them one step closer to their goal. To help players solve the riddle, they can use the cockpit computer to see and "talk" to the animals they've saved. All the animals -- each with its distinct and humorous personality -- will answer the questions, "What are you?," "How are you special?" and "Why are you unusual?" The answers will provide children with a variety of interesting facts about the animals. Along the way, players encounter Lodius' minions -- salt shaker hornets, whoppin' poppers that spray popcorn and beasty bags that toss potato chips -- who try to slow Mortimer down with a snail's worst enemy: salt. Acting quickly, Mortimer can slime these no-gooders. Once players have freed all the animals, solved all the riddles and gathered all the pieces of the medallion, they must face Lodius himself in the final confrontation. The Making of Mortimer ---------------------- Giving players the ability to fly is one of the features that makes Mortimer so exciting. Based on LucasArts' celebrated Rebel Assault engine, Mortimer's flight component lets children zoom through a virtual world where not even the sky seems to be the limit. All of the game's environments are rendered in 3-D. The stunning results are fantastical worlds imbued with depth, light and shadows. Mortimer, too, often is depicted in 3-D, allowing for just the right roundness in his shell and perfect amount of twinkle in his antennaed eyes. The 3-D graphics are complimented by feature film-quality, high-resolution 2-D animation. During interviews, children interact with anthropomorphic cartoon animals and get to view live-action video footage of the animals in their natural habitats. Professional actors provide the voices of all of the characters in Mortimer, and the game features an all-digital, completely original soundtrack performed by children's songsters, The Bungee Jumpin' Cows. A Flying Snail? --------------- "Ever since I was five years old, I've fantasized about flying," said Collette. "I think it's an ability every child wishes for at one time or another. We may not be able to supply the wings, but Mortimer is the next best thing." So, the big question is, why a giant snail as the main character? "When I was younger, I was always fascinated with snails and their shells and the endless mysteries the shell seemed to hold," said Collette. "With all the possibilities a shell offered for weird stuff popping out, like wings and propellers, Mortimer couldn't be anything but a snail." About LucasArts --------------- LucasArts Entertainment Company develops and publishes interactive entertainment and educational software. LucasArts is one of three Lucas companies. Lucas Digital Ltd., comprised of Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, is dedicated to serving the needs of the entertainment industry for visual effects and audio post-production. Lucasfilm Ltd. includes George Lucas' feature film and television activities, as well as the business activities of the THX Group and Licensing. Mortimer Development Team ------------------------- Project Leader, Co-designer Collette Michaud Production Manager, Co-designer Casey Donahue Ackley Lead Programmer, Co-designer Gwen Musengwa Character Designer, Co-designer Steve Purcell Lead Technical Programmer Pat McCarthy Lead Artist Peter Chan Lead 3-D Artist Scott Baker __________________________________ > For a "Chuckle or Two" STR Feature """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Suppose Edgar Allan Poe Had used a Computer: -------------------------------------------- Author Unknown Once upon a midnight dreary, fingers cramped and vision bleary, System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor, Longing for the warmth of bedsheets: Still I sat there, doing spreadsheets: Having reached the bottom line, I took a floppy from the drawer. Typing with a steady hand, I then invoked the save command But got instead a reprimand: it read Abort, Retry, Ignore Was this some occult illusion? Some maniacal intrusion? These were choices Solomon himself had never faced before. Carefully, I weighed the options. These three ones seemed to be the top ones. Clearly, I must now adopt one: Choose Abort, Retry, Ignore.. With my fingers pale and trembling Slowly toward the keyboard bending, Longing for a happy ending, hoping all would be restored, Praying for some guarantee Finally I pressed a key --- But on the screen what did I see? Again: Abort, Retry, Ignore. I tried to catch the chips off-guard ---- I pressed again, but twice as hard Luck was just not in the cards. I saw what I had seen before. Now I typed in desperation Typing random combinations Still there came the incarnation: Choose: Abort, Retry, Ignore There I sat, distraught, exhausted by my own machine accosted Getting up I turned away and paced across the office floor, And then I saw an awful sight: A bold and blinding flash of light--- A lightning bolt had cut the night and shook me to my core I saw the screen collapse and die: No! No!, my database I cried I thought I heard a voice reply, You'll see your data NEVERMORE! To this day I do not know The place which lost data goes I bet it goes to heaven where the angles have it stored. But as far as productivity, well I fear that it goes straight to hell And that's the tale I have to tell Your Choice: Abort, Retry, Ignore _______________________________________ > TIE FIGHTER STR InfoFile """""""""""""""""""""""" TIE FIGHTER COLLECTOR'S CD-ROM BRINGS THE DARK SIDE TO CD LucasArts Title Features Dramatic New Campaign and Enhanced Versions of TIE Fighterª and Defender of the Empire San Rafael, CA -- The dark side of the STAR WARS universe just became much more powerful with the addition of TIE Fighter Collector's CD-ROM, scheduled to release from LucasArts Entertainment Company in the fall of 1995. Originally available for floppy disk, TIE Fighter CD includes significantly enhanced versions of the original disk-based games, TIE Fighter, and its first add-on campaign, Defender of the Empire, as well as a challenging new campaign. Improvements include upgraded graphics, enhanced sound and more than 5,000 lines of studio-recorded dialogue. TIE Fighter marked the first time in the history of the STAR WARS saga that the conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the Imperial Navy is portrayed from the perspective of the Empire. TIE Fighter CD's new campaign, available exclusively in the CD-ROM version, features 22 new missions, raising the total number of missions to 104. The new campaign includes three battles and four dramatic cut scenes. As in the floppy disk version, TIE Fighter CD charges players to restore and enforce Imperial rule and defeat the Rebel insurgence. Players assume the role of a new Imperial Navy Academy recruit and put their lives on the line to realize Emperor Palpatine's mandate: Restore law and order to the galaxy. Similar in format to X-Wing, the game challenges new pilots to refine their skills in training courses and historical combat before engaging in a series of battles. The complex and engaging plot serves as a backdrop for the battles, delivering a simulation rich in story. Enhanced Graphics and Sound --------------------------- Created by the same team that was responsible for the development of X-Wing, TIE Fighter CD enhances the game's graphics by adding an upgraded 3-D opening and four new 3-D rendered cinematic cut scenes. High-resolution graphics and animated special effects are featured in each of the game's flight combat sections as well as in the new cockpit art for the seven different crafts player's pilot. "As with X-Wing Collector's CD, we felt there were many similar things that we could do with TIE Fighter that would take advantage of the CD-ROM format," said designer Lawrence Holland. "The CD technology gives us an opportunity to greatly improve the game's original sound and graphics and to add features that will enliven the overall experience for fans of STAR WARS games." In addition to the improved graphics, TIE Fighter CD features digitally mastered studio-recorded voices and sound effects. Newly recorded mission briefings and in-flight messages are included in the title as well. As with the disk-based version of the game, TIE Fighter CD features LucasArts' proprietary iMUSE sound system. iMUSE (Interactive Music and Sound Effects) composes music "on the fly" in response to the many choices available to players. TIE Fighter CD requires a 386 cpu or higher and 1 meg EMS to run low- resolution graphics. For high-resolution graphics, a 486 cpu with a local bus video card or a Pentium with 8 megs of RAM is required. A double-speed CD-ROM drive is recommended for optimum performance. About LucasArts --------------- L u casArts Entertainment Company develops and publishes interactive entertainment and educational software. LucasArts is one of three Lucas companies. Lucas Digital Ltd., comprised of Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound, is dedicated to serving the needs of the entertainment industry for visual effects and audio post-production. LucasFilm Ltd. includes George Lucas' feature film and television activities, as well as the business activities of the THX Group and Licensing. ********************************************************************** ATARI/JAG SECTION (III) ======================= Dana Jacobson, Editor > From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""""""""" It's been rumored for a few months that one of the last surviving Atari magazines, Current Notes, was to cease publication after the May/June issue (out this week). As of this writing, I haven't received my copy yet, but there have been some online comments regarding this prospect. The bottom line is that Current Notes will be continuing, but not under the leadership of Joe Waters. Joe has decided, for a number of personal reasons, to call it quits. Joe, reportedly, offers an explanation in his final editorial. His successor will be Howard Carson, probably best known for his leadership of the TAF Atari shows held in Toronto. I've been a reader of Current Notes as far back as I can remember. I remember it as one of a couple Atari magazines that was not one of those typical "glossies", but a magazine written by and for the typical Atari user. It started out, like a number of Atari magazines, as a user group newsletter which continued to grow and eventually became a commercial venture. However, through the years, it maintained its grassroots philosophy. Current Notes was one of the few Atari magazines that I read cover to cover, except for the 8-bit material which held no interest for me since I had never owned one. People like J.D. Barnes, Frank Sommers, Dave Troy, Dave Small, Andrej Wrotniak, and others made using an Atari computer enjoyable. I still remember the first time that I met J.D. Barnes at a WAACE show - this was the "Junkyard Pussycat"???? Hardly... But John was one of the nicest people that I had ever met at WAACE and from Current Notes. So was Joe Waters and the rest of the staff. I think that the final WAACE show was truly the end of an era. I also feel that, perhaps, that last show disheartened Joe a lot; and perhaps the enthusiasm for Current Notes started to wane from that point on. Regardless, Joe and his wife Joyce, along with the present and past staff at Current Notes deserve only the best heartfelt praise for the work that they've done over the past years. I am glad to have known many of the staff, past and present. I'm also glad that I was able to be a part of Current Notes, having had a few reviews and articles appear in the magazine over the years. Many articles and