Silicon Times Report "The Original Independent OnLine Magazine" (Since 1987) December 27, 1996 No.1252 Silicon Times Report International OnLine Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32221-6155 R.F. Mariano, Editor STR Publishing, Inc. Voice: 1-904-292-9222 10am-5pm EST STReport WebSite http://www.streport.com STR Publishing Support BBS THE BOUNTY INTERNATIONAL BBS Featuring: * 5.0GB * of File Libraries Mustang Software's WILDCAT! 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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 Publisher, Staff & Editors Florida Lotto - LottoMan v1.35 Results: 12/21/96: 5 of 6 numbers, 5 three number matches, 1 four number match From the Editor's Desk... Happy New Year everyone! May the coming year be filled with health, success and prosperity. This week's issue is a little on the lean side due to the Holidays. But it also talks of some of the interesting activities we plan for the New Year. Please, when you go out to party, use a designated driver they really are lifesavers. Mine and yours! Again. Warmest of Holiday Wishes to all. Ralph.. Of Special Note: http//www.streport.com 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 it is 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 October 01, 1995, you'll be able to download STReport directly from our very own SERVER & WEB Site. While there, be sure to join our STR AutoMailer list. STReport's managing editors DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! Ralph F. Mariano, Publisher - Editor Dana P. Jacobson, Editor, Current Affairs Section Editors PC Section Mac Section Special Events Section R.F. Mariano J. Deegan Lloyd E. Pulley Gaming & Entertainment Kid's Computing Corner Dana P. Jacobson Frank Sereno STReport Staff Editors Michael Arthur John Deegan Brad Martin Michael R. Burkley Paul Guillot Joseph Mirando Doyle Helms John Duckworth Jeff Coe Steve Keipe Victor Mariano Melanie Bell Jay Levy Jeff Kovach Marty Mankins Carl Prehn Paul Charchian Vincent P. O'Hara Contributing Correspondents Jason Sereno Norman Boucher Daniel Stidham David H. Mann Angelo Marasco Donna Lines Ed Westhusing Glenwood Drake Vernon W.Smith Bruno Puglia Paul Haris Kevin Miller Craig Harris Allen Chang Tim Holt Ron Satchwill Leonard Worzala Tom Sherwin Please submit ALL letters, rebuttals, articles, reviews, etc., via E-Mail to: CompuServe 70007,4454 Prodigy CZGJ44A Delphi RMARIANO GEnie ST.REPORT BIX RMARIANO AOL STReport Internet rmariano@streport.com WebSite http://www.streport.com STReport Headline News LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS Weekly Happenings in the Computer World Compiled by: Dana P. Jacobson Copyright Group Sidesteps Crisis A potential crisis on the Internet has been sidestepped by negotiators in Geneva who have agreed to make it legal for users of copyright materials to keep them (at least temporarily) in their personal computers. Reporting from the three-week negotiating session of the United Nations' World Intellectual Property Organization, Associated Press writer Alexander G. Higgins notes, "Libraries, 'Net 'surfers' and groups providing Internet access won a big victory in the final treaties: Temporary copies of copyright materials that computers automatically make when a user is browsing the World Wide Web will not be considered violations of copyrights." Higgins says that if the provision had not been deleted, "any time anyone looked at copyright material on a computer -- including schoolchildren at their local library -- it could have constituted a violation of international copyright law, opponents said. That might well have killed the Internet." The latest accords also bolster protection against software piracy worldwide and lay the groundwork for increased commerce over the Internet. Adam Eisgrau of the American Library Association told the wire service the main achievement of the negotiations was a balance between copyright protection and the needs of consumers, noting the treaties protect copyright owners who "create wonderful works that enrich all of society, but tempered with that protection a balance affording access to information." But, writes Higgins, the treaties did not resolve whether databases are eligible for copyright as are creative materials. Says AP, "Extending copyright protection to facts would give professional sports leagues and stock exchanges exclusive rights to their statistics, opponents say. But proponents argue they have a right to recoup the investments they've made to compile the facts." FCC Nixes Net Access Fee The Federal Communications Commission has tentatively decided not to impose fees on Internet service providers for use of local telephne lines, reports the Reuters news service. "The commission raised the specific question of whether ISP's should pay access charges as we currently understand them," Kevin Werbach, counsel for new technology at the commission, told Reuters. The FCC "tentatively concluded that the answer is no." On Tuesday, the commission issued a notice of proposed rulemaking setting out two possible plans for reducing access fees currently imposed on long distance telephone companies. "Local phone companies had pressed to have the access fee applied to Internet service companies," notes Reuters. "The phone companies argued that consumers using the Internet were getting a free ride and tying up local lines with lengthy calls." Feds Track Fugitives on the Net The Justice Department and Voice of America, having already set up an international fugitive alert service, now are expanding to include a related World Wide Web site. United Press International notes the department and Voice of America last August launched a weekly broadcast, International Crime Alert, around the world in about 50 languages. Now, once a fugitive is featured on the broadcast, his or her photograph and identifying information also is posted on the home page of the United States Information Agency (http://www.usia.gov). UPI says the Justice Department's "fugitive unit" in the Office of International Affairs will be coordinating extradition for high-profile U.S. and foreign fugitives. Jobs Set to Rejoin Apple Apple Computer Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs is about to prove that you actually can go home again. The Los Angeles Times, citing unidentified sources, reports that Jobs will join the computer maker as a part- time consultant and "technology guru." Jobs' task will be to help Apple update its aging Macintosh system software. Jobs, who founded Apple with Steve Wozniak in the 1970s, left the company in 1985 after coming out on the losing end of a power struggle with then CEO John Sculley. Apple Brings Steve Jobs Home Stunning the compute industry, Apple Computer Inc. has agreed to acquire NeXT Software Inc. for $400 million, reuniting Apple with its co-founder, Steve Jobs. "The acquisition," says Kourosh Karimkhany of the Reuter News Service, "will give Apple the software technology it needs to revamp the Macintosh personal computer, which has lost much of its technological luster to PCs running software from Microsoft Corp." At Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters, Jobs told the wire service, "The Mac has provided the innovation that the industry has been feeding off for the last 10 years. It's time for someone to come up with innovation to drive the industry forward. Who better than Apple?" Jobs, who founded Apple with Steve Wozniak in his garage 20 years ago, led Apple through its early years until he was fired by the company's board in 1985. Apple now will pay $350 million, mostly in cash and a little stock, for Redwood City, California, NeXT, and will pay off NeXT's $50 million debt. Jobs will come back to Apple part-time to lead an effort to rewrite the fundamental software of the Macintosh, reporting to Apple Chairman Gilbert Amelio. Apple will base much of its next-generation operating system on Nextstep, Karimkhany reports, quoting Amelio as saying NeXT's technology will not only provide many of the software bells and whistles that Apple needs to compete with Microsoft's Windows, but will attract outside software companies to write more titles for the Mac. "Without question, the technology at NeXT was the superior technology, by a significant amount," Amelio said. As reported, Apple had been for months looking outside for help after having abandoned an unfinished operating system code-named "Copland." The company looked at operating system technology and multimedia software from companies such as Sun Microsystems Inc. and closely held Be Inc. Jobs also helped co-found Pixar Animation Studios, a production studio that uses powerful computers instead of drawings. The company made last year's hit "Toy Story." He told Reuters he will continue to run Pixar. Newspaper Buys Prodigy Division For undisclosed terms, the Internet classified advertising division of Prodigy Services Corp. has been acquired by Thomson Newspapers. Thomson officials told The Associated Press the company will use Prodigy's classified ad system for its own newspapers and also will sell the product to other newspapers, enabling them to set up their own advertising site on the Internet. The wire service notes some 20 newspapers already use the system, including the Houston Chronicle. Based in Stamford, Connecticut, Thomson Newspapers publishes 85 dailies, including The Globe and Mail of Toronto, and several non-dailies in the United States and Canada. Netscape Previewing New Release A preview release of the new Netscape Communicator software is to be posted Monday, giving Netscape Communications Corp. the jump on rival Microsoft Corp. in the latest salvo of the "browser wars." Reporting from Palo Alto, California, the Reuter News Service says Communicator includes the latest version of the Mountain View, California-based company's popular software for browsing the Web, Netscape Navigator 4.0, and also is expected to contain electronic mail, a Web editing tool, its Collabra news reader and audio conferencing software. Meanwhile, a Microsoft spokeswoman told the wire service a preview release of its Internet Explorer 4.0 browser would be available sometime in the first quarter of 1997, with the final version posted on the Internet by the end of the second quarter. Notes Reuters, "Netscape's Communicator is in part designed to provide a broader suite of Internet capabilities as Netscape moves beyond a battle over browsers further into the territory of corporate intranets, internal networks based on Internet technology." Netscape Offers Promised Preview The promised preview edition of Netscape Communications Corp.'s new Communicator software for use on the Internet and in corporate networks known as intranet has been formally posted on the company's site on the World Wide Web. Release of the test software - - which aims to extend its Navigator browser software by adding richer messaging, editing and collaboration features -- demonstrated Netscape was keeping its rollout on track, analysts have told the Reuter News Service. For instance, Net analyst Michael Parekh at Goldman Sachs told the wire service that eventually much richer use of Internet technology will make the early browsers now used seem primitive, adding, "What we typically thought about as the Web browser two years ago is going to seem like Pong is in terms of video games today," referring to the video game Pong, which was introduced in the early 1970s. UPI sans the Communicator combines open electronic mail, or e-mail, with a suite of browser programs that enable computer users to edit Internet pages, engage in audio conferencing, update schedules, and access news through a filtering system. Industry analysts expect the software, which is due to be introduced as a final product by the end of March, to help usher in a whole new form of collaborative use of the Internet. Number of ISPs Doubles to 3,100 The ranks of Internet service providers doubled to some 3,100 this year, surprising some analysts who predicted the entry of larger companies and the move to $19.95 flat-rate pricing would slash the number of ISPs. "The smaller ISPs tend to do a better job of hand-holding people onto the Internet," says publisher Jack Rickard, whose Boardwatch magazine in Littleton, Colorado, published the findings. Rickard told Franklin Paul of the Reuter News Service, "We hear stories of people driving out to (a subscriber's) house, setting them up and demo-ing in their living rooms. You can't do that on a national scale." Paul notes industry giants, like AT&T's Worldnet and Netcom On-Line Communications Inc., command the lion's share of subscribers, with upwards of 500,000 subscribers each, while online services like CompuServe, America Online and Prodigy have millions of customers. By contrast, the average ISP has only about 2,200 subscribers and "instead of competing on price, they focus on other features like customer service and easy access," says Reuters. Rickard notes customer service is one of the biggest problems for the large firms, which often contract with other firms to provide customer assistance, adding, "Because of who they are, they are attracting the less sophisticated user, so they spend eight or 10 hours on the phone with a customer trying to get them online -- only to get $20 a month from them" in subscription fees. While Rickard predicts growth in ISPs will continue for another year or two as the Internet lures more users, Paul notes some analyts believe the growth may slow sooner as