*---== STReport International Online Magazine ==---* """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" from STR Publishing """""""""""""" May 07, 1993 No.9.19 ========================================================================= STReport International Online Magazine Post Office Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32205 ~ 6672 R.F. Mariano Publisher - Editor ----------------------------------------- Voice: 904-783-3319 10 AM - 4 PM EST Support BBS Network System * THE BOUNTY BBS * * TURBO BOARD BBS SYSTEM * FNET 350 ~ Fido 112:35 ~ Nest 90:21/350.0 904-786-4176 USR/HST 24hrs - 7 days 1200 - 19.2bps V.32 - 42 bis 16.8 Dual Standard FAX: 904-783-3319 12 AM - 6 AM EST ----------------------------------------- FNET.. 18 : ///Turbo Board BBS Support...1-416-274-1225 FNET. 690 : PASTE BBS....................1-206-284-8493 FNET. 460 : The Atari ST Connection......1-209-436-8156 FNET. 350 : The Bounty **...1-904-786-4176 FNET. 489 : Steal Your Face BBS..........1-908-920-7981 _____________________________________________________________________ > 05/07/93 STR 919 "The Original * Independent * Online Magazine!" """""""""""""""" - The Editor's Desk - PEOPLE TALKING - PORTFOLIO NEWS - ITS A LONG WAIT! - CT Atari FESt'93 - THE RANT & RAVE - PGST VER. 3.0 - STR MAILBAG - TOS 4.04 & FALCON - ATARI WORKS BUGGY? - BLUE RIDGE FEST - STR Confidential -* DREW KERR - OPEN LETTER *- -* ATARI EXPLORER - THE TRUTH! *- -* "FALCONWAIT" The USERBASE WAITS! *- ========================================================================= STReport International Online Magazine The Original * Independent * Online Magazine -* FEATURING WEEKLY *- "Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information" Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports ========================================================================= STReport's BBS, The Bounty, invites BBS systems, worldwide, to participate in the Fido/NEST/Atari F-Net Mail Network. You may also phone The Bounty BBS direct @ 904-786-4176, and enjoy the wonder & excitement of exchanging information relative to computers, worldwide, through the use of excellent International Networking Systems. SysOps, worldwide, are quite welcome to join the STReport International Conferences. The Crossnet Code is #34813, and the "Lead Node" is # 350. All BBS systems are welcome and invited to participate. Support your favorite computer! Teleconference Today! ========================================================================= CIS ~ DELPHI ~ BIX ~ NVN ~ GENIE ~ FIDO ~ FNET ~ NEST EURONET ~ CIX ~ CLEVELAND FREE-NET ~ INTERNET ========================================================================= ============= * ATARI EDITION * ============= COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME to the Readers of; ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" "The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine" NEW USERS; SIGN UP TODAY! CALL: 1-800-848-8199 .. Ask for operator 198 You will receive your complimentary time and be online in no time at all! WHAT'S NEW IN THE ATARI FORUMS (May 7) SPEED OF LIGHT GIF VIEWER! Download file SPOFLT.LZH from LIBRARY 14 of the Atari Arts Forum (GO ATARIARTS) for a new Speed-of-Light .GIF file viewer. Shows all colors, squash the picture to fit the screen or just scroll it, adjust flicker, color quality/levels, etc. NEW PRINTER DRIVER FOR DESKJET Download PrintAll Version 1.1 (file PRTALL.LZH in LIBRARY 9 of the Atari Productivity Forum -- GO ATARIPRO). A Printer driver program for the HP Deskjet 500 and 500C. Prints multiple file formats in color or black-and-white in multiple sizes and orientations. Latest version adds Prism Paint PNT support, Tiny low and medium-res .TNY and Sun Microsystems' "Rasterfile" .RAS support. Also numerous bug-fixes and speedups, ability to cancel without quitting and cancel long operations. This version supersedes PrintAll 1.0. New "CMYK" output options simulates Deskjet 550C output on 500C printers! SHAREWARE FROM DOUBLE CLICK IN ATARIVEN Double Click Software has decided to release DC Xtract Plus as SHAREWARE! Included in the LZH file are DC Xtract Plus 2.1v and a doc file. Download file XTRPLS.LZH from LIBRARY 13 of the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN). Double Click Software has also decided to release DC SEA as SHAREWARE! Make ARC/LZH/ZIP/ZOO into a self-extracting