news bits from STReport have appeared in the magazine over the years; and I can still remember being the impetus for one of JD's columns one month, regarding a message that I had written on Delphi dealing with clip-art sources from Dover Books. I also fondly remember a number of phone conversations with JD over the years regarding the Atari market, WAACE, Current Notes, STReport, and a host of other topics. I even got the opportunity to visit the Pussycat's Junkyard one year while attending the final WAACE show - it was appropriately named (and I mean that in a nice way!). We've lost a lot of great friends over the years from Current Notes. We've also gained a lot of new ones. I wish all the best to Howard for the future. I know that I'll continue to read Current Notes until the day comes when it won't be available any longer. I hope that that day doesn't arrive for many years to come! To Joe Waters - thanks for all of your dedication over the years. You will be missed. You've certainly earned a place in the Atari community's hall of fame. Until next time... ___________________________________________ Delphi's Atari Advantage! TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (5/24/95) (1) SPEED OF LIGHT 3.8 *(6) SEAWOLF ARCADE GAME (2) NISHIRAN! *(7) COLD HARD CACHE V4 (3) SILKBOOT 3 *(8) DR. BOB'S ICON DRAW 1.42 (4) LITTLENET/MIDI PORT NETWORK *(9) PSST! 1.0 *(5) ATARI COMMUNITY E-MAIL LIST *(10) FLASH II 2.22 DEMO * = New on list HONORARY TOP 10 The following on-line magazines are always top downloads, frequently out-performing every other file in the databases. STREPORT (Current issue: STREPORT 11.20) ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE (Current issue: AEO: VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4) Look for the above files in the RECENT ARRIVALS database. __________________________________ -/- Microsoft Drops Intuit Deal -/- Blaming a protracted legal fight needed to overcome U.S. Justice Department antitrust objections, Microsoft Corp has cancelled plans to buy financial software publisher Intuit Inc. for $2 billion, an all-stock deal announced last October. Microsoft officials are quoted by Martin Wolk of the Reuter News Service as saying a trial of the suit, followed by a possible appeal, could have prevented the company from completing the acquisition of Intuit until 1996. In a statement from his Redmond, Washington, offices, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said, "It's unfortunate that after such a broad government review the merger faced additional months of uncertainty in the courts. Progress towards realizing our goals could not wait until the government's lawsuit was resolved. It's time for Microsoft to put this matter behind us and move ahead." Meanwhile, Intuit Chairman Scott Cook said he was disappointed Microsoft had chosen not to continue fighting the suit, which he was convinced the two companies could have won. But he said Intuit is well-positioned to forge ahead as an independent company. Said Cook, "We saw the Microsoft opportunity as a really unique one. We don't see anything else out there like that. ... We have no interest -- none, zero, zip -- in a merger." At the Justice Department, antitrust chief Anne Bingaman told the wire service the government had been prepared to move quickly on evidence the merger would have been anti-competitive and harmful to consumers. As reported, the Justice Department sued to block the merger, saying Microsoft's acquisition of Intuit, maker of the market-leading Quicken program, would have given the software giant an unfair springboard into the emerging market in electronic commerce. In ending the deal, Microsoft says it has agreed to pay Intuit a merger termination fee of $46.25 million. Cook said that will more than offset the $4 million in legal and other expenses his Menlo Park, California, company has incurred. He declined comment on any potential future partnership between the two companies, but emphasized they were likely to be vigorous competitors. And he said he was happy that no confidential information had changed hands between the two companies during the months that the merger was pending. Wolk comments, "The termination of the merger agreement will mean renewed competition in the rapidly growing world of online banking and electronic commerce, with Microsoft sure to reinvigorate its efforts to turn its third-ranked Money personal-finance software package into a meaningful rival for Quicken." In a conference call with reporters and analysts, Gates said, "You'll see us not only in the personal finance but also in many other aspects pursuing the electronic commerce opportunity vigorously." Reuters notes analysts have said Microsoft would not be badly hurt if the merger fell through, but Intuit would have given the company a valuable "front end" application for its forthcoming Microsoft Network online service. -/- Comedy Central to Join CompuServe -/- You'll soon be able to get your comedy fix online when Comedy Central launches a new online area and forum on CompuServe early this summer, reports PRNewswire. In addition to being able to create your own cheap-but-not-tawdry laughs, the electronic version of Comedy Central will provide access to the cable network's hilarious programming library, talent, and exclusive comedy material. Skip the usual two drink minimum and use your PC to enjoy both aspiring and famous comics' material, create and exchange jokes with other viewers and comedian-wanabees, "interview" celebrities via conferencing, participate in polls that appear in Comedy Central programs, watch and/or download video clips of comedy acts, and preview the network's programming and scheduling information. In addition to the usual online features, Comedy Central will break ground online by enabling CompuServe members to create content, giving closet comedians a chance to strut their stuff. Also, by letting members access local comedy entertainment or information on their favorite stars, Comedy Central has created the very first cyber comedy club. Comedy Central, currently seen in more than 35 million U.S. homes, features more than 60 percent original programming, including the British smash hit "Absolutely Fabulous," the Peabody Award-winning "Mystery Science Theater 3000," and the CableACE Award-winning "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher." Comedy stars from the past, present, and future form an eclectic mix of original programming, stand-up comedy, sketch comedy, classic TV shows, and movies. -/- Rolling Stone Launches News Service -/- Rolling Stone magazine announced today it will launch a music news service on CompuServe this summer. The Associated Press reports that the publication will offer entertainment and political news, along with photos and music reviews with audio clips, although it does not plan to distribute the contents of its magazine electronically. "There are a multitude of things we will do that cannot be presented on a magazine page," said Bob Love, a senior editor of the magazine who will oversee the online service. "Our mission is to make the online editorial as innovative and dynamic as the magazine's." _____________________________________ JAGUAR SECTION ============== More E3 Reports! CatNips! VR Specs! And more! > From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is! """""""""""""""""""""""""""" I have to admit that I'm one of those Atari users who run hot and cold regarding current events, specifically with the Jaguar and its current "state of affairs." There are times when I feel that the company has finally got its "schtick" together; and at other times, I can't help but wonder what's going on in Sunnyvale. One of the press releases from/during the recent E3 show put me back into the "what's going on" mood. It was the one that pertained to the "nearly 100 titles...by the end of the year." That statement, apparently coming from Sam Tramiel, just struck a nerve with me, reminiscent of his 30-50 games by Christmas that he made last year, and was nowhere close to the mark. Here's the relevant portion of the press release, just to refresh your memories: SUNNYVALE, CA (May 11, 1995) -- Atari Corporation announces that there will be nearly 100 titles for its 64-bit Jaguar entertainment system by the end of the year. "We will have every kind of game that players want, from the best developers and publishers in the world," comments Atari President Sam Tramiel. I can rationalize a number of reasons for the above statements. Firstly, it was done at/for the E3 community - a show to attract and woo the dealers, developers, and game publishers. This statement certainly sounds more attractive than one claiming 50 games by years end. However, it's still only a figure. How realistic is it? Well, after last year's 30-50 games prediction which fell like a lead weight, I'm not too sure how realistic this nearly 100 games prediction really is. Just how well, or poorly, did the public react to this press release? I haven't seen any reaction from those who participated at the show. But, having heard many stories of how some dealers and stores are currently reacting about the Jaguar in general, especially now that the Saturn has arrived on the scene, I have to wonder how they might feel. I do know that the online community is shocked to read such a statement. Granted, the online community is only a small percentage of past, present, and potential customers; but I feel that they are some of the most knowledgeable. These are the people who are apt to spread the word about the Jaguar and its potential. They are also the same ones who could dissuade potential customers as a result of their experiences. Has Atari heard the story about the boy who cried wolf?, I read an online user's message asking the other day? Atari has been making too many firm predictions that have gone totally awry the past year and a half. I don't fault Atari for making predictions like these. I want them to continue to do so. However, I want them to make them and also make sure that enough of them are fulfilled so the customer base remains positive. I don't expect Atari, or any company for that matter, to be able to manage every single prediction. There are so many variables in the video games business that could go wrong; a realistic person knows this and can accept the fact that something can occur to delay a game and miss a release date. Atari has to come through on a good many of its predictions, however. Otherwise, no one is ever going to believe what's coming out of the home office. So, where do we stand with regard to these 100 games? Well, as of this writing, there are 24 games available. Looking over the brochure from E3 which lists the existing game titles and the current schedule of upcoming games, Atari is going to fall short of their 100. According to this schedule, there are 54 titles names, starting with Pinball Fantasies in June and ending with NBA Jam TE, in December. Adding these two figures, I come up with 78 games by year's end. Will there be any titles coming out that Atari isn't aware of at the moment? Possibly, but certainly not more than a few. Will Atari have 100 game titles on the shelf by year's end? I seriously doubt it, but it's certainly not impossible. With their past track record, I think that Atari is going to be hard-pressed to have 50 titles available by the end of the year. I'll be happy if they have 50 titles available; I'll be in heaven if they have close to 100! But, having the games available isn't necessarily going to be the end-all satisfaction for me personally. What will make me feel even better is knowing that these games will be available nationwide, not just in a selected few target areas. They also have to be available in many outlets. There also has to be some marketing campaign to get Atari back on the map where it belongs. Make people positively aware of Atari and the Jaguar! Is this happening? Well, I do know that there will be a "campaign" to learn what's going on in the marketplace. There will be a survey going out (I'm not sure if this is a public survey, or just a media-related one) to see what's happening at the TRUs. I also know that the Jaguar will be featured in an upcoming Sears catalog. I'm sure that there are other plans being staged, as well. So, if I might make a suggestion for Atari and its future statements: be realistic, be honest (not that I believe that they are being deliberately misleading), and follow through. In doing so, you'll regain and maintain credibility and support, even when there's the occasional setback. Enough of my soapbox antics for one week. Let me know how you feel about this topic, or any other comments that you might have. By the way, we're still organizing your Jaguar-CD comments. As soon as we have the numbers and comments put together, we'll make them available to you (and Atari). 