major players continue to grow, regional Bell phone companies enter the business and industry consolidation accelerates. Info Publishers' Income Slides Cowles/Simba Information reports that 47 major information publishers experienced an aggregate 94.6 percent decline in net income in 1996's third quarter. The Stamford, Connecticut, market researcher says the companies had a total net income of $22 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared to $422 million in same period in 1995. "Many companies underwent higher than usual operating costs this quarter as a result of restructuring to better compete, including increased marketing spending and write-offs of non-profitable businesses," says Lynn Dougherty, a Cowles/Simba Information analyst. Twenty-one of the 47 companies surveyed experienced net losses or declines in net income, including America Online, CompuServe, CheckFree and A.D.A.M. Software. Aggregate revenue for the 47 companies grew 15.9 percent, rising to $5.0 billion from $4.3 billion in 1995's third quarter. Revenue fell for 10 of the 47 companies. According to Cowles/Simba Information statistics, subscription-based news and information providers such as Desktop Data, M.A.I.D, Individual and PC Quote saw 30 percent or better growth in the third quarter over the previous year's comparable time period, attributable to increased subscriber counts and online and Internet usage. "We can expect similar growth from this category in the first half of 1997," says Dougherty. Christmas E-Mail Overloads Web Site Boston book publisher Houghton Mifflin Co. has learned a lesson this holiday season about the power of electronic mail. The company at first feared it would be ignored when it offered to donate a book to a children's hospital for every 25 e-mailed holiday wishes it received by Dec. 31 at its site on the Internet's World Wide Web. However, says The Associated Press, instead of the few thousand messages it hoped for, Houghton Mifflin collected morethan 67,000 in the two weeks after Thanksgiving. Said Erica Khonke, marketing coordinator for Houghton Mifflin Interactive, "All of a sudden, everybody in America was sending us e-mail." In fact, the volume so overwhelmed Houghton Mifflin's computer, the publisher was forced to route messages to another computer. Then on Dec. 11, the publisher declared the campaign a success and closed its mailbox, saying it could no longer keep up. AP quotes Houghton Mifflin as saying it will ship some 2,500 children's books to hospitals around the country. Santa's Super Sites Socko Surfing During this Christmas season, more than 2.5 million people around the globe have clicked into Santa Claus' new digital digs. The free site (http://www.christmas.com) has been managed by McGrath/Power Public Relations in California's Silicon Valley, where Terri Foos Cook told United Press International, "The most popular area is e-mail to Santa. Every person who sends a legitimate letter will receive an e-mail response. Last year, hundreds of thousands of children, of all ages and writing in dozens of languages, e-mailed Santa." Also popular have been the "Countdown to Christmas" feature, which gives days, hours, minutes and seconds before Christmas, and an area explaining how the season is celebrated in other cultures and by other religions. UPI notes the site is sponsored by The Worldcom Group, a consortium of independent public relations agencies. Computer Error Leads to Feast Senior citizens in Thermopolis, Wyoming, literally ate high on the hog this week because of a computer error, and it all started with Florence Sinclair's annual Christmas ham. Every year, Florence's kids send her a ham, but this year, United Parcel Service came to the door with 33 of them. "Well, I panicked," she told The Associated Press. "What am I going to do with 33 hams?" Initially, she had UPS take them back, then called the supplier, HoneyBaked Ham Co. of Holland, Ohio. However, HoneyBaked didn't want the hams back, and she would have to take all of them or none. Someone suggested she donate the hams to the Worland Food Bank, but that agency couldn't handle that much perishable food, AP reports. Then she thought of senior centers in Thermopolis and Worland, and recruited neighbors and friends to fetch the hams from UPS and deliver them. 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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 EDUPAGE STR Focus Keeping the users informed Edupage Contents International Copyright Accords Meet With Approval Jobs Returns Home (Part-Time) Teledesic Might Get Off The Ground Hayes Gets A Second Chance ACLU To Challenge State "Indecency" Laws Dot-Edu, Dot-Org, Dot-Com, Dot- Somethingnew Pac Bell To Use ADSL For Internet Access Infoseek Plans Free News Service LittleBrother Is Watching Netscape's Communicator Is Latest Word In Browser Battles FCC To Study Access Charges How Can A Niche Be Before It Disappears? Share Customer Data? Juno Hasn't, Doesn't, & Won't What's Next For Current Mac Owners? Notes From The Culture Wars INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT ACCORDS MEET WITH APPROVAL Negotiators in Geneva have approved international copyright accords that boost protection against software piracy worldwide and lay the groundwork for increased commerce over the Internet. Libraries, Web surfers and Internet service providers won a major victory in the final rounds, with the acknowledgment that the temporary copies of copyrighted materials automatically made by computers while browsing the Web are not considered violations of copyright. The treaties protect copyright owners while also encourage content developers to "create wonderful works that enrich all of society, but tempered with that protection a balance affording access to information," says the American Library Association's legal counsel Adam Eisgrau. (Tampa Tribune 21 Dec 96 A6) JOBS RETURNS HOME (PART-TIME) Apple Computer has hired Steve Jobs as a consultant and technology director to refurbish the Mac operating system. Apple will buy Jobs' Next operating software, betting that sexy features like its object orientation and multitasking capabilities will entice more software developers to write snazzy new applications programs for Macs. Describing himself as ''just a part-time consultant," Jobs adds: "My job is not savior." He says that Apple CEO Gil Amelio "asked me to give him some advice ... I'd love to help Apple.'' Jobs will not have an operational role nor a seat on the board of directors. (San Jose Mercury News 22 Dec 96) Apple had originally tried to hire Jean-Louis Gassee's Be Inc., but the companies deadlocked over price. The preliminary Wall Street reaction from the president of a capital management firm: is that "this is a really make-or-break situation for the company." (Investor's Business Daily 23 Dec 96 A7) TELEDESIC MIGHT GET OFF THE GROUND Teledesic, the grandiose 840-satellite "Internet in the Sky" system envisioned by Bill Gates and Craig McCaw, says it is on the verge of receiving its long-delayed operating license from the FCC, and hopes to line up its first satellite launches in 1997. "We expect to nail our license any day now," says the company's president. "You'll see a big flurry of activity soon after that." Teledesic has been waiting for FCC approval since 1994, when the company first announced its plans to offer international corporations data rates of between two million and 1.2 billion bits per second, using a giant fleet of low Earth orbit satellites. Although some industry observers doubt the Teledesic venture will ever get off the ground, McCaw and Gates last week showed their continued support by doubling their investment in the project to 37.6% of the company. (Wall Street Journal 20 Dec 96 B6) HAYES GETS A SECOND CHANCE Former industry leader Hayes Modems is trying for a comeback. After emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings with a new management team and a $35 million investment from three Asian technology companies, Hayes plans to provide corporate clients not only modems, but remote access software for seamless outside connections to corporate networks. "Most of our competitors are worried about building the access, but that's just the plumbing. We want to create the software to make the plumbing work," says company founder Dennis Hayes. Hayes predicts it will have 56K modems available by February -- the same time the faster modems will be debuted by competitor U.S. Robotics -- and is planning an all-out assault on networking heavyweights 3Com and Cisco Systems for remote-access projects. (Business Week 23 Dec 96 p84) ACLU TO CHALLENGE STATE "INDECENCY" LAWS The American Civil Liberties Union will challenge two state laws in New York and Virginia that are intended to thwart Internet "indecency." The New York law bans distribution of indecent material to minors over the Internet; the Virginia law forbids state employees to use state-owned computers to access sexual material on the Internet. The ACLU says that both laws are unconstitutional restrictions on free speech. Sometime in the next few months, the Supreme Court will hear the U.S. Justice Department's appeal of a federal court ruling that the Communications Decency Act, part of the Telecommunications Reform Act of 1996 that was passed by Congress this past fall, is unconstitutional. (PC World 20 Dec 96) DOT-EDU, DOT-ORG, DOT-COM, DOT-SOMETHING NEW The Internet Society's International Ad Hoc Committee on domain names is proposing that seven new top- evel domains (such as .edu, .org, .com) be added to the Internet naming structure. After the introduction of he additional 10 new top-level 3- to 5-letter domains (not yet selected), ten people or organizations could register similar names -- thereby presumably reducing the number of disputes over the us of popular or trademarked names. The committee is recommending that an unlimited number of firms be authorized to register the new addresses, a process that is now being handled exclusively by Network Solutions Inc. in Herndon, Virginia. (CNN Interactive 20 Dec 96) < http://www.iahc.org > PAC BELL TO USE ADSL FOR INTERNET ACCESS Pacific Bell, as part of a consortium including Ameritech, BellSouth, and Southwestern Bell, is buying ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber line) technology from Alcatel Telecom in Richardson, Texas, in order to provide Internet access at speeds up to 1.5 million bits per second and to allow simultaneous phone conversations over the same telephone line. (New York Times 24 Dec 96 C3) INFOSEEK PLANS FREE NEWS SERVICE Infoseek Corp. will offer several free news services to corporate customers as part of its plan to differentiate itself from competitors in the Web searching business. One service, called Daily News, will allow users to pick and choose among six news sources -- the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News and MSNBC. Initially, Daily News will offer access only to articles published in the current edition, but the company hopes to expand its service to include archives going back several weeks, featuring news from 1,000 sources. That leaves it only 994 more deals to cut with content providers. (Wall Street Journal 24 Dec 96 B6) LITTLEBROTHER IS WATCHING Workers who spend more time surfing the Net than attending to the bottom line are in for a comeuppance. A new software product called LittleBrother tracks and analyzes Web usage by employees and blocks selected sites. Made by Calif.