file. Download file DCSEA.LZH from LIBRARY 13 of the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN). MANY NEW FILES IN ATARIPRO! Lots of new files in the Libraries of the Atari Productivity Forum (GO ATARIPRO). Type BRO LIB:ALL to check out the most recent entries!! REVISED PRINTER DRIVERS FROM SOFTLOGIK SoftLogik has made the following two files available for download from LIBRARY 11 of the Atari Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN): PS2299.ARC - PostScript printer driver for ImageSetters and Color PostScript printers version 2.2.99. This is a temporary driver that fixes problems with v2.2.11 printing to Linos and Color PS printers. PS2211.ARC - Newest PostScript printer driver version 2.2.11. This driver is good for users printing to PostScript lasers. For users needing to print to Color PS and high-rez imagesetters, you should use the v2.2.99 driver. THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM ON COMPUSERVE HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AN OFFICIAL SUPPORT SITE BY ATARI CORPORATION "GO APORTFOLIO TO ACCESS THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM" "ENJOY CIS' ATARI FORUMS WHERE CENSORSHIP IS A DIRTY WORD!" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!" """""""""""""""""""""" There is, apparently, a new "game" afoot. Kinda sad since it appears the few who are making all the noises have obvious agendas to follow. Now, with the latest of moves by them they are "tipping" their hands for all to see the "palms". Neither I, nor any of our staff have ordered any quantity of Atari compatibles not ever. In addition, I did not, under any circumstances initiate the exchanges of information relative to the conception, design or hopes of marketing such a device in the USA. Further any and all information spoken of by STR, myself or our staff was cleared with the party, who by the way requested that we contact them, before any discussions public or private. I say these things to clear the air of all the lies and innuendo being spread by those who have these strange agendas and IOUs to honor at any price. Including their own integrity. I have the proofs to back up what I say. If and when it becomes necessary to produce them I shall but only on the advice of counsel and with the permission of other equally concerned parties. The persons who are harping about this matter are actually the very same antagonists STReport and its staff was, at one time, obliged to painfully endure week after week. It's really sad to see such things going on in the Atari platform especially at a time when truth and fairness to the users should be the prevalent concern of every participant in the platform. Of course, one of the rather outspoken, if not the outspoken person is also claiming to be directly responsible in reporting to Mr. Brodie all things relative to the compatible project. I'd say that's a pretty neat connection. Now, if one considers the obvious obsession it becomes extremely easy to fully understand the most recent onslaught occurring in the STRT on Genie. A masterful plan indeed to take away attention from the Explorer Hard Copy debacle. The only thing left to say relative to entire matter is; please pay particular attention to the participants and their trumped up allegations. They've jumped the gun on this one and indeed blown it. They sure do give STReport a great deal power to sway things in the Atari arena. Even I find that very hard to believe, but its there for all to read and see in the STRT Cat 18, topic 2... beginning with message 197. Lo and behold look who "started" it all. Not surprising. Reports are slowly trickling in about alleged "Falcon" sightings. Unfortunately, its seems these sightings thus far, are only of the dealer demo machines of developer machines in action or on loan. Rumors abound but solid reports of private individuals making purchases of Falcons and taking them home have yet to materialize. Hopefully, we'll hear of some Real Soon Now. Thanks again for the wonderful support! Ralph... ps; Methinks another PC DITTO type thing is brewing! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU! """""""""""""""" Publisher - Editor """""""""""""""""" Ralph F. Mariano PC DIVISION AMIGA DIVISION MAC DIVISION ----------- -------------- ------------ Roger D. Stevens Robert Glover R. ALBRITTON STReport Staff Editors: """"""""""""""""""""""" Dana P. Jacobson Michael Arthur John Deegan Lucien Oppler Brad Martin Judith Hamner John Szczepanik Dan Stidham Joseph Mirando Steve Spivey Doyle C. Helms Lloyd E. Pulley, Editor Emeritus Contributing Correspondents: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" Michael Lee Richard Covert Scott Birch Brian Converse Oliver Steinmeier Tim Holt Andrew Learner Norman Boucher Harry Steele Clemens Chin Neil Bradley Eric Jerue Ron Deal Robert Dean Ed Westhusing James Nolan Vernon W. Smith Bruno Puglia IMPORTANT NOTICE """""""""""""""" Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc... via E-Mail to: Compuserve.................... 70007,4454 Delphi........................ RMARIANO BIX........................... RMARIANO FIDONET....................... 112/35 FNET.......................... NODE 350 NEST.......................... 90:21/350.0 GEnie......................... ST-REPORT """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STR'S "BELIEVE IT? OR.. WHAT?" <>###############################<> "There is no comparison! The Atari Falcon is far superior to the PC platform." Sam Tramiel, 08/92 About the scathing Forbes Magazine Critique of Atari; "My new office, which has a better view than my old one, is so far quite satisfactory. And Richard Miller is in my old office. The Forbes article was a mish-mash and misconstrued article full of half truths. We are anxiously awaiting the release of the Atari Falcon to bring us back to the forefront. The article has given us some laughs, but otherwise has not affected us." Sam Tramiel, 08/92 About marketing plans and the future.... "As I said before, all marketing announcements will be made at Duesseldorf. I will not comment on future models of the Falcon. WE ARE TALKING TODAY ABOUT A MACHINE..... WHICH WILL BE SHIPPING NEXT WEEK." Sam Tramiel, 08/92 A fantastic observation, considering the date it was made... "I've just returned from Asia, where I saw the first Atari Falcon production coming off the lines. Let's hope this new offering will make it in North America. I know that the specs are great." Sam Tramiel, 08/92 Again, the dates of the statement conflict with the facts now known.... "We have not yet even given the machine to the FCC. And we are only applying for Class B approval. According to our "experts", it should pass Class B." Sam Tramiel, 08/92 "...... We are not working for Wall Street but to make money for our shareholders and only think long term." Sam Tramiel, 11/92 psssst. FYI.... The Shareholder's equity is fine.... NOT! The Stock is hovering around $0.81 CHRISTMAS '92 has COME and GONE... AS HAS... JANUARY 1993, FEBRUARY 1993... FALCONS ....anyone? By the Way.... Does the Falcon work well with any... of the SLM Laser Printers?? NOPE! NOT YET! Wanna bet there won't be any? Better yet... Which _MAJOR_ US Software Developers & Publishers are producing NEW Software for Atari's FALCON??? Besides, who _needs_ a CARTRIDGE PORT anyhow! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" PEOPLE ARE TALKING ================== On CompuServe ------------- compiled by Joe Mirando 73637,2262 Well folks, its that time again. Time to look through the forums on CompuServe and check out the news, info, and helpful tips available to us all. Let's jump right in and check it out... From the Atari Productivity Forum ================================= Interesting news from Ian Braby: "I paid a visit to Atari UK today, just to be nosey, and was given a quick tour (accidental, my guide and I were looking for someone to help me!) and I managed to glean the following, having asked about Speedo gdos. MULTITOS: The final version is with them, now and will be shipped to registered Falcon owners in a matter of days; as soon as English docs are finished. The product will then be available to other Atari owners, distributed by HiSoft. D2D: As above; this is also likely to be distributed to other interested users by HiSoft. SPEEDO GDOS: should be following along within a week (?Atari-speak for Real Soon Now) and distribution of this is likely to also be handled by HiSoft. ATARIWORKS: Original version received by Atari UK was rejected back to the US because of bugs. No new version has been forth-coming from Atari US, since. And, for the Lynx: LEMMINGS: The EPROM is now in-house. Available RSN!!! Just thought you might be interested!" The Big Cahoona, Master Sysop Ron Luks tells Ian: "Thanks for the