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 Sensible Soccer Telegames Double Dragon V $59.99 Williams J9009E Hover Strike $59.99 Atari Corp. Available Soon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER Pinball Fantasies $ 59.95 Computer West Super Burnout TBD Atari Air Cars TBD MidNite Entertainment Fight For Life TBD Atari Flashback TBD U.S. Gold Power Drive Rally TBD TWI Rayman TBD UBI Soft Ultra Vortex TBD Atari White Men Can't Jump TBD 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 CatBox $69.95 ICD > Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Jaguar Virtual Reality - VR Headset Official Specs """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Head Mounted Display (HMD): Less than 1 pound. Two degrees of freedom (DOF) tracking, stereo sound, and 52 degree horizontal by 40 degree vertical field of view. Uses a single 0.7" TFT active matrix color LCD containing 104,000 pixels. Optical System: Custom-designed pupil projection with aspheric acrylic lenses, beam splitters, mirrors and thin film coatings. Large exit pupil size of 5mm x 14mm. Can be used by anyone with an interpupilliary distance between 45mm and 70mm. Focus Adjustment: There is no need for focus adjustment because the optical system is highly tolerant, projecting a binocular image, aligned to infinity to both eyes. Tracking Systems: "V-Trak" is the fastest tracker ever developed for the consumer market, with a sample rate of 250Hz and a lagtime of only 4 milliseconds. Optional Joystick: Offers two of six degrees of freedom, allowing greater control over movements in the virtual world. Jaguar VR games can also be played with the standard Jaguar controller. Docking Station: Houses "V-Trak" position sensing system, a joystick interface and high speed communications link to the Jaguar for transferring audio and visual tracking data. Atari has been in the video game business for over twenty years. Today, Atari markets Jaguar, the only American made, advanced 64-Bit entertainment system. Atari Corporation is located in Sunnyvale, CA. ### > Jaguar Online STR InfoFile Online Users Growl & Purr! """""""""""""""""""""""""" CATnips... Jaguar tidbits from Don Thomas """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" =================== E3: Supplemental... =================== Soon after I finished my review of the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), I remembered other great things and people related to the show. For an overview of E3, see my CATnips from last evening. I think some of these other items are big news so I want to pass them on. For those of you looking for a dedicated Jaguar magazine, it's coming. _The Jaguar's Edge_ will premier as a bi-monthly in July. I met the publisher, John Marcotte, at E3 and he shared with me some of his exciting plans as well as some layouts. The first issues will be 32 pages and printed on high-gloss stock. Distribution will be direct to the home through the mail and Toad Computers and Steve's Software will have copies as soon as they are rolled off the presses. John tells me that Pat Solomon from the Des Moines Register will become the Features Editor. In addition, Christian Svensson will be a feature writer. Other surprises are pending formal announcement. Early subscribers of _The Jaguar's Edge_ will find a $20 discount coupon on Telegames' "Brutal Sports Football" or "International Sensible Soccer" as a bonus. A one year subscription is just $15. For more information, contact the publisher through the internet: . Dave and Jennifer Troy stopped by at E3 and gave me fresh copies of their new color catalog. I like their catalog because it does an exceptional job to describe each item in terms I can understand. I also like it because they sell a lot of nifty Jaguar stuff as well as virtually anything for the Atari computer lines. The cover price of the catalog is $3, but I'll bet they can include one with most purchases. For information, call 410/544-6943. Speaking of dealers stopping by, Steve's Software customers will be happy to know that Steve Kipker made his rounds at E3 too. Steve was anxious to get the stories behind all the new upcoming releases so he could share the news with his customers. For Steve's latest catalog, call 904/762-8370. Terry Grantham and Pete Mortimer, of Telegames, were at the show. They were showing off their newest Jaguar titles in the Atari booth and talking about their upcoming release schedule. John Skruch reminded me this morning that he also left E3 a little early on Thursday and Friday evenings to visit retailers and offer demos to customers. As a matter of fact, he took the Thea Relm Fighters along with him. On Thursday, John visited the Virgin Megastore in Hollywood. One young birthday boy changed his mind from a CDi after John pointed out the advantages of the Jaguar 64-bit system. The event was so crowded and successful that over 70 T-Shirts were given away in about 5 minutes. On Friday, May 12th, John took the TRF team to the Electronics Boutique in Lakewood. At both locations, John managed to "borrow" "Defender 2000" and "Thea Relm Fighter" flash ram carts direct off the E3 floor to show off to customers. He tells me "Val D'Isere Skiing and Snowboarding" and "Doom" were favorites among the titles he had to show that were already out for the Jaguar. ============= Other news... ============= B&C Computers tells me they have "Krazy Ace Golf" now in stock for the Lynx. The price is $39.95. Their phone number is 408/986-9960. Intelligent Gamer E3 Report: Atari Brings Out a New Arsenal by Brian Osserman Atari's Jaguar VR The VR helmet was clearly what Atari considered its big gun for E3: they had two Virtuality displays placed in prominent positions at the front of the booth, displays which were actually Virtuality's arcade hardware (PCs using Virtuality head-mounter displays and handle controllers) for a game called Zone Hunter. In Zone Hunter, you are in a 3-D polygon world and essentially moving through corridors (you can control speed of motion, but not direction) and shooting at enemies as they appear. Virtuality's hand controller -- with tracked motion and a button -- works nicely for aiming a gun, and the head-tracking and realistic aiming make up somewhat for the lack of interactivity. Although the demo was on Virtuality hardware and not shown for the Jaguar, Zone Hunter is being developed for the Jag VR system by Virtuality. But more interesting was a display of an early Jag VR prototype, which was open only to select members of the retail world and the press. Although it was a pretty early prototype, it was very functional, with the only major problem being a lack of proper eye focusing -- this will be remedied on production models. Additionally, the infrared tracking system means your head has only about 100 degrees in which to move left and right. Finally, the system is designed for use while sitting, and does not allow the user to walk around while using it (hence, game motion has to use a controller). That's it for the limitations. How is Atari planning to put out high quality VR headgear for $300? They have opted for monoscopic vision, which allows for the use of a single screen, with the view spliced into two eye views, each eye focused at infinity. Using one high-quality screen rather than two low-quality screens will decrease the cost and keep the resolution high (about 400 by 260), and simultaneously allow for very high quality head-tracking (over 200 Hz). So, what's the point of Virtual Reality without 3-D vision? Well, it is still much more immersive, taking up your entire view, allowing head-tracking, and providing quality surround sound. Moreover, the game on display showed another, totally unexpected advantage of using the VR helmet: the headtracking is almost as stable as a mouse for aiming. The game on display was VR Missile Command -- aka Missile Command 3-D or Missile Command 2000. MC takes place in a 3-D polygon world in which your perspective is from a ground-level gun-base assigned to defend other bases and cities around it from missile attacks. The game allows you to control three different guns, each 120 degrees apart, for proper manipulation of the 360 degree world around you. Using the standard Jaguar controller with left and right on the pad switching between guns, and the buttons for firing, an aiming rectangle is fixed in the center of the screen, and you aim by moving your head to put incoming missiles in the center of the rectangle before shooting them down. Despite the lack of ocular focus and early stage of the game's development, this was a lot of fun to play, and aiming with your head turns out to be a real blast. Roughly a year ago, before Atari had finalized plans for the VR headset, they had some concerns about liability; if a customer fell and hurt themselves while walking around, they could potentially sue for large amounts of money. Clearly, restricting use of the headset to sitting will greatly diminish the risk, and the press release mentioned an automatic lockout device that ensured the user stayed seated by turning off the visuals when the user stands up. In talking with Atari's Bill Rehbock, it was explained to IG Online that, even more crucially, Virtuality has conducted a tremendous amount of testing and research on safety, and unlike other VR companies, was willing to show Atari the full results of the study. The studies made Atari much more comfortable with the idea of releasing a HMD, and subsequently made their decision of who to contract out the VR development to much easier. When asked about whether or not the VR headset is still on track for a Christmas release, Mr. Rehbock responded that Atari would be lucky to have it out by Christmas with both Zone Hunter and Missile Command ready, but he also stressed that he feels that if anyone can do it, Virtuality can. He emphasized that they have only been working on the prototypes and Missile Command demo for a couple months, and have done a tremendous amount in that time. Virtuality is, in fact, developing both Missile Command and Zone Hunter themselves. Are Atari or any third parties were working on games which utilize the Jaguar VR setup? Mr. Rehbock said that Atari is working on some titles which have yet to be announced, and are heavily recruiting third parties to develop for the VR setup, though as of yet there is nothing to announce. Finally, Mr. Rehbock