-based Kansmen Corp., LittleBrother can tell who is playing network games, who uses chat rooms, and who is downloading non-work materials. The software currently available runs on a Windows NT computer linked to an Ethernet network, but early next year the company plans to roll out a Windows 95 version. (Investor's Business Daily 24 Dec 96 A5) NETSCAPE'S COMMUNICATOR IS LATEST WORD IN BROWSER BATTLES Netscape Communications has beat Microsoft by several months in releasing the test version of its updated Communicator browser software. Communicator includes more sophisticated e-mail and groupware capabilities, and is designed to compete with Microsoft's Exchange and BackOffice programs and IBM's Lotus Notes. Microsoft will respond in the next few months with a new version of Explorer that incorporates technology that allows users to broadcast information to the desktop. Netscape's Constellation software will be added to its Communicator browser in the next three months, giving it similar capabilities. (Investor's Business Daily 23 Dec 96 A7) FCC TO STUDY ACCESS CHARGES The Federal Communications Commission will be inviting public and industry comment on optional charging plans that reimburse local phone carriers for handling the beginning and ending of long-distance: the so- called "access" fees. The local companies are promoting an option that would rely on competition to reduce the fees, whereas the long-distance carriers want the FCC to order cuts in the charges over a specific period. The local phone service providers collect a total of $23 billion a year, some part of which is used to subsidize service in hard-to-service areas and to provide service to low-income customers. (Atlanta Journal- Constitution 24 Dec 96 F8) (Editor Note) Late 12/24/96 the FCC ruled against access fees. HOW CAN A NICHE BE BEFORE IT DISAPPEARS? "Niche" cable networks (offering programs to special interests, such as jazz, ecology, Afro-Caribbean culture, etc.) are finding it increasingly difficult to be transmitted by the approximately 11,000 cable systems in the U.S., because economic forces inevitably favor broad-concept programming over specialized programming, and the niche networks are having to compete with much larger players. Industry analyst Marc Riely says: "If you don't have the equity interest of a larger operator, or you aren't backed by a media company like Disney or Time Warner, you'll have a really tough time getting launched." (New York Times 23 Dec 96 C7) SHARE CUSTOMER DATA? JUNO HASN'T, DOESN'T, & WON'T Subscribers to Juno Online Services get free e-mail service in exchange for having small, unobtrusive graphical ads attached to their mail and for filling out a personal profile so that the company can target its ads accurately; however, the New York attorney general's office noticed a discrepancy between Juno's Web site (which said it would not sell or distribute any of the information to outside businesses) and the actual agreement (which gave the company the right to sell or exchange user profiles). Juno's president immediately clarified the policy and promised not to distribute any personal information to third parties: "We didn't anticipate doing it, didn't intend to do it and didn't do it." (Newsday 11 Dec 96 A51) WHAT'S NEXT FOR CURRENT MAC OWNERS? Following Apple's purchase of Next, Apple and Next executives are working hard to assure Macintosh buyers that the new operating system will work with current Macintosh systems but have not made such assurances to owners of older-model Macs. Apple chief technology officer Ellen Hancock says the new operating system will initially only run on ''currently shipping'' Macs that use the PowerPC processor. Older Macintoshes, based on the earlier 68000 processor, and possibly early PowerPC models, may be orphaned. (San Jose Mercury News Center 24 Dec 96) NOTES FROM THE CULTURE WARS As previously reported (Edupage 5 Dec 96), Georgia Tech Lorraine, the European platform of the Georgia Institute of Technology, is being sued in France for having its home page presented only in English and not in French. In France, the law requires that goods and services be offered in French in addition to any other languages in which the offer is made. Marc Bonnaut, the administrator of the French-defense association bringing the suit, says that the use of English and other foreign languages on the Net is not the real issue, and that whether a site "is in English, Chinese or Russian is no problem. The problem is that it is not also in French. We are not against English, we are for the French language. We are in France, after all." Under a 1994 law, such public communications as advertising and restaurant menus must be in French, and if they are also translated it must be into more than one language, to prevent France from becoming a bilingual country. The director of Georgia Tech Lorraine says in protest: "The curriculum is the curriculum of an American university; the students are all Georgia Tech students." M. Bonnaut says: "If there is a German cafe in Paris and only Germans come to it, the cafe still has to have a French-language menu." (Washington Post 24 Dec 96 A1) Edupage is written by John Gehl (gehl@educom.edu) & Suzanne Douglas (douglas@educom.edu). Voice: 404-371-1853, Fax: 404-371-8057. Technical support is provided by the Office of Information Technology, University of North Carolina. EDUPAGE is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to Edupage: send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe edupage Marvin Minsky (assuming that your name is Marvin Minsky; if it's not, substitute your own name). ... To cancel, send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: unsubscribe edupage... Subscription problems: educom@educom.unc.edu. EDUCOM REVIEW is our bimonthly print magazine on learning, communications, and information technology. Subscriptions are $18 a year in the U.S.; send mail to offer@educom.edu. When you do, we'll ring a little bell, because we'll be so happy! Choice of bell is yours: a small dome with a button, like the one on the counter at the dry cleaners with the sign "Ring bell for service"; or a small hand bell; or a cathedral bell; or a door bell; or a chime; or a glockenspiel. Your choice. But ring it! EDUCOM UPDATE is our twice-a-month electronic summary of organizational news and events. To subscribe to the Update: send a message to: listproc@educom.unc.edu and in the body of the message type: subscribe update John McCarthy (assuming that your name is John McCarthy; if it's not, substitute your own name). INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE The CAUSE organization's annual conference on information technology in higher education is scheduled for the end of this month in New Orleans. The conference will bring together administrators, academicians and other managers of information resources. For full conference information check out or send e-mail to conf@cause.colorado.edu. ARCHIVES & TRANSLATIONS. For archive copies of Edupage or Update, ftp or gopher to educom.edu or see URL: < http://www.educom.edu/>. For the French edition of Edupage, send mail to edupage-fr@ijs.com with the subject "subscribe"; or see < http://www.ijs.com >. For the Hebrew edition, send mail to listserv@kinetica.co.il containing : SUBSCRIBE Leketnet-Word6 or see < http://www.kinetica.co.il/ newsletters/leketnet/ >. For the Hungarian edition, send mail to: send mail to subs.edupage@hungary.com. An Italian edition is available on Agora' Telematica; connection and/or free subscription via BT-Tymnet and Sprint (login: General Preferences -> Helpers dialog box) you probably noticed that when you close Netscape, it deletes all the Zip files you downloaded. Just download and run this free helper and all your archives will be automatically moved out of your temporary directory to safety in a location of your choice. Two versions available, one for Windows95/NT4.0 and one for Windows 3.1 Download Site - http://www.winzip.com/betanh.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price WinDates - v2.01 12/22/96 425k Shareware $15 "NEVER MISS MOTHER'S DAY OR A BIRTHDAY AGAIN!!" WinDates is reminder program that allows you to enter important dates and times to remember during the year. By installing the WinDates icon in your "Startup" program group, WinDates will remind you of events each time you start Windows. Holiday, Birthday, Event reminder with alarms & calendar for Windows 95/NT. Supports one-time, monthly and yearly events as well as custom events such as last Sunday in May. Calculates age on birthdays. AUTOMATICALLY calculates and reminds you of almost 40 holidays like Easter and Mother's Day. Download Site - http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rockinsoftware Name/Version Release Date Size Price Peeper 32-bit - 2.1.7 12/20/96 2mb Shareware - $27.95 + $3.00 s/h PEEPER 32 is a multiple document file viewer. This means you can display up to nine different files at the same time. It is capable of Viewing over 30 file formats including JPG, ASCII, HEX, PCX, TIF, BMP, WMF, ICON, MS Word, WordPerfect, AMI PRO, xBase, Paradox, Lotus, XL, ZIP, LZH, Quattro Pro, MetaFiles, Q&A, Windows Write, and Microsoft Works. Extract Version identification info from Windows DLLs, EXEs, and other Windows file types. File contents can be marked and copied to the Windows Clipboard. Other features include File Management features such as COPY, MOVE, DELETE, RENAME. Peeper 32 requires Windows 95 or above. Download Site - http://www.fineware.com/peep32a.shtml Name/Version Release Date Size Price ZipFolders - 2.02 12/21/96 798k Shareware $24.00 ZipFolders provides a easy way to handle Zip files under Windows and DOS. You can run any program, game and installation program directly from within a ZIP file. No need to decompress any file to a temporary location first, run every file right out of its ZIP file and keep it in the ZIP file to save precious disk space. Download Site - http://www.mijenix.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price OnLive Talker 32-bit - 1.0 plug-in 12/20/96 2.7mb Free beta Talker lets users have group conversations on any web page, enhancing the greatest wealth of information in the world by adding socialization. Talker takes current text chat and person-to-person voice products to the next level by allowing people to socialize around the millions of existing topics on the Web in their own voices. As a plug-in to Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer, people just go to their favorite OnLive! enabled web site and can join conversations with users from around the world who share that interest while viewing the same web content. All you need is a multimedia Pentium and a basic 14.4 modem connection to the Internet. Download Site - http://www.onlive.com/talker/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price XDesktop - 1.0 12/18/96 961k Shareware $10.00 The ultimate desktop wallpaper changer. Support BMP, JPG, PCX, GIF, TGA, DIB, RLE format images. It can automatically changer wallpaper by the style center/tile/fit to screen/rule for you. Various change sequence: up to down, down to up, random. Support multi set (like 'theme' in MS PLUS!) and each set can have its own properties. Remove wallpaper, drag&drop and much more. Download Site - http://www.cs.nthu.edu.tw/~br831529/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price J-Write - 2.2c 12/20/96 495k Shareware $20.00 The J-Write Text Editor is a powerful Windows text editor, designed from the beginning to handle very large text files. Regardless of size, you will find that J-Write will open a file containing megabytes of text as quickly as a file containing only a few lines. Even after editing the text, file saving is as fast as your disk will stream data. J-Write has full keyboard and mouse support, multi-level undo/redo, four word wrap modes including WYSIWYG, support for uuencode/decode, EMail Reformating, any ANSI font, zoom, plus many other useful text editing features. Download Site - http://www.demon.co.uk/mwa-soft/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Scytale - 1.4e 12/21/96 560k Freeware Terrific front end for using PGP. All the commands you need are here in a handy Windows version. This version has many new features added. To save keystrokes, the program now remembers some of the last input you provided such as who to encrypt to, your password can be remembered to save retyping, and there is a macro facility to make it really automatic when you use it with any program that will accept macro commands. With this macro feature the program action takes place without even bringing the program menu up, and then shuts itself down automatically after completion. This makes for a very seamless interface to such things as mail programs. The key management features are terrific and you really don't need to know how to work the DOS based PGP program at all. Note: Requires you already have PGP installed. Download Site - http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/5428/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Internet Agents 32-bit - 1.0 beta 0.9.2c 12/21/96 5.6mb Shareware $49.95 Agents created by Internet Agents can carry out a large variety of tasks, such as: sending, receiving, and sorting mail; searches; downloading Web sites; updating Web pages; and managing discussion groups. Agents can be programmed to work for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week - leaving you free to do what you want. An Internet Agents agent can outperform humans in output as well as in versatility: *Meta Finder can submit a request to several search engines simultaneously, handle the results, and extract all pertinent Web pages *Grabber downloads a site to your computer *News Grabber regularly grabs news according to your fields of interest *Mail Merger sends personalized mail to an unlimited number of recipients by effecting a merge with a database *Mail Reader regularly picks up your e- mail and many other tasks are optional. Download Site - http://www.agents-tech.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Goldwave - 3.22 12/21/96 465k Shareware $30 GoldWave is a digital audio editor for Microsoft Windows. It features realtime amplitude, spectrum, and spectrogram oscilloscopes, intelligent large file editing, numerous effects, and support for a wide variety of sound formats. GoldWave can open and play .au files found in Java applications and on Web pages. It can convert to and from many sound formats including .wav, .voc, .afc, .au, and binary data. Special effects such as Doppler, distortion, echo, flange, and transpose can alter and enhance your audio files to create new and unique sounds. GoldWave is ideal for people who need to work with audio for Java applications, Web pages, games, radio/TV, or just for fun. Download Site - http://web.cs.mun.ca/~chris3/goldwave Name/Version Release Date Size Price TPS Bud - 1.0 ??? 482k Shareware $7 Keep track of your Expenses/Income with TPSBUD. Spreadsheet type Grid. Up to 45 monthly expenses and 5 monthly Incomes. Now you will be able to watch every penny you spend or earn. If you are looking for a simple, easy to use, personal, monthly budget program, this is it! TPS Bud keeps track of your monthly expenses and income from January to December. The program uses a spreadsheet format with up to 45 entrees for monthly expenses and 5 entrees for monthly incomes per each file you create. The program automatically adds and subtracts all columns, keeping monthly and annual totals for each expense and income category. Data is added by using the accompanying calculator screen or your keyboard. Changing any entrees is simple and easy. Hence, all category totals are updated with each change. Download Site - http://www.bestzips.com/html/11510/tpsbud.