updates! Sounds like something is finally rolling out the doors. Its been a long wait." Alex Kiernan adds this about LEMMINGS: "And it is truly wonderful; I half-inched Bill's Lynx at CeBIT & played for a while - it is truly excellent!" Well, well, well. Products? From Atari? THIS could be the start of something big! ;^) Hans Albert posts: "I've heard about the Atari-Works - but how can i get it in germany?" Jim Ness tells Hans: "It was mentioned yesterday that HiSoft, in England, will be distributing Atari Works, MultiTOS, and some other stuff. So, whoever handles HiSoft products should be able to get it for you." Ain't that amazing, folks? It gets mentioned in Great Britain that Hisoft will be distributing products for Atari, it gets posted on an American Service, and the information and helps out a guy in Germany... all in the space of one day. Isn't technology great? Meanwhile, as the question of reading ST formatted disks on a DOS machine with Gemulator, Bob Retelle posts: "I suspect the GEMulator will do whatever the software tells it to do... if a boot sector tells it that there are 81 tracks on the disk, it will try to read out to track 81. The only reason exactly the same thing doesn't happen under DOS is that DOS only recognizes 9 sector, 80 track formats. If it had the built-in flexibility that TOS does, it too would seek out to track 81 if it was told to. The answer would be to not put an 81 track disk in your PC drives, I guess..." That's right, friends and neighbors, the much-maligned (of late) ST, for all its dated architecture, was more flexible than the original PCs, the 286s, and is STILL more flexible than today's 3-and-486s. Elsewhere, Jim Lohman asks about unpacking MAC files with his ST: "Can anyone tell me if there are any ST utilities available here or elsewhere that will unpack Macintosh StuffIt files? I see some text files over in ShowBiz that I'd like to check out, and I've used Atari File Finder w/various keywords, but no luck so far. Thanks for your help." The short and (not so) sweet answer from Sysop Keith Joins replies: "There is no Stuffit utility for the ST." Well, even sysops can't be right all the time. Robert Aries tells Jim: "I'm not sure of the keywords, but I downloaded an un-Stuffit utility for the ST from the libs here a while ago, so Keith is wrong. I don't think it works on all Stuffit files, though (it wouldn't do a few GIFS I downloaded from MacFun)." Jim thanks Robert: "I found the file you referred to - it's UNSIT.LZH in Lib. 4. It works fine for unpacking the text files I found over in ShowBiz, except I had to write a quickie Basic prg. to add linefeeds. Jeez, those Mac disk files are kinda different, eh? Resource fork, data fork, salad fork... Anyway, thanks a lot for the tip." Robert tells Jim: "Glad it worked out. BTW, I think an old utility I use called DCOPY (don't know if it's still around here) will add linefeeds to those Mac text files." Our own Dana Jacobson adds this bit of info: "After seeing the messages here in the Forum ... a reader sent me a file which may help resolve the problems experienced by users wanting to use ST-formatted disks on their PCs. If you feel that this file would have some benefit in the Atari areas, let me know and I will post it to wherever you feel appropriate. Here's the file description, to give you a brief summary of what the program does: Format and read extended format floppies on MS-DOS machines. The FDREAD portion of the program will allow you to use ST formatted extended (including "twister" format) disks on an MS-DOS machine (with the right size drive, of course). The file is named FDFORM18, in case it matters!" Ron Luks, being the top-notch Sysop that he is, tells Dana: "We'd absolutely *LOVE* to have that file here. It would answer a lot of questions. Where to put it..... Tough Question. for now, please upload it to lib 17 (Miscellaneous) and if we find a better location, we can move it internally." Jim Lohman asks: "Can anyone here explain how the ST floppy drives recognize a media change? Some time ago, I hacked a Matsushita J-253 double-sided drive onto my trusty old 520ST (external drive). It works, but it only sees a disk change if I'm changing to or from a write-protected disk. Because of this I have to be _real_ careful to keep from clobbering directories right & left. So far I've tried a utility called Force Media Change in the