said that Atari is aiming to release the VR helmet with the head-tracking device for about $300, with one or two pack-in games. A Virtuality rep also added that the hand controller used for Zone Hunter would probably not be included in the package, and we were told that multiple head-trackers can be linked to increase the units' tracking ability to a full 6 degrees of freedom. Strategies for Success Mr. Rehbock also spent some time discussing Atari's strategies to become more successful in 1995. Strategies under development include new outlooks both in their position in the market and their pursuit of third-party developers, a subject Mr. Rehbock is in a particularly good position to discuss: in addition to his other tasks, he has been in charge of pursuing and signing on third party developers. First, Mr. Rehbock mentioned that Atari is taking a two-pronged approach to dealing with the lack of third-party support. First, they have stepped up efforts to produce quality in-house titles, with Hover Strike being one of the first products of this policy. Secondly, Atari is focusing on licensing software titles from third parties to develop in-house. This holds two major advantages; the third parties hold no risk, so are more likely to sign a contract, and the profit potential for Atari is much higher. When asked about third party announcements, Mr. Rehbock said that some major contracts were in the works and will hopefully be announced within the next couple weeks. When asked specifically about Electronic Arts and the deal rumored to have occurred at ECTS, he said that the reason there has been no press release is that the deal has not quite been finalized; the exact games it will involve have not been completely decided. He also said that he is actively pursuing a contract to get Descent for the Jaguar. Mr. Rehbock also discussed Atari's philosophy in dealing with the newer systems from Sony and Sega: admitting they were more powerful, he said that Atari will attempt to maximize the price difference by keeping the core Jaguar system as well-supported and competitive as possible. Major games will continue to be released for the system in the hopes that consumers will compare the core Jaguar and its price the other systems on the market, rather than comparing the Jaguar + CD and their price to the same systems. To strengthen this approach, Atari is hoping to eventually be able to lower the price of the core Jaguar system to $99, and plans for an integrated CD and Jaguar combined unit have now been dropped. He also stressed that the Jaguar will offer as much flexibility as possible; while allowing consumers to get a serious base console cheaply, it will also allow them to pick and choose between peripherals like the CD player, VR helmet, and Voice Modem, all of which will function independently of one another. He hopes that this philosophy can bring the Jaguar into the mainstream to stay. Additionally, Mr. Rehbock asked that IG Online mention that Atari is actively looking to hire new staff in every facet of game development, and anyone interested in working as a programmer, producer, artist, etc. should contact them immediately. The Jaguar Control Pad 2 Another prototype of a new Jaguar accessory on display was the 8-button control pad. With a shape similar to the current Jaguar controllers, the most obvious difference in the new pad is the addition of three extra buttons, somewhat smaller and taller, above the old ABC buttons. These buttons seemed to map to 789 on the keypad, but it wasn't entirely apparent if this was the case -- also added were left and right triggers along the top, much like those on the Super Nintendo joypad, which were mapped from the 4 and 6 keys. The basic idea of the configuration is to give maximum support to six-button fighting games, while allowing more complex games to keep all the buttons relatively easily accessible in the triggers, buttons, and the 1235 keys. The only other obvious utilitarian difference is a slightly different control pad, which curves up around the thumb, favoring quick, precise movements. Such improvements seemed to improve every sort of motion except quick movement across the pad, which has now become a little more difficult than was the case with the original model. Bill Rehbock added that essentially all the aspects of the controller but the control pad itself have been finalized; they are aware of the joypad's problem in moving left to right and down to up, and are looking for a way to fix it. He expects the new controller to ship in July, with a price as close to $25 as possible. The Jaguar Phylon Voice/Dat Modem A Jaguar peripheral conspicuous in its absence was the Voice Modem, which was originally slated to be finished in time to incorporate into Doom last year, and has disappeared from discussion as of recently. Mr. Rehbock claimed that the final model should be going to developers within a couple weeks, and that the majority of the delay was in making sure that the modem and headset with microphone were simple and robust enough to be used by the average mass market consumer. IG Online inquired whether all of the previously announced features (comes with headset and mike, error detection, and call waiting) were still incorporated, and he confirmed that they are. He also added that a new feature has been added: the modem can handle speaking either through digital or analog means, such that the modem can automatically switch between the use of a telephone or the headset for voice transmissions. Mr. Rehbock also said that the Voice Modem will probably be a Christmas product, noting that the only game well into development with definite plans to use the Voice Modem is 4-Play's Battlesphere. Jaguar CD Finally, the impending release of the Jag CD unit was very clear at the Atari booth; there were 13 Jaguar CD titles in progress on display, many of them substantially through development. Atari is clearly quite committed to making sure that there are a reasonable number of titles ready for the release of the CD, having delayed it yet again to August, and promising there will be at least 5 games ready for release by that time. At this point, Atari's plans for the CD, although not yet definite, are to sell the $150 package with Jeff Minter's Virtual Light Machine built in (this is definite) and include Vid Grid, the Tempest 2000 soundtrack, and another pack-in game with the package. The last game has yet to be decided, but an Atari representative said that Atari wants to be sure to choose something with wide appeal. The obvious first question about the Jag CD is "what games will be available this year and when will we see them?" Mr. Rehbock divided these titles into three waves: those that should be available on or about the roll-out of the drive in August, those that should be out two weeks to a month later, and those which should arrive by the end of the year. Although he admitted to having missed a few, he broke them down as follows: First batch: Defender 2000, Battlemorph, Blue Lightning, Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, Myst, Vid Grid, and Highlander, although Defender 2000 might well fall into the second batch. The rest of the second batch was: Demolition Man, Creature Shock, Robinson's Requiem, and Starlight Bowlarama, with Brain Dead 13, an animated game developed entirely by Readysoft, coming at the end of the second batch or the beginning of the third. The final batch consisted of: Varuna's Forces, Black Ice/White Noise, and possibly a couple other titles. With titles such as Soulstar, Brett Hull Hockey, Primal Rage, and Thea Relm Fighters not on this list, Atari is looking to have 15-20 titles available for the Jag CD by the end of the year. With the Jaguar CD comes the question of memory cartridges. Mr. Rehbock explained that they are still playing with specifications, but are currently looking at a 128K cart to be sold separately at a price of as close to $20 as possible. He noted that even a large, complicated game should not need more than 32K per saved game, and most games require significantly less than that. Software The Atari booth at E3 featured roughly 30 games in progress, along with a handful of games already available. Released game which were shown were: Tempest 2000, Brutal Sports Football, Alien vs. Predator, 2 Dooms networked together (apparently without errors), Iron Soldier, Val D'Isere Skiing, and Hover Strike. The following cartridge games in progress were displayed, roughly in order of projected release date: Ultra Vortex, Pinball Fantasies, Rayman, Air Cars, Burnout, White Men Can't Jump, Power Drive Rally, Flashback, Ruiner*, Flip Out*, Skyhammer*, Fight For Life, Baldies*, Hover Hunter, Battlesphere, and Deathwatch*. The following CD games in progress were displayed, arranged similarly: Blue Lightning, Dragon's Lair, Vid Grid, Highlander, Battlemorph, Myst, Brett Hull Hockey*, Soulstar*, Defender 2000, Creature Shock, Varuna's Forces, Primal Rage, and Thea Relm Fighters. (The projected release dates of the games marked with "*" are guessed based on the level of completion of the demos displayed.) Additionally, the JagCD's Virtual Light Machine was on display, as was a Virtuality VR demo of Zone Hunter, a game which they will be developing for the Jag VR helmet, and Missile Command 3-D/VR/2000 inside an Atari conference room. The top games on display were undoubtedly Defender 2000, Hover Hunter, Battlesphere, and Rayman. Defender 2000 is Jeff Minter's re-make of the classic arcade shooter Defender, and was quite impressive though only the Defender Classic and Defender Plus modes were playing. Classic mode was just like the original arcade game, except for the constant 60 fps and option to configure the control pad to control acceleration and deceleration. Plus mode added new rendered bitmaps of the enemies, along with two very nice graphical effects: the mountains had an undulating brightly-colored pattern on them, and the lower portion of the sky was dominated by a beautiful aurora-type effect. Like Classic, Pulse mode was running at a steady 60 fps, and Jeff Minter is confident he will manage to keep the 2000 mode at the same framerate. Play-wise, the Plus version adds Lightning Lasers and 2 AI droids, both of which function to kill enemies and pick up falling humans and bring them back to your ship. The controls were incredibly responsive, and combined with the high framerate gave an almost surreal feel to the demo being shown. Aesthetically, there were a few peculiarities: the boundaries of the mountains were still a solid straight line, which looked a little out of place, and the star field was single color (although the color did cycle) and scrolled flatly upward. However, these nits are simply fodder for 2000 mode. Jeff says that Defender 2000 versus Defender Plus will be very similar to Tempest 2000 versus Tempest Plus, so we can look forward to some truly incredible effects in the final version. 