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price QuikLink Explorer 32-bit - 3.0 beta 4 12/22/96 2.3mb Shareware $10 QuikLink Explorer is a replacement system for your Netscape Bookmark, Mosaic Hotlist, and Internet Explorer Favorites files. Working with the more popular web browsers, QuikLink Explorer takes you where you want to go with the click of a button. No longer do you need to maintain seperate lists of your favorite sites for each browser you use. You can also use QuikLink Explorer to convert your lists between browser formats or turn them into web pages. The easy to use interface, similar to the Windows95 Explorer, makes web surfing fast and efficient, saving you time and money. Download Site - http://www.quiklinks.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Szipw 32-bit - 4.0 12/22/96 400k Shareware Super Zip is the Ultimate Zip file manager for Windows. It supports command line parameters, Creates and manages backup sets for easy backup operations , makes Zip archives with long filenames.View Zip files like Disks with a directory tree, Internal Zip/Unzip. Easy configuration. Easy edit of Zip comments and file comments. Accepts command line parameters like PKZIP. Internal File viewer, updates zip file when contents changed. Support Files and dirs dropped from windows file manager, Add files using a list of path/wildcards, very usefull when files to compress are in different locations. Recompression of archives using different password.compression level. Spanned Disks (multiple diskettes), Hidden/System files, Volume labels, full PKzip 2.0 Encryption supported.Support for Self Extractable archives. Allow renaming, changing file date/time, Moving to another dir (using drag/drop), of the files and directories within the archive. Internal Zip repair functions. Download Site - http://www.voicenet.com/~jank/astec/szipw.htm Name/Version Release Date Size Price Kalkulator 32-bit 12/19/96 493k Shareware $ 40.00 Midget 32-bit 12/19/96 221k Shareware $ 10.00 Kalkulator is a powerful yet simple to use calculator and numerical Swiss army knife for Windows 3.1 or 95, with features making it especially suitable for scientific and engineering users, including students of these disciplines. If you think Kalkulator is an overkill for your needs, there is a smaller and simpler alternative: Midget. Midget is a calculator, the "Kalkulator for the Rest of Us". It provides most of the everyday capabilities of its more advanced sibling in a smaller, simpler (and cheaper!) package. Kalkulator does not create any files outside of its folder, so trying it out is simple: just unzip it into a new folder and run - if you decide the program is not for you, delete the whole folder and forget about it. Download Site - http://www.freeflight.com/wrotniak/kalkul.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Kith and Kin - 3.02 January - 96 404k Shareware $48 An excellent genealogy/family-tree program. Create a visual tree with detailed information in this searchable database. Include pictures, sounds, maps, and more. Download Site - http://www.galttech.com/educ.shtml Name/Version Release Date Size Price Cosmo Player 32-bit - 1.0 beta 3 12/24/96 2.5mb Free Beta Cosmo Player is the first browser to support VRML 2.0, the industry standard for 3D worlds on the Web with sensors, scripts and sound. To boost your way through the infoverse, Cosmo Player has plenty of Silicon Graphics visual simulation technology packed into it's engine room. Now you can experience vast 3D universes on your PC without getting bogged down. It has Spatial audio for presence in the virtual world, Embedded audio and video to enliven the virtual world, and Constant frame rates for smooth interaction with large worlds. Download Site - http://webspace.sgi.com/cosmoplayer/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price VoiceBrowser for Win95 12/24/96 4.4mb Shareware $12.95 This exciting new product enhances the most popular Internet access software such as Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer and Spyglass Mosaic by enabling users to navigate to popular websites via speech, as well as to command and control the many advanced functions of browsers. Internet navigation, terms and technology can be very confusing to new users, even the most sophisticated. Using conversational speech as a way to communicate with the browser software makes the experience easier and more fun. Users can navigate to their favorite sites, navigate within those sites and explore new ones. VoiceBrowser has pre-programmed 50 of the most popular WWW sites and also allows users to add new websites simply, as they surf the Net. The system comes with "voice folders", which enable the user to organize their favorite web sites by categories such as finance, education, sports, computers, shopping, entertainment, news, food, travel and then access them by voice commands. Download Site - http://www.verbex.com/browser.htm - Fully functional Sega game demos for the PC Name Size Sega Rally 14.30mb Virtua Fighter 2,848k Virtua Squad 6,141k Daytona USA 5,068k Comix Zone 1,643k BUG! 3,668k Baku Baku 895k Sonic CD 5,134k All demos require a Pentium PC (60mhz or better) with at least 8MB of RAM, an SVGA monitor and a Soundblaster compatible sound card. You also need DirectX. Save the file to disk, run the file and you are ready to go! Download Site - Download Site - http://www.sega.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Heroes of Might and Magic 2 12/20/96 27mb Commercial Demo Having crushed his enemies, consolidated his power base and eliminated dissent at the end of Heroes of Might and Magic, Lord Ironfist settled down to rule the land of Enroth. After 25 years of peace, the land is again thrust into turmoil. Lord Ironfist is dead and the ensuing struggle for power between his sons, Archibald and Roland, has led to a state of civil war. Players must choose sides and gather their armies as they use all of their strategic wit and tactics to join in the battle for domination of the lands. Win95 only. Download Site - http://www.nwcomputing.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Canasta - 4.02 12/25/96 1.3mb Shareware $19.95 Strategy cardgame played against the computer -using artificial intelligence- or another person over a network or the Internet. The player wins by melding cards and by making canastas. A canasta is a column of seven cards (i.e. seven Kings). Help file with explanation of all rules is included. Canasta for Windows supports multiple resolutions up to 1280x1024 and includes sound & music support, highscores, unlimited undo, adjustable rules and three skill levels (Beginner, Advanced and Expert). Download Site - http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/mharte/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Blast Chamber 12/26/96 5mb Commercial Demo Welcome to The Blast Chamber. Your challenge is simple: survive the game! Before entering the chamber you should familiarize yourself with the competition and the chamber itself. Your efforts will determine whether you succeed and are rewarded with fame and glory - or fail in a flaming burst of C4. Note: Requires a Pentium PC (60mhz or better) with at least 8MB of RAM and an SVGA monitor. Download Site - http://www.activision.com/blastchamber/index2.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Eat My Dust for Win95 12/21/96 4.3mb Shareware Park your ego behind the wheel for pulse-pounding, 3-D road racing like you've never experienced! Outrageous cars, crazy characters, wicked driving conditions, and low-down, dirty tricks are the rules of the road. So gear up and get ready to outsmart your opponent in a mind-blowing, adrenaline-rushing road race. It features: *4 racing environments including Alien Asteroid, Bleach Bone Gulch, Country Challenge and Super Speedway *Choice of 5 turbo charged vehicles and 6 hysterical drivers and more. Note: For Windows 95 only. Download Site - http://www.eatmydust.com/ Name/Version Release Date Size Price Surface Tension 12/20/96 15mb Commercial Demo Battle the Forces of Corporate Greed Teleport Across the Galaxy and Blow a few Corporate Suits into Cosmic Slime. PMA, a deadly airborne desease, is infecting the Earth's population at an astronomical rate. Glomavine, the only vaccine, is six weeks away somewhere in our Solar System; it cannot survive the journey. LYNX megacorp has the only known Glomavine mine AND owns all the freighters in the system. Dr. Rawlwin has invented Teleportation, but LYNX does not wish to lose revenue as a result of the doctor's find. You are charged with the mission of teleporting to planetoids in our system to find the Glomavine mine, and to overthrow any LYNX camps you may find. DOS based game. Download Site - http://www.gametek.com/webfinall/coming_soon/surface/surface.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price EditPad 32-bit 1.2.2 12/16/96 210k Postcardware UPDATE (STR1251) - EditPad is a replacement for the standard Windows NotePad. EditPad requires Windows 95 or later to run. No additional DLLs or whatever are required. Download Site - http://www.tornado.be/~johnfg/jgsoft.html Name/Version Release Date Size Price Pegasus E-Mail 32-bit - 2.51 12/24/96 1.5mb Freeware UPDATE (STR1251) - Pegasus Mail is an electronic mail system for use with Novell NetWare and on stand alone systems using the WINSOCK TCP/IP interface. It is a full-fledged mailer, with a lot of nice features like a spell checker, mailing list support, and much more Download Site - http://www.pegasus.usa.com Name/Version Release Date Size Price December '96 definition update for Mcafee 12/20/96 365k Freeware UPDATE (STR1251) - The December virus update for users of McAfee's anti- virus products. This file is a complete replacement for any previous definitions set for all of the Mcafee products. Usable by: WebScan (the antivirus helper app), NetShield, VShield, and VirusScan for DOS,, or Windows (3.x, 95, or NT). Download Site - http://www.mcafee.com **** Kids Computing Corner Frank Sereno, Editor The Kids' Computing Corner Computer news and software reviews from a parent's point of view Before we get into the reviews this week, there is supposed to be a picture included this week of my nephew, Jason. To the best of my knowledge, Jason is the youngest writer on the staff. He would welcome e-mail from fellow teen computer enthusiasts. His e-mail address is jason.sereno@mules- ear.com Hopefully he will be a regular contributor and will review games as well as educational software. I think it is important that adults recognize how teens feel about the educational and entertainment software that is being offered to them today. I personally hope that everyone had a very merry Christmas. The New Year is right around the corner so don't forget to make those resolutions. I'm hoping to be a bit more patient this year along with staying on my low-fat diet. The cholesterol got up to around 230 which is a wee bit above the optimum level. So far I have no signs of heart disease (I ran the treadmill for the stress test on Monday), but I have to make the changes that will keep me around for several more decades. Be sure that if you go out celebrating on New Year's Eve that you have a designated driver if you will be partaking of alcoholic beverages. And be sure to watch out for the other guy. Everyone's judgment is not as good as yours, so be sure to drive defensively. This magazine's staff hopes that you will all be around to enjoy life and our prose for many years to come. --Frank New Sierra Promotion Features Trek BMX Bikes To promote their latest installment in the Dr. Brain series, The Time Warp of Dr. Brain, Sierra is offering 115 Trek SubDude BMX bikes to lucky contestants. Entries will be accepted from January 18 through February 16, 1997. You can learn more about the Dr. Brain Time Trek at Computer City outlets or on the World Wide Web at http://www.sierra.com/drbrain4. No purchase is necessary but entrants must be at least 18 years old. Entry forms can be filled out at Computer City or you can enter by mail by sending your name, address and phone number to Dr. Brain's Time Trek Sweepstakes, Sierra On- Line, 3380 146th Place SE, Bellevue, WA 98007. The Time Warp of Dr. Brain is the fourth installment of the Dr. Brain series. This newest title features over 600 puzzles, 3D graphics and animation, and a new soundtrack. Journey through time to give your mind the most exercise it has had in years. You'll be amazed! You'll be stumped! Guinness Multimedia Disc of Records Windows CD-ROM ages 6 and up street price around $30 Grolier Interactive Danbury CT 06816 203-797-3530 http://www.grolier.com Program Requirements OS: Windows 3.1 CPU: 486DX-33 HD Space: 6 MB Memory: 4 MB Graphics: 640 x 480, 256 colors CD-ROM: Double-speed Audio: Windows-compatible sound card Other: mouse, printer optional review by Frank Sereno If you have been a fan of the Guinness Book of World Records, then this electronic edition from Grolier Interactive will delight you. This multimedia offering is a collection of the most eclectic records set by man and beast. The program is easy to use and navigates a lot like a web browser. You can search for records with Boolean logic or search through