Auto Folder, but it didn't always work exactly right. I also tried connecting pins 2 & 28 on the 34-pin connector, but then it thought all my disks were WP'ed. I should also mention that my drive has the extra intelligent controller board, as opposed to the older(?) models which apparently had the computer more or less directly connected to the drive. Does anyone know the purpose of this extra hardware? The 8048 controller IC seems to "process" the head step pulses & other signals in some way. Rather intriguing." Larry Green tells Jim: "Ref media change. I am aware that when the ST formats a disk it gives it a unique (random) ID number which is put in the boot sector. If it detects that this number is different then it knows that the disk has changed. The problem with this is if you are using PC disks which do not use the number idea and swop the disk, the ST senses that no number has changed and files can be over written! Likewise if you have ST disks that are copied (I knew someone who formatted one disk and then copied it using blitz turbo or something), the serial number never changes and so files can be damaged. If this is no help I can look up the rest. Of course I bet someone can beat me to it." Jim replies to Larry: "Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, I have no DOS-formatted disks in my setup, and after checking a few of them w/a disk editor, the serial #'s do appear to be random. This seems to boil down to some sort of hardware difference between the original big old SS drive and the new DS one, but I can't finger out what it is. I've read that the ST doesn't use pin 2 (DISK CHANGE) of the 34-pin connector, which I find puzzling; and I don't see any difference in logic levels on pin 28 (WRITE PROTECT) between the two drives for a given operation (not with a meter anyway - I'll be checking it with a scope as soon as I remember to bring the damn thing home from work!). To troubleshoot this, I've been booting w/a blank, formatted disk & using the Esc. key to update the open directory window. If the disk is write-protected, no problem - but if it's not, and I remove & replace it, then hit Esc., the window flickers, but the drive doesn't run (i.e. no directory update). Of course, that is a Very Bad Thing. Sumpin's goofy here, but I dunno what." Sysop Bob Retelle adds: "That stuff about the random serial number is right... but the problem Jim is having is getting the ST to read the directory (and serial number) in the first place.. The ST uses a somewhat, er.. unusual method of detecting that the disk has been physically changed.. when you replace the drive with a different type, sometimes the detection doesn't work.. thus the ST never reads in the directory and serial number from the new disk, and thinks you've still got the old disk in there. (Which makes writing on the new disk an invitation to disaster..!) Now if only I could remember what the fix is..." Cullan Briggs asks: "Can anyone tell me if there is a way of speeding up a Mega STE 4meg/50? I am wondering if adding say, a math co-processor would speed up things like the generation of patterns in Band in a Box or the processing of things like quantization in Notator. I am also wondering about Atari's future. Atari Canada no longer exists and some of the programs I need are only available on Mac right now.I am looking for an editor/librarian for the Kurzweil K2000 and the only ones that I know of are Opcode's Galaxy and Unisynth.The Falcon should be a great computer IF it gets adequate support but it has yet to arrive in my neighborhood.Oh and as far as speeding things up, I already use Warp9 but I need even more speed. Any light shed on these questions would be appreciated." Jim Ness explains about the co-processor: "A math coprocessor will only speed up computations on programs which use it. As far as I know, only DynaCADD and some Lexicor graphics products use the coprocessor. Your best bet is to look into an accelerator card. Fast Tech and Gadgets by Small both make accelerators, although I believe only the Fast Tech product can fit into your MegaSTE. The speed up is dramatic." Sysop Brad Hill tells Cullan: "...Warp 9 is a graphics accelerator, and speeds up screen redraws, but doesn't affect processing speed. About the K2000 editor... Last night I saw a note in the new MIDI C Vendor Forum about Dr. T's possibly offering one. You might want to stop