2000 mode will have some textured backgrounds, and the game area will be more than a single screen high. Other than these, we'll just have to wait and see the final version for ourselves. Jeff is aiming for a September release. Hover Hunter's graphics engine has been tweaked since its previous showing, with more anti-aliasing to make for a much smoother picture. For those who didn't already know, Hover Hunter is a high-speed hovertank game with Voxel space graphics similar to those of Comanche on the PC -- Hyper Image Productions uses a method called Displacement Texturing to achieve a very aesthetically pleasing graphical effect somewhere between Gouraud shading and texture-mapping. The demo also ran at a very high framerate, though the software was still very preliminary: sound effects were practically non-existent and enemies were literally non-existent. The controls, although a quick hack, were quite responsive. In single player mode, all there was to do was explore one of two available levels, firing at the trees that dotted the landscape. However, a 2-player mode was implemented, although it too was a quick hack: it crashed regularly, there was no player-player collision detection, and there was no way for either player to die. The final version will have at least 4-player networking, and Hover Hunter is looking very promising. Hyper Image is hoping for a late August to early September release. Battlesphere is coming along nicely. It is a space combat game which employs light-sourced, Gouraud shade graphics with some textures overlaid. The enemy graphics in the demo often looked a little too much like flat polygons, although this was highly dependent on the ship you were opposing -- in character select mode, the colors were vibrant and the shading was gorgeous. In-game graphics seemed somewhat sparse, but this was probably due mostly to the fact that the HUD has not yet been implemented, and there wasn't a whole lot around in the demo. The explosions are quite nice, with beautiful debris flying in all directions, although a few added bitmaps other than the main explosion bitmap would probably make them look even better. Finally, the framerate remained incredibly high throughout. Controls were smooth and responsive, although they did not allow for acceleration and deceleration or rolling while turning -- you needed, at this early stage, to hold a button or push a keypad number to access certain control features. There were two modes of play implemented: single-player target practice mode to practice destroying ships that didn't shoot back, and a two-player networked mode that allowed one-on-one dogfighting. Battlesphere's final version will include a large variety of single and multiplayer modes, and is intended to become more or less the king of networked games, allowing up to eight players to play against one another. 4Play, the team responsible for Battlesphere, are entirely part-time, but in an ideal world Battlesphere will be out in September. Ship interiors rendered in 3-D Studio were one of the major highlights of the in-game graphics -- they had a great alien feel with an Alien versus Predator type aesthetic. Rayman, the incredibly hyped up platform game by Ubisoft, is almost finished and it *looks* stunning. The animated graphics are very colorful, extremely well shaded, and unbelievably detailed. Sprites move very smoothly, including a number of "background" objects, such as butterflies which fly around the platforms. The stages I saw had three levels of parallax scrolling, with the background, the play area, and the foreground, although the ads Ubisoft was handing out said that some stages had five levels of parallax. So, what about the gameplay? Only 4 stages were on display, along with a couple secret ones that I missed when I gave it a try. Rayman's controls are responsive, and the interactivity seems good. There is at least one common instance of apparently non-moving objects actually being manipulable... but this is not a game for Sonic fans. Rayman moves at a very sedate pace, and seems to focus more on interaction, puzzle-solving, and exploration than on fast reflexes. Will there be enough depth to make up for the lack of speed? The stages on display were too short to give a definitive answer, but we should know for sure within a few weeks, when the finished game should be ready. Rayman is currently slated for a June release. The next tier of games on display varied from quite good to showing solid potential as next generation games. They were: Ultra Vortex, White Men Can't Jump, Skyhammer, Varuna's Forces, and Battlemorph. Ultra Vortex is the MK2-style fighting game by Beyond Games, the makers of Battlewheels. It was nearly done, and Beyond Games was displaying a nearly bug-free version on a large screen TV at the very edge of the booth. The graphics got mixed reactions from viewers; the artwork and character graphics were undeniably incredibly well done, and the costumes were original, but the game's smoothness was unquestionably far from ideal. While the framerate is now not much of an issue -- much of the parallax scrolling was eliminated to lower the load -- the smoothness is now limited mainlyby the number of frames of animation, which is unfortunately a little on the low side. There were a large number of backgrounds on display, at least three of them with their own fatalities (all pit variants). I'm pretty sure that a couple other stages have their own fatalities, also. The characters each had a pretty wide array of moves, and although none of them were innovative mechanically, the way they are executed is almost invariably very cool. We were told that each character has two fatalities, although we never saw more than one per character. Fatalities we did see were very well done: Buzzsaw extends a drill from his wrist and runs opponents through the stomach, Lucius grabs and electrocutes opponents, and then uppercuts them into two, and another character knocked his or her opponent's head off, which flies directly towards the screen. Most importantly, the controls were quick and responsive, along with a couple semi-innovative features like a double back-tap making your character hop quickly back. Moves were reasonably easy to execute with the proper timing, and Ultra Vortex seemed pretty well balanced. Also, Beyond Games has spent a lot of time on the enemy AI, and it shows. The enemies' actions are very unpredictable, and there was only one obvious serious weakness involving drawing uppercuts, and even that required just the right distance. Fans of Mortal Kombat should love Ultra Vortex, and it may appeal to others as well. Ultra Vortex should be available in mid-to-late June. White Men Can't Jump was also close to complete, and seemed to be a very solid all-around title. It is a two-on-two street basketball game based very loosely on the movie of the same name. The graphics were basically quite good, with a textured court and scaled sprites for players; the camera view changed nicely, and the player animation is pretty detailed. Unfortunately, the framerate was on the low end, taking away from what could have been an extremely impressive visual effect. Sound effects are nice, with a wide variety of digitized voices for every situation. WMCJ's gameplay had a good basic engine, with an easy but powerful control system, but the details were something of a letdown. The game's designers opted to go for something a little rougher than real life street ball, with no fouls called and punches a regular occurrence. This in itself wouldn't be much of a problem, but when someone makes a basket, the ball never really leaves play; only the other team is allowed to touch it, but once they do, either team can do what they want, except that the ball has to be cleared behind the 3-point line. This strange juxtaposition of lawlessness and specific rules would be confusing enough if they had made matters clear, but, for example, I'm pretty sure that one sample, saying "you didn't check it," was actually supposed to mean "you didn't clear it." So, as is, White Men Can't Jump is pretty confusing, although this sort of thing would be pretty easy to fix in the final few weeks they have to work on it. Finally, the new 4-player adapter was present and fully implemented, allowing each character to be played by a different person, reminiscent of NBA Jam. White Men Can't Jump should arrive in late June to early July, and will be packed in with the 4-player tap. Skyhammer was something of a surprise presence, but it was certainly a pleasant surprise. Developed by Rebellion, of Alien vs. Predator fame, Skyhammer is a texture-mapped action game that takes you through a city in some variety of flying crafts. The textured graphics look great; the textures are chosen nicely, and although the buildings are all orthogonal, the engine does allow for full 3D motion: looking up/down and banking are both implemented. The framerate was more problematic. While forward motion seemed pretty smooth, any variety turning was quite choppy. Hopefully, this is due to the fact that this is a relatively early demo. The (fully textured) enemies looked quite good. Other than choppiness, the only other immediate problem with the graphics was the short horizon, which could conceivably hamper gameplay somewhat. Controls were nice and responsive, allowing full range of motion. The gameplay wasn't very solidly implemented yet; you could only go around and shoot at enemies, but Skyhammer looks like it could be quite a hot title. Surprisingly enough, Varuna's Forces was only showing a demo of the introduction, character selection, and mission intro sequences. The FMV was nicely done, although not totally stunning. Character selection had some nice effects, especially the gratuitous texturing of the FMV of the character selected. Varuna's Forces is intended to be a fully immersive war-strategy-with-some-action game. You will control your squadron, giving them orders, seeing what they are doing, and hearing their reports of what's going on. Whenever you want to, you can "jump into" a character, at which point the game becomes more Doom-like; you control their motions with a textured, first-person viewpoint. It sounds like a great idea, but until we see some of the real game, we won't know for sure. According to an Accent Media, Varuna's Forces should be ready for the CD release in August, though Bill Rehbock claimed that it wouldn't be available for a month or two after that. Battlemorph had a playable demo (finally), and it seemed like roughly what one would expect out of Cybermorph II. The improvements obvious from the demo were all graphical: the horizon seemed a little longer, the Gouraud shading was smoother and less gaudy, the enemies and some objects and buildings were textured, and most importantly, the framerate was much higher. Most of Cybermorph remains in the sequel, including most, if not all of the weapons, and a kinder, gentler Skylar. An FMV intro now shows your Mothership in greater detail, and the intro has some very nice moments. Apparently gone is the pod collection on every level. Added are some new powerups (a more powerful radar, for instance), a map key (although not yet implemented in the demo), and underwater and tunnel sequences. The underwater sequences didn't seem to add much to the demo, other than a change of graphics. Tunnels were a little more interesting, with doors that needed to be opened and closed, or in some cases, opened and closed automatically -- careful timing helps you to get through. Both the water and the tunnels could add variety to the gameplay in the final version. The only obvious problem with the demo was that the aiming hadn't been changed much, and could still provide problems when it was necessary to fire off a stream of shots at a strange angle. It appears that nearly all that's left is to actually design the levels. Battlemorph should be available with the launch of the CD player in August. The next few games fall into the categories of "fun, but unimpressive," or games that have potential but will need serious work. These are: Burnout, Power Drive Rally, Primal Rage, Fight For Life, Thea Relm Fighters, Brett Hull Hockey and Highlander. Burnout is a simple, Hang-On type motorcycle racing game. It was on display in what looked