the topics manually. You can look at many records with picture or QuickTime movies. Another feature is a random slideshow that picks records with pictures to display. The program even has a trivia game that you can use to test your knowledge of minutiae. No matter how you use this program, the amazing facts and trivia contained within will fascinate you. Would you believe that a town in Britain combined to knit a scarf that was over 20 miles long? Or how about the fact that world's longest banana split measured over 4.5 miles in length? If you enjoy trivia and fascinating facts, Guinness Multimedia Disc of Records is the CD-ROM to get. Practice Makes Perfect Spanish Windows/Mac hybrid CD-ROM ages 9 and up street price around $40 The Learning Company 6493 Kaiser Drive Fremont CA 94555 1-800-852-2255 http://www.softkey.com Program Requirements IBM Macintosh OS: Windows 3.1, Windows 95 OS: System 7.1 CPU: 386DX/33 CPU: 68030/33 HD Space: 1 MB HD Space: 1 MB Memory: 8 MB Memory: 4 MB Graphics: 640 by 480 with 256 colors Graphics: 256 colors, 13" monitor CD-ROM: Double-speed CD-ROM: Double-speed Audio: 8-bit Windows compatible sound card Other: mouse, microphone optional Other: MacRecorder or microphone review by Jason Sereno Recently, I received the programs Practice Makes Perfect Spanish and Think and Talk Spanish from The Learning Company. They both use The Learning Company's Speech Recognition Technology. This technology gives you an example and you are to repeat it into a microphone. The computer will then play back what you said and rate you anywhere from a tourist to native. Practice Makes Perfect Spanish contains over 2,300 linked words, photos, and recordings of Spanish words. The program tries to make things fun by offering many ways to learn new words. It contains many pictures with four or five vocabulary words in each. Although I found this program helpful, the program is designed to build a person's Spanish vocabulary skills and develop correct pronunciation. There are other programs developed by The Learning Company that deal with verb conjugation, reading and writing, and grammar. In other words, don't plan on forming sentences or actually being able to communicate with another person in Spanish until you have bought one of The Learning Company's complete courses. I believe that this program's target is the 9- 15 year old group of kids because of its simplicity and very basic, yet fun teaching style. It is a good choice to buy if you have a child or if you would like to start learning basic Spanish. Berlitz Think & Talk Spanish Windows/Mac hybrid CD-ROM ages 9 and up street price about $90 The Learning Company Program Requirements IBM Macintosh OS: Windows 3.1, Windows 95 OS: System 7.1 CPU: 486DX/33 CPU: 68040/25 HD Space: 1 MB HD Space: 1 MB Memory: 8 MB Memory: 4 MB Graphics: 640 by 480 with 256 colors Graphics: 256 colors, 13" monitor CD-ROM: Double-speed CD-ROM: Double-speed Audio: 8-bit Windows compatible sound card Other: mouse, microphone optional Other: MacRecorder or microphone opt. review by Jason Sereno The Learning Company's Berlitz Think and Talk Spanish also contains many words and pictures. Unlike Practice Makes Perfect Spanish, all pictures in Think and Talk Spanish are animated. Although this may appeal to kids, I believe that this program is too advanced for smaller children and should probably be used by ages 13 and up. One incredibly useful piece of equipment is the Think and Talk Spanish Dictionary. It provides over 10,000 words in Spanish or English This is very convenient for finding specific words. This program uses a different technique than Practice Makes Perfect Spanish. Unlike Practice Makes Perfect Spanish, you see the words you are going to learn in a short skit with video and audio. You can listen and repeat using the Speech Recognition Technology as much as you want until you feel comfortable and you feel you know the words. I find this program's repetitive and similarly animated figures and static scenery make this program quickly tiring and frequently boring. There is little English used in this program so it is very easy to get confused. Even though this program is a rather repetitive and sometimes boring, it is a complete course in comparison to Practice Makes Perfect Spanish. Think and Talk includes verb conjugation, concentrates on grammar, and focuses on reading and writing also. If you really want to learn and understand Spanish and don't mind that this program is lacking in entertainment value, then Berlitz Think and Talk Spanish would be a good buy for you or your family. Amazing Math Hybrid CD-ROM for Windows and Macintosh for ages 8 to 12 street price around $30 Brighter Child Interactive 150 East Wilson Bridge Road Suite 150 Columbus OH 43085 614-847-8118 http://www.brighterchild.com Program Requirements IBM Macintosh OS: Windows 3.1, Windows 95 OS: System 7.1 CPU: 486DX/66 CPU: 68040 HD Space: 25 MB HD Space: 25MB recommended Memory: 8 MB Memory: 8 MB Graphics: 640 by 480 with 256 colors Graphics: 256 colors, 13" monitor CD-ROM: Double-speed CD-ROM: Double-speed Audio: 8-bit Windows compatible sound card Other: mouse review by Frank Sereno Amazing Math is an educational program that consists of four arcade games featuring four of Marvel Comics' super heroes. Spider-Man, Wolverine, She- Hulk and Iron Man are the on-screen protagonists as your child solves math problems and battles the minions of evil. The games feature better than average graphics and an excellent sound track. The games cover four different types of math problems. The Spider-Man vs. The Hobgoblin game requires solving basic math equations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Wolverine in the Danger Room teaches children how to read graphs. She-Hulk vs. The Toad Men encourages understanding of factoring and multiples. The final game is Iron Man vs. Modok. Children will learn basic geometric shapes and angles in this activity. Each game has three levels of difficulty. To be honest, I don't believe most eight-year-olds will be able to finish any of these activities even on the lowest level. Not only are the math problems aimed for older students, but the pressure of figuring out an answer plus playing the arcade game may require more coordination and concentration than younger students can muster. All games involve using the cursor keys for character movement and using the mouse to aim and fire projectiles. An option for using a gamepad or joystick would be a great addition to this software. Spider-Man vs. The Hobgoblin owes its design to several games from the past. I can see similarities to Squish'em and Kaboom. The Hobgoblin has taken over a skyscraper and Spider-Man must climb to top to battle his nemesis. As he climbs, he must answer basic math equations that appear in the building's windows. The answers are on pumpkins that Hobgoblin is throwing from the roof. He must catch the pumpkins with the correct answer with his web-slinger and then throw it at the equation. If a pumpkin hits Spidey or if he answers a problem incorrectly, he loses energy. If Spidey's energy runs out, then Hobgoblin wins. However, you can replenish his energy by grabbing the spiders that appear in some windows. Once you reach the roof, you must not only answer the equations, but you must hit Hobgoblin as some sort of hooverboard over Spidey's head. My kids really enjoyed watching me do the research on this part of the program! Wolverine in the Danger Room is the only game that you cannot lose while playing the arcade part of this collection. Wolverine's task is to slash colored helmets that are projected into the room, but he also must avoid fireballs, bombs, electrodes and lasers. Then a graph is made from the action in the room and the player will answer questions pertaining to the graph. You really have to read the questions carefully or you'll give an incorrect answer. This game was the least fun of the four to me. She-Hulk vs. The Toad Men is a wild shooting game. She-Hulk is driving her flying Cadillac in the night sky when the Toad Men decide to invade Earth. The Toad Men are all wearing numbers that are factors, multiples or equivalent fractions of numbers on She-Hulk's dashboard. The player must choose the right ammo to shoot the Toad Men. If you use the wrong ammo, the Toad Men attack and take away the car's energy. Lose all your energy and it's game over! To make the game even harder, in higher levels the numbers will change on the Toad Men during their attack. In a split second you go from having the right ammunition to the wrong. This game is very fast-paced and I wouldn't recommend it for most eight- or nine-year-olds. Iron Man vs. Modok owes its play design to Asteroids. Iron Man is in space trying to destroy rogue satellites. But while he is trying to do this task, he must avoid being hit by large asteroids and meteors or he will lose energy. Hitting the wrong target will sap his energy supplies as well. The cursor keys activate his rocket pack, but this depletes his energy also. Occasionally a satellite with a power-up or energy will float by. In this game your targets are geometric shapes. The trick is that the images will change as the satellites move about the screen. You might fire a shot while a satellite is a legitimate target only to have it be the wrong type when your projectile hits it. This game is fun and challenging, but it does take a while to get used to the play controls. The program's interface is easy to use. It would have been better if the "Easy Teach" lessons were narrated rather than just text and graphics. I do have a complaint about the program's requirements. Though the box and other documentation say the program can run with less than 25 megs of hard drive real estate, you aren't given any options during an install in Windows 95. It gobbled up 26 megs each time I installed it on my system. The program does support Win95's autoplay and uninstall features. I would say that this program would probably be better for ages 10 to 12 rather than 8 to 12. A lot of programs out there have more intensive math content, but if they aren't fun then kids won't learn from them. You could put a math textbook on a CD-ROM, but it would be worthless if children never accessed it. You might want to check out this program before purchasing because I could find no mentions of "satisfaction guaranteed" on the box or in the documentation. However, this program is reasonably priced and it is a lot of fun. I believe most kids will learn and have a blast playing Amazing Math. Special Notice!! STR Infofile File format for Articles File Format for STReport All articles submitted to STReport for publication must be sent in the following format. Please use the format requested. Any files received that do not conform will not be used. The article must be in an importable word processor format for Word 7.0.. The margins are .05" left and 1.0" Monospaced fonts are not to be used. Please use proportional fonting only and at eleven points. ú No Indenting on any paragraphs!! ú No Indenting of any lines or "special gimmickery" ú No underlining! ú Columns shall be achieved through the use of tabs only. Or, columns in Word format. Do NOT use the space bar. ú No ASCII "ART"!! ú There is no limits as to size, articles may be split into two if lengthy ú Actual Artwork should be in GIF, PCX, JPG, TIF, BMP, WMF file formats ú Artwork (pictures, graphs, charts, etc.)should be sent along with the article separately ú Please use a single font only in an article. TTF CG Times 12pt. is preferred. (VERY Strong Hint) If there are any questions please use either E-Mail or call. On another note. the ASCII version of STReport is fast approaching the "end of the line" As the major Online Services move away from ASCII.. So shall STReport. All in the name of progress and improved readability. The amount of reader mail expressing a preference for our Adobe PDF enhanced issue is running approximately 15 to 1 over the ASCII edition. Besides, STReport will not be caught in the old, worn out "downward compatibility dodge" we must move forward. However, if the ASCII readership remains as high, rest assured. ASCII will stay. Right now, since STReport is offered on a number of closed major corporate networks as "required" Monday Morning reading.. Our ascii readers have nothing to worry themselves about. Many grateful thanks in advance for your enthusiastic co-operation and input. Ralph F. Mariano, Editor STReport International Online Magazine Gaming Hotwire STR Feature - The World of Contemporary Gaming Featuring the Action from; "Video Gaming Central" on CompuServe N64 NewsWire STR Feature N64 Sparking a Resurgence for Gaming Consoles It appears as if Nintendo of America has intentions of bringing Mother 3 over to the U.S. They referred to it as Earthbound 64 throughout their Shoshinkai coverage. The game is supposed to be released in Japan six months after the 64DD comes out. Star Fox 64 is referred to by Mr. Miyamoto as "like a 3-D movie." There's all kinds of real-time cinema scenes in the game that can change depending on what happens during your previous missions. JoltPak To Ship Separately The Jolting Pak accessory was developed with a fishing game in mind. Yes, a fishing game. They decided it would work well with other games, too. The Jolting Pak will be released before the fishing game. F-Zero 64 Development Confirmed F-Zero 64 is very early in development. Mr. Miyamoto stated, "The main programmer is studying a lot of physics." It's