over there (GO MIDICVEN) and encourage them!" Stefan Daystrom at Barefoot Software tells Cullan: "The Mega ST_E_ is capable of running (as I recall) at three speeds: 8 MHz 16 MHz cache off 16 MHz cache on Are you running at the fastest (16 MHz cache on) already? If you're running at 8 MHz, that change would give you roughly a 50% speedup. _BUT_: Last I heard (which _was_ quite a while ago, so they may have fixed this by now), Notator was still not compatible (because of timing tricks with the cartridge port) with even _that_ faster speed, and would not run on any faster Atari models such as the TT. Do you now have a version of Notator which will run on faster machines? If not, an accelerator will speed up your Band in a Box and most _other_ sequencers, but will make your Notator stop working!" Sysop Ron Luks adds: "As others have already mentioned, a math co-processor would be of limited value in speeding up your system, but an accelerator board would help significantly. As for Atari's future in the computer business, that's the $64,000 question lately. Although we have been promised the new Falcon030 model since last fall/winter, to the best of my knowledge, no units are currently shipping for customer purchase. Recently a limited number of units went out to select dealers as demo units. All I can say at this point is that unless Atari ships the Falcon in significant numbers, I don't know that you can count on much independent software vendor support for the current models." From the Atari ST Arts Forum ============================ It seems that everyone has been interested in displaying SPECTRUM 512 picture files on DOS machines of late. As Yogi Berra said "It ain't over 'till its over", and friends, it ain't over. "Jon" posts: "With the risk of getting some "anti-IBM" messages I will ask a stupid question. Is there any way to display the *.SPC graphics files on an IBM compatible PC? Go easy on me." Bob Retelle tells Jon the unfortunate news: "Jon, unfortunately I don't know of any direct way of viewing SPC graphics files on a PC... The files can be converted to GIF format, but the utilities to do that only run on Atari computers. The good news is that one of our members has been looking into writing a PC program that could view SPC files, but it may be some time until that's ready..." Ron Luks sets Jon's mind at ease: "First of all, don't worry about seeing anti-IBM messages here. A significant number of our members also have PCs at home or work. Unfortunately, there is no PC viewer for SPC files. At least one member was working on a viewer but I don't think he's finished it yet. Its one of our most requested utilities lately." Neil Burton asks: "...And doesn't it make you sick when you see some of the stuff out there for the PC ???" Tim Myers answers: "Yep it sure does. Some of the games that use fractal generated landscapes with solid, shadowed, shaded graphics in 256 colors are visually amazing! You'd think that the falcon could do as well with it's 256 color mode BUT the screen draws are comparatively slow so it doesn't look half as good and the animation is jerky. Is it just that the 16bit bus and slowish processor speed cripple the Falcon? There are already a number of accelerator boards available for the falcon. Does that tell us something or what !" Neil says: "I've not seen any yet.. My brother-in-law was showing me a helicopter sim on their 486, (A C.D. game..) but the bugger refused to work !!! SO he started playing with buffers etc.... I bogged off home !!! I smell Atari all over this one... Buggy RS232 on TOS 4.04... What will they think of next ?? " Brian Gockley of ST Informer and CAF '93 (Connecticut AtariFest) Co-Coordinator, posts: "I heard that the Falcon did _not_ have serial port bugs? Alex over at HiSoft stated that they had a whole new chipset for the serial ports, which rectified the old problems. 4.04? I thought we were on 4.02? Is this our weekly TOS update? At least they're updating ROMs, better now than later!" Jim Ness tells Brian: "I've heard that TOS 4.02 still has some serial problems, but they aren't the same ones seen in TOS 1.04 and earlier, because there are different algorithms to handle the new port hardware. I don't know if 4.04 still has problems. 