like a nearly finished form. For sprite-based graphics, Burnout looks quite nice, with quite well-drawn (although obviously not digitized) sprites, moving in large numbers extremely quickly and smoothly across the screen. The controls respond quickly and effectively, and did not burden the game at all. However, if they don't include a two-player mode, it just won't be worth buying for those of us who get bored quickly racing against the computer. Burnout had no official release date, but looks like it should be out within one to two months. Power Drive Rally was also on display, and is in a situation similar to that of Burnout. It is sprite-based, with well-drawn and smoothly moving sprites, although where Burnout's viewpoint resembles Hang-On's, Power Drive Rally uses a Super Sprint type overhead view. The controls seemed a bit sluggish, but appropriate to the tracks on display. There is a computerized co-pilot who warns you out loud about oncoming turns, and ends up being extremely useful. According to the Time Warner Interactive press release, this will implement two-player play, which should make it somewhat more interesting than it would have been as a relatively slow-moving racing game. Also, there are a number of options to modify your car with money earned from races, so it should be a pretty good game for those who like car racing. According to the press release it will be available in June, but according to the general TWI list, it will be out in July. Primal Rage had a demo that was actually surprisingly far along. As far as I could tell, it ran through the entire out of game sequence just like the arcade, and the in-game graphics and gameplay seemed very similar to its arcade parent. The graphics and gameplay engines seemed to be well in place, although I have no idea if all the moves were in yet. Because this was still a relatively early demo, the decompression and loading time before a game was ridiculous--about 2-3 minutes, so it spent most of its time with the controllers unplugged running through the introductory screens. It would appear that Primal Rage fans can expect a near-perfect conversion when it arrives in November. Fight For Life has been steadily improving since its near-disastrous demo at WCES. It is currently in the middle of texturing of the characters, with some looking quite nice and others looking somewhat silly, with a textured torso and blocky polygonal legs. Ultimately, many of the characters will be fully textured, and the final effect should be pretty good. FFL's backgrounds are pretty good-looking bitmaps and city skylines and the like, while the ground was made up of ugly, now-inappropriate Gouraud shaded polygons. If he can keep the framerate high enough, programmer Francois Yves Bertrand intends to texture the ground for the final version. There were a pretty wide variety of moves implemented, although some hadn't been put in at all, and others hadn't had the collision detection written yet. There were a variety of basic punches and kicks, along with a few grabs, throws and body slams. Instead of a block button, FFL had a dodge button that would try to dodge whatever attack was being made. Basically, the gameplay of the demo was very simplistic, with very little in the way of act-and-respond moves, and a lot of pounding on the keypad and hoping "gee, I hope that doesn't hit me." Also, the moves were pretty non-intuitive, with sweep and uppercut being rotate down to forward and kick or punch respectively. Francois expects to be working on it for at least another month before final testing, so it probably won't be available for at least two to four months. Thea Relm Fighters is Atari's answer to the MK series. To Atari's credit, they took the four best actors from MK II (leaving MK III with bad actors, incidentally): Ho Sung Pak, Daniel Pesina, Dr. Ahn, and Katalin Zamiar. The game will be out on CD, supposedly including more than 20 characters, and Atari clearly expects it to be a huge hit, having arranged for the actors to come to E3 and do a martial arts exhibition. When asked what it was like to switch from Williams to Strata to Atari, Daniel Pesina (formerly Johnny Cage) responded pleasantly, "Atari definitely treats us better than Williams," eliciting a supporting chuckle from one of the other martial artists present there. As always, reality intruded into the TRF debut. The demo was very preliminary, running on an EEPROM, and in a word, horrible. Characters looked reasonably good but moved unbearably jerkily. As far as I know, the demo was unplayable, and really actually worse than unimpressive. Thea Relm Fighters is scheduled for a 3rd quarter release, but with the amount of work they have to do, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it delayed into at least the 4th quarter... or mid-96. Brett Hull Hockey had a playable demo showing, and seemed pretty far along: it's essentially a sprite based hockey game. The graphics looked pretty good, with well-drawn (or digitized) sprites moving very smoothly around the rink, which scrolled flatly, but there was an option to change views, which occurred smoothly, suggesting that the possibility of a dynamic viewpoint during play is quite feasible. The controls seemed pretty intuitive and responsive, and the players moved pretty well. Brett Hull could develop into quite a good hockey game, though it will be pretty much like most of the 16-bit hockey software we've seen to date. Highlander was displaying a pretty close to complete version, lacking only a number of enemies and objects to find and use. It is an action/adventure game in the spirit of Alone in the Dark, with static backgrounds and polygon characters. The backgrounds were nicely done, and the characters were reasonably detailed, although the bright colors made them really stand out from the background. The fighting engine was mostly in place, and allowed a couple defensive moves and a few different offensive moves. Nothing too exciting was my verdict, though Highlander became more interesting when you were being attacked from more than one side. The objects and puzzles were not yet in place, so it's hard to guess how involving the final game will be. However, the mechanics seem to be in place for a pretty solidly good game. Highlander should be available with the rollout of the CD in August. The final group of games is rather eclectic. Some were only showing FMV demos, others were quite limited in audience, and some were distinctly average or just plain bad. Soulstar was a surprise entry in this category. A shooter conversion by Core that is supposedly well on its way, for some reason it only had the FMV demo playing. The demo was pretty well rendered, but as usual, gave no info whatsoever about the game itself. I had been assuming it would be done in time for the CD's launch, but now I'm not so sure. Creature Shock, the conversion of the PC spooled graphics shooting gallery, was also only displaying an FMV demo, although this was at least a demo of the actual levels. The graphics seemed pretty good and smooth, although as with Soulstar, they didn't give much of an idea of what the final game will be like. Creature Shock should be out within a couple weeks to a month of the release of the CD player. Yet another unplayable demo -- not even FMV -- was the conversion of the Mac/PC game Myst. This consisted basically of a slideshow of the beautiful locations that make up the land that Myst takes place in. I would imagine that they should have no trouble making an essentially identical conversion with moderately improved graphics, for whatever that's worth. Myst should be available with the first wave of CD games in August. The final non-interactive totally FMV demo was something of a random surprise. Entitled Nerf Max Force, it played FMV showing a kid firing off nerf weapons at rendered enemy mechs, while a description of the game played. No clue as to what this will be like ,or when it will come out. Moving on to the eccentric games, a puzzle game called Flip Out was on display and seemed pretty far along. Clearly targeted towards a younger audience, the point of the game is to rearrange tiles into a desired pattern by flipping them into the air, at which point they land wherever the next tile was flipped from. If a tile ever lands before the next one is flipped, it breaks, ending the game. Animated characters in the background and the general simplicity make it seem like a perfectly reasonable game for younger children. A game called Baldies certainly fits the eccentric label, although more in the way that Lemmings did. Perhaps best described as a cross between Powermonger and Cannon Fodder, Baldies is a humorous flat overhead game in which the point is to get your Baldies to build houses, reproduce, and create inventions to help them battle the evil people with hair. This seemed like the type of game that, if done right, could appeal to a certain number of people, but it will certainly never be a 64-bit extravaganza, either. Pinball Fantasies is the conversion of the computer pinball game of the same name, and seemed to be pretty straightforward pinball that's not likely to appeal to anyone other than serious pinball fans. Not being one, I didn't spend much time trying it out. It should be done and available pretty soon. Ruiner is another pinball game. Moderately more impressive than Pinball Fantasies, it is not likely to hold the attention of anyone who doesn't play pinball. It seemed pretty far along, so I'd expect to see it in the next couple months. Vid Grid looked very close to done. It is a simple rearrange-the-pieces of-the-puzzle game, with the twist that the puzzle is an FMV music video. The FMV was smooth, and the pieces moved just fine. This certainly isn't much of a game, and an Atari rep said they are considering packing it in with the Jag CD along with the Tempest 2000 soundtrack CD and a real pack-in game. Dragon's Lair had a fully playable demo display, and looked like, well, Dragon's Lair. Fans of the original should like this, while others will be annoyed at the scripted-ness of the actions and lack of interactivity. The animation was pretty good, but far from stunning. Dragon's Lair is essentially done and should be available in August when the CD comes out. Like Dragon's Lair, Flashback is a straight port of a now unimpressive game. Flashback is a cartridge game, and does not seem to have been incredibly improved over the original. It should be a decent, playable game with good animation and nice backgrounds, but it certainly won't blow anyone away with stunning, 64-bit graphics. It is well on its way, and I'd expect to see it within the next couple months. Deathwatch -- Deathwatch? (well, at least that's what it looked like on the EEPROM) was a simple, animated platform/shoot-em-up game. Animated colorfully but without any really incredible shading, it looked very 16-bit, and played like a standard platform game. It could end up being a perfectly reasonable game, but is certainly nothing that couldn't have be [sic]. The final version of Air Cars wason display. A networking action game by Midnite Software, it has been lambasted as one of the worst games being developed for the Jag. While a re-tooling of some of the graphics helped, they are still pretty bad; the Gouraud shaded landscapes look decent, but the objects are all ugly and badly formed, giving a very negative visual impression overall. For example, the smoke screens look like black globs rather than smoke screens. The controls also seemed pretty sluggish, although I didn't spend a lot of time trying them out. There are some good ideas