supposed to be out by the end of 1997 (at least in Japan.) PENGUIN TO BECOME A REGULAR Remember that lovable penguin that you race down the slide in Super Mario 64? Well listen to what Mr. Miyamoto said about him, "Speaking of the penguin, we wanted to put it in every game, but some of the other development teams didn't want to use our penguin." The penguin currently appears in Wave Race 64 and Mario Kart 64, other than Super Mario 64. How do you get the penguin in Wave Race 64? You have to take first place on every Championship Mode race prior to the Cool Wave board. It's a small, swimming penguin that appears in the water. LIGHTING EFFECTS TO BE THE NORM Future Nintendo 64 games will take advantage of lighting effects. Thanks to the extra CPU power just sitting there, they can make smarter enemies, do real-time lighting and manage characters that aren't even visible on the screen. Star Fox 64 and Zelda 64 take advantage of lots of different effects and light sources. THIRD PARTY GAMES NEARING COMPLETION Zelda 64 is currently about 50% finished and on track for a (Japanese) release at the end of 1997. They seem to emphasis that the game is very action-packed. Hudson Soft told Nintendo during Shoshinkai that "after a slow start, development of Bomberman 64 is now well under way." Wondering how Goldeneye could be ready for a March 28, 1997 release in the U.S. when the game wasn't even playable at Shoshinkai? Apparently those crafty developers over at Rare have been keeping the game under wraps. The game is a lot further along than we were led to believe. Clay Fighter III is now known as Clay Fighter Extreme. The game is coming out in May and is compatible with the Jolting Pak! The game looks great with incredible clay combatants and 3-D fighting arenas. There's actual Dark Rift (a 3-D fighting game to be published by Vic Tokai) pics, too. The game is scheduled to come out in the 2nd or 3rd quarter of 1997. ST. ANDREW'S GOLF Seta is currently looking for a North American publisher for their St. Andrew's Old Course Golf. There's a very good chance someone will pick it up. WCW Wrestling is a fully 3-D wrestling game. It's coming out in the fall of 1997. It's official. Paradigm Simulation, Inc. is developing Sonic Wings Assault for Video Systems in Japan. There's a very good chance someone will pick it up for U.S. release. 3DO GUYS DEVELOPING FOR N64! 3DO (yes, the guys who developed the 3DO and M2 hardware) is developing a Nintendo 64 game! As hard as it may be to believe, they are working on Battle Sport II for the system. Titus has several N64 titles in the works. The off and on rumored Crazy Cars is supposed to be their second title after Lamborghini 64 (which is coming out in the 2nd quarter of 1997.) THIRD PARTY DEVS LINE UP Westwood Studios has just started working on Command & Conquer for the Nintendo 64. And, after some mid-development trouble, Freak Boy is back on the development track with a new producer at Virgin. Playmates is working on an N64 title featuring the Jungle Bots. Interplay has several other titles in development including Actua Golf and possibly another game now entitled Raze. Ocean may publish another N64 title called Ascension. Finally, TecMagik is working on two titles: Deadly Honor and Rotor Gunners. Ever wonder what happened to Buggie Boogie? Besides the Angel Studios development team full steam on the development of Major League Baseball Featuring Ken Griffey Jr., it has been revealed that Buggie Boogie is going to be a 64DD games thanks to all its customizable features. This probably explains why the game has disappeared. If you remember correctly, Creator disappeared too, but it was established awhile ago that Creator would be a 64DD title. BASKETBALL TITLE IN THE WINGS? The latest rumor from the sports arena is that Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway of the Orlando Magic could be lending his name and talents to a basketball game for the Nintendo 64. Penny apparently had talks with a Japanese video game company during his basketball trip to Japan earlier this year. It's speculated that the company he had talks with was Nintendo. At any rate, because of basketball's booming popularity in Japan, we could easily see a Nintendo-made basketball game in the near future. N64 & Super Mario 64 STR Review A-Z, Stunning, Simply Stunning! Taking a GOOD look at the N64 and Mario Introduction of First of six articles By Ralph F. Mariano Always being the skeptic, I kept telling myself don't allow yourself to get wrapped up in the hype and hustle over the new game machines. Well I too have seen the light. I might add it is a blindingly bright light. I have TWO 64 bit machines and one 32bit machines now. For almost a year. I had one 64bit machine and one 32bit machine. The 64bit machine I had for a little over a year is the Atari Jaguar with the CDRom and a number of extra accessories including an extra controller and S-Video cable. The Sony PlayStation is also similarly equipped and also has a memory card for each controller. The N64 on the other hand awaits additional controllers and an S-Video cable. The machine arrived here on Christmas Eve. it was setup and running in no time at all. I asked my oldest son to look it over as I was in over my eyebrows in getting the all the Holiday trimmings done. Once this was accomplished I joined my son. His first remark was he liked the mini- joystick built into the controller. Admittedly, once I tried it ..I liked it too. As I watched the young folks trying out the games for the N64, I recalled all the hype I was fed about the other 64bit machine the shelf in the E-Center. I began to notice a great deal of oohs and aahs while Mario was being put to task. Why is it I never heard that with the other 64bit machine? In any case, this is about the N64 not the failed Jaguar 64. While we are only at 33 stars with Mario, the quality of the graphics is darn hypnotically sweet and the music is more than enjoyable. The scrolling is as smooth as anything on the market billed as tomorrow's graphic technology. The bottom line is simple; the N64 has.. with Super Mario 64, one of the most important of features and benefits for any gaming console. It has the highest of Entertainment Factors. I can tell you now, once this issue of STReport is done its back to gathering stars. If any of you are hoping for a machine by machine. blow by blow comparison you're in for a disappointment. You see, the TWO most popular machines on the market both have high marks at this time in most every category. Sort of like trying to compare a top of the line Cadillac to a top of the line Lincoln. It's a hopeless, if not futile, effort. I will say this.. all others need not apply. In fact, my prediction is that by the end of the second quarter 1997 this shakeout will be complete leaving only the N64 and the PSX in existence. 1997 is going to be a very interesting year for the high tech gaming industry. Sega is definitely leaning heavily toward a software only operation. This perhaps the wisest of wise moves for this company if it is to remain a major player in the gaming marketplace. Sony and Nintendo have certainly re-wrote the rule book and the guidelines relative to the "making of and keeping a winning lead" in the gaming business. We will look at BOTH the PSX with its top contender Crash Bandicoot and the N64 with its top contender Super Mario 64. Not in a comparative way but hopefully via a consumer's viewpoint. You'll never see me throw a bunch of boring specs at you as they simply do not tell the true story of a product's performance. The "E" Factor is really what it is all about. That is the direction we will take. Next week, the first actual article about the N64 and it's fast growing library. Classic Computers & Entertainment Section Editor Dana P. Jacobson From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" Two major holidays down, one to go! Phew! Hope you all had a terrific holiday. Personally, mine was fairly quiet for a change - only had to manage three "shots" of cognac with my neighbor/landlord (he had the flu!). I stayed away from the in-laws this year; my wife suffered alone. Boy, I owe her big time! It's hard to believe another year of Atari coverage in STReport has passed. Who would have thought there would still be interest? Well, other than me! We still get numerous requests each week to subscribe through the Internet. In fact, I recently received requests from about a dozen readers in Peru! We've welcomed an old friend, Michael Burkley (that Unabashed Atariophile) to our family; and we're ready to welcome another familiar online name in the coming weeks. We've also completed another year at Toad Hall BBS, out 9th! I can't believe that I've been running Toad Hall for this long; we're one of the few remaining Atari support boards in the northeast. And, our numbers are rapidly depleting. We're still running two systems, on two lines. The MichTron system is still running strong on the primary line (617-567-8642) while we're still "testing" the RAT-Soft system on the second line (617-569- 2489) and waiting for that elusive larger hard drive. We've acquired a CD drive for the Rat-Soft system and we have two good leads for donations for a large hard drive or two. We hope to expand this system in January - including more storage, CD access, networking, and much more. Give us a call and see what all the excitement is all about! So, while it's been an interesting year - sometimes slow and occasionally hectic - we foresee a similar year in 1997. We hope you'll be there with us! Have a terrific New Year's and please, drive carefully AND sober! Until next time... Entertainment Section PSX Tops! Towers II! Breakout 2000! Twisted Metal 2! And more! From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is! Who said the Jaguar is dead? While Atari is essentially gone and the Jaguar not supported by Atari's "partners", JTS Corporation, the games have started to re-appear with the likes of Towers II and Breakout 2000. And, more are possible to see the light of day in 1997: Worms, World Tour Racing, Iron Soldier 2, and possibly others. Time will tell... Most of the online response to the Jaguar's latest games have been favorable, with a few nit-picks regarding a few points in the games. Now that the holidays are passed, I hope to take a look at Towers II any day now and finally get to see what I've been looking forward to playing with regard to a Jaguar RPG. In this issue, we're including the full storyline of Towers II, courtesy of JV Enterprises. They also sent us some grey-scale pictures. If you're interested in viewing these pictures, send me e-mail at: dpj@delphi.com and I'll forward them to you. It's been a short week, so I'm not going to take up a lot of your reading time this week. Let's get to the news and information! Until next time... Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News! PlayStation Game Console Continues to Outperform FOSTER CITY, CALIF. (Dec. 23) BUSINESS WIRE -Dec. 23, 1996--The facts speak for themselves. Sony Computer Entertainment America, marketers of the PlayStation game console and leading software developers for the platform, has the leading next generation video game system. Following are a few weeks in the life of the PlayStation brand. With worldwide sales nearing 10 million units, and a North American installed base fast approaching 3 million units, the numbers support the number one position of the PlayStation brand. ú December 17, 1996 - North American hardware and software revenues for the PlayStation brand have, through December 1, exceeded $1 billion, with significant additional revenues expected during the holiday season. ú December 17, 1996 - The PlayStation game console has achieved a critical mass far faster than expected. More than two million PlayStation game consoles have already been sold in North America, and one million more are expected to be sold by the end of the 1996; three million cumulative. ú December 10, 1996 - In order to keep pace with overwhelming consumer demand this holiday season, Sony Computer Entertainment America shipped "emergency" supplies of PlayStation game consoles into North America. Even with worldwide hardware production increased to one million units a month, retailers report that they cannot be supplied with PlayStation game consoles fast enough. ú December 10, 1996 - According to Jim McKenzie, senior buyer, Kay-Bee Toys, "Last year, the PlayStation was one of the top holiday items at Kay-Bee Toy stores. It's unprecedented in our business to see a product return with even greater consumer demand a full year later. But, unbelievably, the PlayStation is even hotter in 1996 than last year." ú December 3, 1996 - With nearly 200 titles available for the PlayStation game console, software is selling at an unprecedented rate of six titles to each PlayStation sold. This 6-to-1 ratio represents an all-time high for the U.S. videogame industry. ú December 2, 1996 - According to more than 3,000 program participants at the 7th annual Toy Test, sponsored by "CBS This Morning," the PlayStation game console is the system of choice. Six games available exclusively for the PlayStation game console were voted the most popular videogames for the holiday selling season, including: ú Crash Bandicoot, published by Sony Computer Entertainment America ú Tekken 2, published by Namco Hometek -- Project: Horned Owl, published by Sony Computer Entertainment America ú Star Gladiator, published by Capcom Entertainment ú Tobal No. 1, published by Sony Computer Entertainment America ú Twisted Metal 2, published by Sony Computer Entertainment America. Twisted Metal 2 is a Runaway Hit for Playstation FOSTER CITY, CALIF. (Dec. 23) BUSINESS WIRE -Dec. 23, 1996--Sony Computer Entertainment America reported today that Twisted Metal 2 for the PlayStation game console is one of the standout hits of this holiday season. After only six weeks, Twisted Metal 2 has already shipped more than 300,000 units with additional retailer reorders continuing. "Twisted Metal 2 should be the fastest first-party title to reach half a million units in sales," said Jack Tretton, vice president, sales, Sony Computer Entertainment America. "This really speaks to the huge success of the PlayStation overall. As the installed base of the PlayStation continues to rise at its rapid pace, we should see numerous hit titles selling 500,000 copies or more in 1997. In fact, NFL GameDay '97 and Crash Bandicoot will soon reach this remarkable milestone." "Sales of Twisted Metal 2 have been extraordinary since the day it hit our shelves," said Gary Arnold, vice president of marketing, Best Buy. "Titles like Twisted Metal 2 continue to drive the outstanding sales success we have obtained since the launch of the PlaStation." Twisted Metal 2, which arrived on retail shelves in early November, is a high-action, car-to-car combat game that puts players in control of heavily armed vehicles. Gameplayers hunt down their opponents through incredibly rendered, 3D environments. There are no pre-set tracks, allowing gameplayers to comb through city streets, interact with elements in the environments -- including blowing up world landmarks -- and do whatever it takes to defeat the competition. Jaguar Cheats, & Hints STR InfoFile - Solving Those Riddles! Towers II Hints! 