in Air Cars: 8-player networking, enemies that retreat dropping smoke screens when damaged, and pretty good physics allowing jumping off of hills all work to the game's advantage, but I doubt they will be enough to offset the incredibly poor graphics and overall implementation. Air Cars should be shipping in June. Finally, Blue Lightning was showing a 95% finished version, and it was probably the overall worst game on display. Aside from some nice FMV demos, it had very little going for it in any department. Imagine the Lynx Blue Lightning with prettier bitmaps and more difficult controls, and that's basically what Blue Lightning is like. As you fly along in the plane, the flat hills give the impression of flying through a shooting gallery, and the controls are pretty imprecise and unenjoyable. This is almost done, and barring a much-needed major reworking, will be available with the CD player in August. All in all, there were few surprises at Atari's booth, and although there were a number of solid titles, Jaguar owners continue to be forced to play the waiting game. While some neat peripherals were on display, small release catalogs and lots of potential for future delays may well prevent even Atari's most innovative devices from reaching the hands of their hungry fans. -Brian Osserman Sb: Minter Update Fm: SYSOP*Jeff Kovach 74777,3071 To: All From the Internet, Jeff Minter's latest update on Defender 2000: ---------- D2K Thangs for May May 21: Decoupled Sorry no updates for a while, but it's been kind of a hectic month. There were three trips to LA, two for the purposes of doing some Jaguar demonstrations in various shops in that area, and the third for E3. In between those times I have been involved in the process of decoupling the Yakly abode from the apartment complex in Sunnyvale and re-establishing it in a far more appropriate place, out in the country where there are plenty of beasties and where blasting out some tunes llate at night won't result in the neighbours calling in the gentlemen with the handguns and the nightsticks to order me to turn it down. It certainly feels excellent to be in my own space again. I'm much more adequately wired than I ever was back in Wales, with a good solid dialin to the Santa Cruz netcom node to get me on the Net, and thank God a line of sight to the DSS satellite (back in Wales we had no cable, crappy terrestrial reception of two out of the four UK channels (one of which was in Welsh), and the line of sight to the satellite went right through the hill behind my house).. I can now revert to my 'natural' work mode, which frequently involves late-night, CD-blasting, inspirational coding runs which just weren't possible in the old place. One can't hack Jaguar late at night without loud music. It's not natural. I'm certain I'll be more productive in this environment. I've even found a local - even if at 15 miles' distance it isn't that local. However, it's worth the drive as the Penny Farthing in Salinas is a proper British pub, with proper beer and excellent food. A man's got to have his local. It's important. To revert to the subject, with all this going on I've done a relatively small amount to the game this time. I've been going back through Classic and Plus while I wait for some artwork for 2K, fixing up odd little things that bugged me while I was playing the game at E3; I should soon be able to label those portions of the game as completely finished with. I got one of the 6-button controllers from Atari, and I've implemented the Classic control mode from the arcade game, with Thrust and Reverse completely decoupled from the d-pad and exported to separate buttons. On the new controller the left shoulder pad is used for Reverse, B is Thrust and A is Fire. This gives your hands and fingers almost exactly the same tasks as on the coin-op controls - the left thumb controls up and down and the index finger Reverses, while the index and second finger on the right control Thrust and Fire respectively, leaving the right thumb to fall naturally on the Smart Bomb on C, as God and Eugene intended. Since those controls went in, I've been having a massive binge of Classic-playing. It now feels *just* like the original game to play. It's a bit harder than the mode with thrust and reverse incorporated in the d-pad, but somehow it's just a lot more satisfying to play this way. As I've said in newsgroup, Uncle Eugene knew exactly what he was doing, taking those controls off the joystick. Classicdudes are gonna llove it. The easier mode will still be there as an option, 'coz of course not everyone will have a 6-button controller. Although you *can* use that mode on a 3-button controller, as the L shoulder pad maps to 4 on the keypad - if you lay the controller flat on a surface and use the index and second fingers on the left hand to do up and down, the thumb falls on Reverse, even closer to the ordained button layout for Classic... Otherwise.... been tidying up. Rez-in works properly. Optimised a bit. Fixed the left hand edge clipping of pixelshatter coz of the A1 clip bug. Corrected the dangle height for Humanoids under the ship in Classic mode. Kinda stuff. Hey, it has to be done sometime and better now than in Final Test... This week, I look forward to trying out an idea for an unusual feedback effect, which the hardware may or may not allow, as I shall be asking it to do something unnatural once per scan line. Sign off mentally on Plus and Classic; instigate Predator and Prey classes for the object handler; and I really must get cracking on some Easter Eggs.... oh, and I hope I shall get my desk from storage at Atari, as my llegs sometimes go to sleep while I'm sitting on the floor and typing. I still need a bunch more furniture to fill this big house :) \ (:-) - who is probably the last person on the planet to finally get his MTV / ________________________________________________ > ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" PEOPLE... ARE TALKING ===================== On CompuServe ------------- compiled by Joe Mirando 73637,2262 Hello again folks. Well, the days keep getting longer and warmer and it won't be long 'till we all start complaining about the heat and humidity (My New Year's resolution for this year was to bludgeon the first person that tells me "It's not the heat, it's the humidity"). Anyway, while Spring is still here in full bloom, so to speak, we mere mortals find that we have even less time than we had last Spring and spend half of the time that we DO have trying to figure out how to spend the other half. Thank goodness that I've got a CompuServe account. CIS gives me a chance to look through all of the information that MIGHT interest me so that I can find the information that DOES interest me. So, thanks to CompuServe, I have time to do more things. Thanks guys! C'mon with me and I'll show you what I'm talking about... From the Atari Computing Forums =============================== Michel Vanhamme tells us: "I just did my first ftp session with NOS! The solution to my problem was quite simple, really. NOS was installed two folders deep on my HD, and apparently didn't like it. I moved my NOS folder to the root, et voila, everything suddenly worked! Next thing I'll try is setting up the usenet reader. BTW, I got hold of a newer version of NOS, V0.42. I haven't tried it yet, but I will soon." Chris Roth tells Michel: "I didn't think of that, sorry: If you want to start NOS nested in a directory, you must start it with the parameter '-dc:\your\path' (f.e. '-dc:\nos'). However, if you want to run the newsreader (SNEWS) you have to set an environment variable to point to the right directory, so probably putting NOS on the root is the most easy but for me too messy way. Good luck with the installation of the newsreader SNEWS! It took me quite a time to get that thing running, unfortunately the GEM-based newsreader Oasis is still buggy and bombs in the configuration phase... The newer version of NOS (0.42) has some advantages over previous versions, as the author told me, and is smaller due to removal of unnecessary features. As a result, the newsreader isn't anymore integrated into NOS, but is a seperate program package (SNEWS). You can find all that internet related Atari stuff on the ftp site: ftp.demon.co.uk in the directory pub/atari/. Now that you can ftp !" Michel tells Chris: "Well, NOS is in its folder, the folder is in the root. The only files in the root are startup.nos & dialer.pp0. But, agreed, it's not very neat. Concerning NNTP. Do you have addresses of news servers? I tried an NNTP session with news.demon.co.uk, and all I had was this message : "502 imp.demon.co.uk NNTP server can't talk to you. Goodbye. - NNTP Bad reply on banner (response was 502)" I don't know if this comes from the news server or from NOS." Chris replies: "...as for nntp, you have to configure news.compuserve.com to be your newsserver, since others (as you saw) won't talk to you. The bad banner error can be related to that. I once had it too when I tried to talk to the compuserve newsserver but never occured again." Michel tells Chris: "I was beginning to suspect something along those lines... I should have guessed that one can't use just any newsserver." John Montgomery posts: "I don't think this is the right place, but Compuserve's *find* says that Tiny Computers can be located here. I want to ask them about my computer's configuration - ( a 486 PC ). Are they here, or, do you perchance know where they are?" Sysop Keith Joins tells John: "Tiny is a picture/graphics format on the Atari computer so that is why you were pointed here. If this was the only location you got then I don't think that Tiny Computers is on-line." Lyle Raymond asks: "Is there any PD FAX software available (esp. here on Compuserve) that is compatible with class 1 modems? I've tried the BATFAX demo, but it only works with class 2." Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Online Magazine tells Lyle: "None that I know of. The only one that comes to mine is STraight Fax 2.x which is a commercial product." Patrick Wong asks: "I know a 486 emulator isn't out for the ST but I've heard of a few 286 emulators on the market. How are they? I was wondering if you could convert them to a 486. Does anyone know if they contain real 286 chips? There's a chip by Cyrix that turns any 286 into a 486 simply by removing it and plugging in a new chip. One of my friends have one of those old Atari compatible PCs (I don't know if anyone remembers them) but he bought the chip, plug it in, just for fun and it worked! He's running Windows on it and everything! I was wondering would this work on the 286 emulators." Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Online Magazine tells Patrick: "I do not believe they work on the Atari 286 emulators." Patrick tells Albert: "Thanks Albert. Oh well, that's really too bad. Do you know if the emulators use 286 chips at all or do they use some other system?" Albert fills Patrick (and us) in: "There was AT-Speed and another one (I forget the name) which uses 286 chips. These worked on the normal ST series of computers. There is also one on the Falcon030 by Compo which is also a 286 chip based board. Compo is working on a 486 version currently. No word on the date of release however." David West posts: "I need a good, inexpensive word processor for my classroom. I currently own a 486, but once upon a time used a 130xe to write all my college research papers. The 130xe still works fine, my kids use it for frogger and pole position. My cousin donated his old 1040st for use in my classroom. If anyone knows about available shareware for it please tell me. All I have with the computer is a bunch of games. Also, can you download atari software with a pc, and somehow transform it to the atari format? Any help or advise would be great. Thanks in advance." Albert Dayes tells David: "You can format a 720K floppy disk on your PC and use it to move files between the PC and the Atari. There are quite a few programs in the library. For a word processor there is ST-Writer ver 4.8 which is very similar to AtariWriter on the 8-bit Atari." Laurence Glazier asks for help: "A friend of mine who suffered a stroke a year ago and who's only undamaged ability is musical, composes music on the ST - inadvertantly he has deleted a file which I would like to recover for him. I can only find two utilities here - the 1986 one works only at mid-resolution, and the other one (the GOODIES accessory) keeps reporting ERROR 43. Would much appreciate be directed to a tool which will actually do the job, assuming that part of the disk is still intact." Terry Cano tells Laurence: "There's a program called UNDELETE that I'll send you E-mail it may work. I have used it once 'believe." Peter Joseph replies to Terry: "Will you be my friend too? Seriously, my brother did the same thing recently and I'm not sure he's gotten Disk Doctor to work or not. Appreciate it." Andreas Rosenberg tells us: "There is no secret in running an ST with a standard SVGA monitor. I simple soldered a cable with the right connectors on both sides and connected the three RGB inputs of the VGA monitor with the monochrome output of the ST. The connector for the ST must connect the monochrome sense pin with ground and that's all. I'm running the ST high resolution with my ADI 3E monitor for about 3 years without any trouble. You'll only need to have a look at the horizontal frequencies your SVGA monitor is able to manage. If you have a sync band around 36 kHz it should work. To prevent misunderstanding: You will not get any higher resolutions by using a SVGA monitor. I simply wanted to have more room on my desk by making ONE monitor useable with both the ST and PC." Fred Zelders asks: "Does anybody have a GIF/TIF/BMP picture of the ATARI 1024 ST computer system? I want to embed it into a WWW-page I am preparing." Albert Dayes tells Fred: "There should be some in degas format floating around. I remember seeing some a long time back. You could use GEM-VIEW to convert it GIF or TIFF to use on the WWW-page." Santiago Escuain asks Soft-Logic Publishing: "I am one of your registered users of PageStream 2.2 for ATARI. I have been working with a Mac for some years now due to the disastrous commercial policy of Atari in Spain (what a pity to loose such an excellent machine). However, I keep my old machine as PageStream is so flexible and useful for many tasks. With PageStream I laid out not only small magazines, but a huge work in two 600+ page volumes (Charles Hodge of Princeton, Systematic Theology, which I also translated to Spanish). These volumes featured footnotes in every page, headers, and what-not. Now I hear you are planning to port PageStream to MAC. Great news. I have been browsing in your forum, and I see that we registered users will have a rebate. May it be a very big rebate - pleeeze! ;-). Another big news is that you are going to tell us owners of previous versions as soon as it is done. Please refresh me in your data base, and tell me as soon as it is available!!" Over in the Atari Gaming Forum, when someone makes the mistake of saying that the Jaguar is really a 32 bit machine (for myself, I'm happy if they don't leave the "3" out of that statement), John Mathieson at Atari posts: "I really thought we had settled this 64-bit thing. We do not claim Jaguar is 64 bit because 32 + 32 makes 64. We claim it because Jaguar has a 64 bit bus and has 64 bit processors. If you really want to knock Jaguar call it 16-bit. After all it has a 68000. But then so does Saturn." The poster of the original message tells John: "Well I heard from a press release, that it had 2 32-bit processors. Is it really 64-bit? Man I'm sorry." Sysop Jim Ness explains: "It's got 5 processors, ranging from a 16 bit to a couple of 64 bit. And a 64 bit bus connecting them. With multiple processors tossing data around, the bus itself is probably the most important spec." Tony Talarico jumps in and posts: "WAIT A MINUTE! The 68000 is a -16-BIT- processor??!! Then how come when you add two registers, you get a 32-bit result? Why are there 32-bit loads and stores? And what about multiplies and divides? Are you saying this because the 68000 only has a 16-bit data bus EXTERNALLY? Well, then, I guess that makes the 8088 an 8-bit processor! No, that can't be right, the Z-80 was DEFINITELY the king of the 8-bits. 8-{) As far as that 16-bit bus goes, the 68k will do 32-bit transfers a LOT faster than any TRUE 16-bit processor (i.e. the 8086). That's simply because it does 16-bit transfers on successive clock cycles. A 16-bit processor would need to process another instruction in between. Of course, I realize that you already know this. However, some people around here don't and might believe your statement that the 68k is only 16-bit. They might not realize it has 8 full 32-bit general registers and a full 32-bit accumulator." Scott Sanders tells Tony: "The primary benchmark for what a system is in terms of 'bits' is the size of its data bus. The Jaguar has a 64-bit data bus. Three of the five processors in the system, the GPU, the Blitter, and the Object Processor have complete 64-bit access to this bus. They are, in fact the processors that _need_ 64-bit access. The 68000 has 16-bit access to the data bus. Internally, it can manipulate data as wide as 32-bits but whenever a result is stored in memory, a 32-bit data word must be transferred in two steps, each 16-bits wide. The DSP has 32-bit access to the bus. Since it is almost always used for sound, that access is plenty. Enough to grab two 16-bit samples at a time. In all console systems, the bottleneck is almost always graphics. The Jaguar puts the power where it needs it the most." Randy Magruder tells Scott: "I beg to differ with you on this one. A fair amount of programmers and engineers would define a system's bitness not by its bus but by the size of its registers. The 80386, 80486, and Pentium processors are considered 32-bit because they employ 32-bit registers and can perform 32-bit multiplies of those thirty two bit registers in a single instruction. On the other hand, the Jaguar's GPU will multiply two 32-bit numbers yielding a 64 bit result, but does not directly multiply two 64-bit numbers. In terms of throughput, I do consider the Jaguar 64-bit if only because 64-bit quantities are generally not that usual in the high speed integer math used to transform matrices, shade and texture polygons, etc. The bus becomes an important indicator because its the means by which large amounts of graphics make their way through the system. I've always considered the Jaguar a hybrid 64-bit system, but as far as games are concerned, because its 64-bit where it has to be, I don't mind Atari calling it 64-bit. However, to say unequivocally that the bus size alone determines the bitness of the system is, in my opinion, technically inaccurate. Most would argue that a 64-bit ALU is the necessary missing component, though it becomes far more important in desktop operating systems like Windows NT, where some functions that return large numbers do so in a full 64-bit quantity. >> They are, in fact the processors that _need_ 64-bit access. >> Yes but how many instructions and registers does it take to multiply two 64-bit numbers? How many does it take to multiply two 32-bit numbers? >> In all console systems, the bottleneck is almost always graphics. The Jaguar puts the power where it needs it the most. << I agree with this in general, but I still think the Jaguar badly needs to run at a higher clockspeed...." Robert Reilly asks: "The Atari Bond is selling at about 51 cents on the dollar with a yield to maturity of over 17.7%. Is it a Good Buy? Is it backed by the good faith of the Tramiels . If the cd is due in August, I heard it was callable last year ,then January, then April, May, June. What is the remaining rate of interest and is it guaranteed by Atari. We know what that is worth, less. It is the only cd with a future at Atari the other cd just got wiped out by lack of interest and portfolio switching to Sega. Jag owners are selling their systems in droves, what will the cd attach to besides a Jag." Jeffery Norwood tells Robert: "Okay, first, I'm not the stock market guy (but I like regular stocks and options, and follow the mondestly) The Tramiels, no matter what anyone says, have great faith in their products. However, Atari is off to a slow start, and the sudden (four months early) release of the Saturn shocked the world! Atari has a promising future. With a CD (disc, not bond) attatchment due out in July, and a Virtual Reality helmet late this year. Atari seemingly forgets that although they have almost unmatchable hardware techinical stuff, they don't put it into the software. It's like making a gas for a car, but there are no cars for it!!! If this were BUY, SELL, or HOLD, I'd say HOLD." John Lange tells us: "About a year ago I bought the Jag on the day of its release. When I brought it home the only thing I got on my screen was a red screen with the Jaguar logo on it. It growled and that was about it. Now the same thing is happening again. If anyone has a clue to what this problem may be please respond." Bill Devonshire tells John: "Sometimes the red screen happens because you do not have the cart plugged in correctly (seated properly). The worse case is that you have forced the cart into the slot and crushed one of the connector pins. To fix that you have to send it back. Get a bright light and look at your connector - if you see a shiny bit of metal at the bottom of the connector then it is probably a crushed pin. Hopefully not!" Well folks, that's about all for this week. Tune in again next week, same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON" """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > A "Quotable Quote" A true "Sign of the Times" """"""""""""""""" CLOSE OBSERVATION REVEALS TOO MUCH! REMEMBER THE FEINSTEIN SENATE RACE?? ------------------------------------ Where the good Mayor of San Francisco won the election?? Oh how the loser screamed and cried foul. Why he spent a little over $26,000,000 dollars to wage a campaign against Feinstein is baffling. With that kind of money he and his family for generations to come would be able to enjoy life. Anybody care to guess WHY anyone would spend $26 million on a campaign to become elected to the US Senate?? How many terms would this candidate have to serve before earning back the money spent on the campaign? Perhaps.. --------- It really is true.. that one may cobb much more than that amount of money with little or no fear of detection and prosecution.. ...food for thought """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport International OnLine Magazine -* [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport *- HTTP//WWW.ICBA.COM/STREPORT AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE ON OVER 100,000 PRIVATE BBS SYSTEMS """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STR OnLine! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" May 26, 1995 Since 1987 copyright 1995 All Rights Reserved No. 1121 """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 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. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""