1a. How do you unlock the gold doors on the first level? 1b. I am wandering around the first 3 levels, and I can't go farther? A. Custodians have the responsibility of cleaning up all of the rooms in the tower. Try talking to them about keys. If they don't respond to pleasantries, well you know what to do next! 2. I'm on the 2nd level in the chain room, what order do I pull the chains in? A. One of the thieves gives you a hint on which chain to pull first. You know what chain to pull last by looking at the punctuation of the phrase on the scroll. Then it's just a matter of finding out which order to pull the other two chain levers in. Remember, it's a poem. If you make a mistake, you can always pull the reset chain, and try again. 3. There are 3 Iron Golems, guarding an entrance, that I can't kill! How do I get past them? A. Those Iron Golems are pretty tough. In fact, chances are that nothing you possess right now can even hurt them. So, our best advice it to leave them be; at least for now. 4. What do you do with those tornado looking creatures (air elementals), they are not effected by anything? A. They are made of air, everything goes through them. You need to find a spell that can affect air. Talk to the thief, down a pit, in the earth elemental area. You know, earth elementals, those creatures with no legs that hit really hard! Don't forget to make sure you have a way back up the pit, or you'll be trapped just like the thief. 5. I fully charged the mace, but there is a door in the water elemental area that I can't unlock? A. When you teleported into the library, there was a scroll that talked about the mishap on the upper levels, and how it was resolved. It read in part, "... Using the Mace, I have sealed the only exits to those floors. The Mace of Elements, which alone can unlock the door, has been drained..." JV Games PO Box 97455 Las Vegas, NV 89193 (702) 734-9689 (702) 433-3973 Fax jvent@vegas.infi.net Entertainment Online STR InfoFile - Online Users Growl & Purr! Towers II - Storyline PLIGHT OF THE STARGAZER It has been several months since we've been in Lamini. The repairs to our ship are almost complete and the crews morale is finally on the rise. We've heard no news on the wars in Airatose, we've heard no news at all. No information seems to reach or leave this dungeon of an island. At first, when we ran aground, I thought this was paradise. But having to go through what we have, I would have considered being in one of Sargon's torture cells, paradise. At the time of the wreck, we were alive, and that's all that mattered. Now I realize, time soothes the emotions and things appear as they truly are. As I've stated before there is no information, not just about Airatose, but anything. This island seems to be cut off from the rest of reality. No one will talk about anything, besides the current affairs here on Lamini. All the people of power seem to be extreme wielders of magic and there is no real outside trade. So how did these mages become so wealthy. Just some very strange questions I've been tossing around in my head, that no one wants to answer. I'm wondering if we should become more involved with these peoples affairs, perhaps they could help us with the war in Airatose, after all Sargon poses a threat to us all. I wonder. There have been rumors of Lamini's elite guards, not returning from a quest. We've been asked to see Farale, the new sheriff. We entered Farale's office. A stout man in his later ages sat behind a desk. We quickly exchanged greetings and he began to speak about a lord named Daggan. "Lord Daggan was once a good man, who held one of the high seats on the council. He was an avid astronomer, who made many discoveries. Then one day he resigned his commission, stating only that his research takes precedence over any problems we might have." "Strange happenings soon followed. Mighty explosions were seen at his tower, but when examined, not a trace of damage. Also, e's been seen excavating bones out of the mystic's graveyard. When the council inquired about his doings, he flew into a screaming rage. Yelling that everyone should leave him alone, he then burnt down several villager's homes. Thankfully no one was hurt." "At that point we knew he had gone mad, and must be stopped. All knights and sages who held a chair on the Lamini council, were sent to either make him come to his senses or destroy him. They never returned." "Several well known thieves were spotted leaving Daggan's tower with bags full of treasure. We caught and questioned one of the hoodlums. What he confessed to us was truly amazing. He spoke of Daggan's guards being very dim witted and that sneaking around them was very easy especially for a man of his talents. He also spoke of strange beings, the likes that I have never heard. Eyes with large wings that fly and wield powerful magic. Creatures made out of the earth itself. Giant men made of iron, living fire and other unnatural beings." "Also inside the tower, just lying around the floors were the bones and weapons of previous looters who were not so quick for Daggan's guards. Feces from animals, that were never picked up. This is very strange for Daggan, he was normally a very tidy and neat man. It seems that his tower, which is still in the process of being built, is falling apart. Normally we wouldn't have believed a word of what this thief was saying, but it was the way he told his story. You could just feel the unbelievable truth." "Once again we ask you to help us with our problems. We feel that sending only one of you in, to stop Daggan, is to our best advantage. He would never expect only one man. Here is a letter from the thief. It gives pictures and descriptions of the creatures you might encounter." "The reward we have to offer is very small, but anything you find in Daggan's tower is yours to keep. When you return, a small keep will be built for you. Thus you will always have a home in Lamini." "This quest is very importan to us. Perhaps if you decide to help us, we could help you in some way with your problems in Airatose. Unfortunately this is all we have to offer. I plead with you to take this quest, Lord Daggan must be killed. We cannot let his new found madness and evil grow." THIEF'S DRAWINGS & DESCRIPTIONS Heed my warning of what I am about to describe. For death awaits inside Daggan's tower. I did not dare enter any further into this house of horrors, so do not take this as the last word on all the terror that lurk inside. Associates - Throughout the tower, I'm sure you'll run into many of my associates. Many of those fools are still there, their greed leading them on. Most of them can not be trusted. If you catch one by surprise, then be quick with your blade. Some might try to coax you into helping them. As far as I know, some might have joined Daggan's guards for a small price. Custodian - The custodian is the keeper of the lower levels. This lazy, ill tempered man, is responsible for keeping the tower sparkling clean. As humble as this man seems, beware. He is armed and trained in the use of a mop, and is a formidable opponent. In my exploration of the tower, I chose to leave him alone. Daggan's guards - Lord Daggan, has hired many guards to keep intruders out of his tower. These guards are not the most brilliant or fast, but they have been instructed to kill on site. They swing their swords unmercifully and their fighting skills are unmatched. I have seen many of my friends fall underneath their blades. Floating Eyes - I have no true name for these terrors. They appear as large eyes with wings. I have only found them in the back rooms of the tower, behind various secret doors. Constantly searching their surroundings for intruders. These creatures are relatively weak in nature, but they harness great magical powers. If they find a target, they will attack it with an onslaught of blue balls of mystical energy. Be wary though, for they fly with little sound and attack with the speed of light. Iron Golem - Should a man become a mountain and have the strength of a god. He would not stand a chance against these golems. This giant metal being was somehow bestowed with life. He swings a giant sword as easily as I would swing a stick. I have seen him cut down three associates of mine, with a single blow. My contempt and fear of this soulless creature is beyond words. My only advice -- Should you hear the ground echo with a thunderous foot step, don't waste the time to think, just run. Men of the Earth - I was in heaven if only for a minute. Diamonds and pearls all about me. I heard it, and then I saw it! The earth itself moved and shook the ground I was walking on. I spun around to see a strange and distorted creature with no legs. His arms and body were as big as boulders and looked as if it was made from mud and stone. My friend, gasped for air when he saw this horror. Thinking quick, I grabbed my friend and used him as a shield between me and the stone man. I could hear his bones crack from the unbelievable strength of this creature. I grabbed what few items I found and ran as ast as my feet could carry me. I will never enter that place again. It is truly a place for the foolish. The Story of: GERAND - Born on a small Island off the coast of Broken wing. Gerand followed in the footsteps of his father, a great an well known duelist. Taught in the art of war by his father, Gerand helped repel Sargon's advancing army in Graystone, where he received most of his scars. In the battle for Graystone, Gerand saw his father killed as Sargon's Carrion fighters over ran him, nine to one. Now 34, Gerand swears to rid this world of Sargons evil. He was on the way to Airatose, to help with their battle, before being side tracked to Lamini. TASLER - Man of 19, he hates to be called boy. Continually ridiculed by his older and more experienced brothers, Tasler set out to prove that he was their equal and more. Bent on bringing back Sargons head, he is very unsure of his skills and very nervous should he actually encounter Sargon. On the trip to Airatose, when tension was high, the scribe Marimure accidentally set fire to the ship while practicing a magic trick. He was quickly accused of treason. In an act of bravery, Tasler stood toe to toe with a man twice his size and three times his experience to defend this unknown scribe. Gerand apologized for his unwarranted reaction and all three became friends. ANDROS - Andros was once a trapeze artist in a circus. Performing for hundreds of children and moving from town to town. He loved to play practical jokes to make everyone laugh, often forgetting that most people don't have his reflexes. He would later feel guilty when someone got hurt, only to forget what he did and play the same gag the next day. When Sargon started waging war, the circus soon disbanded as the people no longer had the money to afford such a luxury. Andros pledged to help stop this evil so the children could once again enjoy his antics. Playing a practical joke on Gerand, a man with little sense of humor, Andros soon found himself dodging various blows.The entire ship was laughing as he made a mockery of Gerand's fighting skill. In the heat of the excitement, Andros ducked when he should have weaved. Waking up, he found himself hanging upside down with a pounding headache. Looking on, he could see a herbal remedy just out of reach and Gerand in the corner of the room, arms crossed, chuckling. MERTON - Student of the Circle Crest Mages and Heir to the Throne of Storion, Merton left his land utterly bored with his families' continual squabbling over politics. Exploring the realm and challenging any mage that made a claim to power. He headed to Airatose to engage Sargon in a one on one duel. While on board the ship, he talked with the nameless wizard. He found out that the nameless one once worked for Sargon, but when he found out about Sargon's true plans, he tried to stop him. The nameless one was almost killed before he narrowly escaped. Merton, arrogantly called the nameless one's magic weak, just before the storm hit. As the magical storm consumed the ship and lightning littered the deck, the nameless one fought with all his might as Merton just watched in awe. Finally he could see just how powerful the nameless one truly was, and how powerful Sargon must be. For the first time Merton felt as small as a leaf, in a realm of trees. After the storm, Merton stood mesmerized at the dying body of the nameless one. If he was going to become one of the great mages, he must research much higher realms of knowledge. For him to defeat Sargon, would be one of life's great opportunities for all to observe. Sb: Breakout 2000 Fm: Mario Perdue 71524,207 To: All FWIW, Breakout 2000 Each of the first 5 'phases' of Breakout 2000 adds new features to the brick layouts. Here's the progression: Phase 0 - No stacked bricks No Bridges No Multi-hit bricks No unbreakable bricks Phase 1 - 2 level Stacks of normal bricks No Bridges 2 hit bricks No unbreakable bricks Phase 2 - 2 level Stacks of multi-hit bricks No Bridges Multi-hit bricks Unbreakable bricks Phase 3 - 3 level Stacks of multi-hit bricks Simple Bridges Multi-hit bricks Unbreakable bricks Phase 4 - 3 level Stacks of multi-hit and unbreakable bricks Bridges with multi-hit and unbreakable bricks Multi-hit bricks Unbreakable bricks Also, as you progress through the phases, the paddle gets smaller and the ball gets faster. How many people have gotten passed Phase 1? Mario Hark, the Herald Angels Scream... Hark the Herald Angels SCREAM no one hears the words they sing for neath the boughs of ever green midst the wraps of red and sheen tied with bows of satin white themes sorrow cradled that slumber night. There were parcels large and some petite there was one quite long and another smelled sweet there were tags for Mom and sometimes Lover some marked Mike, Michael or Brother others did say simply Sister or Susan and some of the ones were for Dad or for Rueben. Now all the paper is crumbled and torn not one gift is left still adorned some bows are saved for another year most are battered and tattered, we fear and all the while; during joyful festivity no VCS, no 8-bit, no Antic, no ST. In years gone by; not all long ago Mount Fuji stood tall; its pride aglow it inspired and nurtured millions of souls it marketed great things and set all the rules there were games and computers and printers and mice there were joysticks and modems and drives that were nice. Yet lo in the present there's no present to be that's wrapped ith the factor of fun from Atari this year Jack The Santa; J.T.S. to be quite sure took funds once marked for gamers so pure and with disk drives that ship pairs at a time there's no money for gamers, not hardly a dime. Yet Christmas is perfect to remember the past the Tempests, the Asteroids, the game names that last and no one demands to know where they have gone the silence just deafens as new systems move on and through all, we shall treasure that precious green tree next year when J.T.S. absorbs the tree industry. Donald A. Thomas, Jr. (75300.1267@compuserve.com) believing that the tremendous success of today's systems has meaningful roots that should not be forgotten. (c) Christmas, 1996 Please freely reprint or resend with author's credit. ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'! PEOPLE... ARE TALKING On CompuServe Compiled by Joe Mirando CIS ID: 73637,2262 Well friends and neighbors, it looks like I've survived yet another holiday. It seems that every year there are more and more fools on the road, more fools in the stores, and more fools at work, and even more fools in government (I didn't think that was possible!). It's times like this that I just want to throw my hands up and yell "Bah, humbug". Then I find myself doing strange things. Things like pausing at a stop sign to let someone else go first, or going out of my way to get a box of pasta down from a high shelf in the grocery store for an older woman. I find myself doing things like that more and more as Christmas gets closer and closer. I see a few other people doing the same kinds of things but, by and large, most of the people I meet up with are, shall we say, 'humbug-worthy'. You never know where I might be or what I might look like, so don't take the chance that I'll be the guy behind you in a store, or in the car that you try so hard to beat to the intersection. I'd hate to have to yell "HUMBUG" at you, okay? This coming Tuesday night is one of the most lethal nights of the year so be careful no matter where you are. Remember: You don't need alcohol to make mistakes, it simply raises the odds. I no longer go out to celebrate New Year's Eve because of those mistakes (both mine and those of others). I've also found that it's usually more fun to stay close to home, in the company of a few good friends. Whatever you decide to do, please do it safely. Well, let's take a look at what's going on in the Atari world. From the Atari Computing Forums James Spielman posts: "In case you'd like CIS to know what you think.... Take the Customer Service Survey Have a question about CompuServe? Take it to the experts in Customer Service. Get answers in real-time conferences in the Customer Service Live area, as well as by telephone or fax. CompuServe is committed to providing you with the very best customer service that meets your needs. What do you think of Customer Service? Are your needs being met? GO CSISERVICE to take the Customer Service Survey and tell CompuServe about your experiences with Customer Service and ideas you may have for how CompuServe can best help you in the future. In addition, you can help CompuServe evaluate proposed alternatives to serve you even better. Your responses will help CompuServe continue to improve Customer Service! The time you spend taking the survey is free from CompuServe connect-time charges, although communication surcharges may apply. Meanwhile, in the discussion about "twister" formatting floppy disks, Mark Kimball posts: "Regarding the two Twister code files, I believe that what I have _does_change the serial number. The Disk Mech program is still around, and has shown that the normal disk format is not twisted. Interestingly, it also has been able to copy some copy-protected disks I have (ONLY for backup purposes; most of the software sources have seemed to dry up)." Albert Dayes tells Mark: "Disk Mech is a very good program. It was very useful for reading sampler disks too. I believe it reads the entire track at a time rather than sector by sector method." Bill Anderson asks: "Can anybody tell me why Pagestream loads so slowly on a Falcon? More important, can anything be done to make it load faster? I solved the problem on the TT and the Mega before that by using Pin Head. Some examples: Mega 4 without Pinhead= 35 seconds. With, 5 seconds TT030 without Pinhead= 1 minute, 14 seconds. With, 3 seconds. Falcon without Pinhead, 2 minutes, 15 seconds. With, 2 minutes, 15 seconds. Setting the fastload bit with PRGFLAGS.PRG doesn't seem to make any difference on any of the machines. Anybody already solved this problem, or am I the only one who has this problem?" Carl Barron tells Bill: "Set the fast load bit on all import export modules that pagestream loads. It will then load much faster. Doing this on my TT got pagestream to load almost as fast as any comparibly large program." Joe Villarreal adds: "I had that problem on my Mega Ste when I first started using Pagestream. It took forever to load, comparable to the two minutes you mentioned. At the time I had Speedo GDOS installed. Later on I removed Speedo GDOS and noticed that Pagestream just took a few seconds to load. I can't be 100% sure that Speedo GDOS was the culprit since I have a lot of programs in my auto folder and am always adding and removing programs from the folder, but I'm pretty sure. I was also using a Nova Vme Plus graphics card with the Mega Ste at the time." Bill tells Joe: "I use X-Boot and do not load GDOS when using Pagestream. I am using Screen- Blaster on the Falcon. I'll try it without and see what happens." Marcos Sanchez asks for help: "I have a Mega STE that came with a 720 KB disk drive. I have replaced it with a 1.44 MB. It recognises 1.44 disks from a PC (the directory comes out all right), but eventually fails to read data. I suspect it's not reading "the other half" of the disk. I appreciate any comments. Greetings from Madrid." Our old pal and intellectual powerhouse, Albert Dayes, tells Marcos: "It depends on your floppy controller chip. It sounds like you need an Ajax chip upgrade. What version of TOS does your Mega STE have?" In the Atari Gaming section, Paul Harris asks a simple question: "What ever happend to Battlesphere?" Larry Tipton tells Paul: "Last I heard was that Telegames might market it along with Iron Solder II if they sell through enough of the other four games that they are currently selling and or publishing within the next 2 months. I have not heard a peep from 4-Play lately." Emile Pesik adds: "Let's hope that IS2 will still be released and if so, that it has some WOW graphics that utilize the Jag's power. I would be one of the first to buy IS2!!! All of you out there that have not yet bought the new games released by Telegames: GO AND GET THOSE GAMES SO TELEGAMES WILL RELEASE SOME MORE FOR OUR FAVORITE CONSOLE!!!!" Mario Perdue posts: "It has come to my attention that there is a small bug in Breakout 2000. The manual states that "Breaking an opponents bricks score twice the normal value." Well, it used to anyway. It seems that feature doesn't work anymore. Sorry about that." James McClure asks: "Hey, what's the deal with my Missile Command 3-D? The 3-D version freezes on after the first wave of missiles when remaining cities etc. are posted. Original and Virtual MC no problem." Larry Tipton tells James: "I have the same problem with my copy. Apparently certain revs of the Jaguar hardware feature this unfortunate bug." Albert Dayes adds: "I had the same problem with the beta version of MC-3D. It appears it is only certain machines that have that problem." Emile Pesik posts: "Last weekend I went to SEGA Quanta in Lausanne (an arcade hall, owned by SEGA) and played Area 51, a Virtua Cop like game with FMV graphics combined with some stunning HiRes rendered graphics in fluid 3D motion. The way the graphics were done and the FMV sequences (the intro showing the Time Warner logo etc.) was very, very much the way the Jaguar (and CD) does it. It seemed to be exactly the same compression method as the Jag- CD uses, the same resolution, the same type of color graphics. The machine is an Atari machine from 1996. Coincidence ?? Is there anybody that knows whether this console is indeed based on a Jaguar or is it just my fantasy... So far it's the only coin-up I have seen that looks damn much like a Jaguar. If it is true, then it would definately be game that should be released on Jag-CD: it fun to play, looks excellent and would show what the Jag+CD is capable of." Albert Dayes tells Emile: "Area 51 does use a Jaguar with additional enhancements to make it work. It is very addicting game I played for about 2 hours non-stop. Never again ... it is good if you like to a truely raw trigger finger. Time Warner has a web site (pathfinder) it has a section on Atari Games coin-op including Area 51 and T-Mek. For Area 51 it gives you hints at all 14 secret rooms ... if you have not found them already ... try shooting all the windows and you may find something interesting." Richard Turner adds: "The AREA 51 game does indeed use Atari Jaguar 64 technology, and I've got links from "Jaguar 64 Just Claws" to the Area 51 pages. It is based on the CO-JAG hardware which is basically the Jaguar chipset along with a 68020 instead of a 68000, and more RAM, and some additional sound hardware. Basically though the Jaguar is capable of running this game from CD, the 68020 and the RAM are as a result of the additional demands of an arcade system. Area 51 has just been released for the PC and is coming for the Saturn and PSX (unfortunately there's no port for the Jaguar) but it does tell one that a Jaguar developer could do a similar game. For more information on this and other hardware, see my pages:- Jaguar 64 Just Claws http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rj_turner/jaghome.htm" Tom Harker of ICD and 4-Play tells Emile: "As far as I know, The Co-jag used in Area 51 has more than 2MB of Ram (which the stock Jag has) and spools all of the screens from a fast hard drive not a CD." Well folks, that's about it for this week. Before too much longer we'll have a few more surprises for you in the way of Atari coverage and support. Familiar names, lots of information and help, and a whole new attitude. 'Till then, always be ready to listen to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING EDITORIAL QUICKIES Happy New Year!! STReport International OnLine Magazine [S]ilicon [T]imes [R]eport HTTP://WWW.STREPORT.COM AVAILABLE through the Internet and OVER 250,000 BBS SYSTEMS WORLDWIDE 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. STReport "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" December 27, 1996 Since 1987 Copyrightc1996 All Rights Reserved Issue No. 1252