4.02 is the one appearing in dealer demos in the US. 4.04 is supposed to appear when Atari begins shipping inventory units. Mike Fulton says that even 4.04 has some minor graphics bugs remaining - but he did not address the serial bugs issue." Bob adds: "Kind of expensive, wouldn't you think, changing ROMs at this rate..? We've been hearing all kinds of wild numbers on UseNet, regarding the number of Falcons being produced... not that very many people seem to believe them.. but just think how much it would cost to toss out 10,000 ROMs and order new masked ROMs to clear up ANOTHER bug before you ship your product... Unless they're EPROMs... Unless they're not really making that many..." Doug Finch, the other Co-Coordinator of the Connecticut AtariFest (see info in this issue), asks about "old games": "I recently picked up some old games for my Atari 520 ST (upgraded to 2.5 mb) and became enamored by some of the games from Mindscape inc., creator of Balance of Power 1990, Defender of the Crown & others. I later found out they were no longer located in Illinois, which was ID'ed as HQs on the packages. Is Mindscape still in business? Bought out by some other company? Gone the separate ways of their designers/programmers? Can anyone shed some light on the matter for me? I'd love to see what some of these individuals are working on now, whether or not it's for the Atari." Doug's post reminded me of all those "old games" I've got tucked away in strategic places around the house. I dug them up and played a few of them. Boy, I had forgotten the sheer fun of playing them. Now,back to our regularly scheduled program... Greg Kopchak tells us: "SKware One has some neat things in the works for the Falcon too. We've got two new programs in the works too... I'm uploading some Photo-CD to Falcon XGA photos here tonight. They are the 4 images featured on the cover of Atari Explorer magazine. We have a super program called View II in the works right now. Will be out in about two weeks. We publish a super Photo CD / multimedia program for Windows called Virtual BookMaker. The Atari port is about 50% done now and is expected to be ready in about 4 weeks. The XGA photos on the Falcon are super. Both Dr. Bob and SKware One have posted XGA utilities/viewers for the format." From the Atari Vendors Forum ============================ On Atari's marketing strategy, Thomas D'Alimonte says: "Every Xmas its the same thing. They build up hope with 'the next new product' in early Fall. Middle Fall there are promises of a Xmas ad blitz and a TV commercial. Come Thanksgiving, no ads in sight 'cept for maybe a gaming ad in comic books. Come December, no product anywhere in the pipeline, therefore, no Xmas again, just coal. Come January, denials of lack of product, yet no idea when product shipments will 'resume'. March, product possibly available, IF the product ever sees the light of day at all. Feel free to jump in deny any of this anyone from Atari! ... Hmmm no answer. This has happened for the last 7 years at least. To real products like the Falcon, STE, Megas, STacy. And to too many products we never saw like the ST game machine the 1 meg 8 bit-er, the CD-ROM. (announced in '85 with the original ST wasn't it?) I think when you hire out manufacturing like Atari has to, it costs less to get manufacturing time AFTER Xmas than before it. A pity. " Sysop Bob Retelle tells Tom: "You're not supposed to remember all that stuff... After all, this is the Year of Atari... (or was that last year?)" On the subject of CodeHead's new product, DigiTape (see info elsewhere in this issue), Ron Luks tells CodeHead Charles F. Johnson: "Sounds like cool products. (My musical talents do not extend beyond playing the stereo, unfortunately). Now, if there were some Falcons available .........." Charles tells Ron: "DigiTape really takes advantage of the Falcon's unique strengths (the DSP chip, specifically); we feel it has a good chance of winning popularity with musicians. We're expecting Falcons to be available to the public within the next week or two." It always causes a few pats on the back when "one of our own" (someone who frequents CompuServe) gets a mention in a publication, so it came as no surprise when Ron Luks told Boris Molodyi: "Hey Boris. You're a celebrity now. I just saw the quote you made in this months issue of CompuServe magazine in the DTP article. Now, all we need is a picture. [g]" Nathan Potechin, of DMC/Calamus fame, posts: "What? Hmmm, where's my copy of the magazine? Which issue was it? What did you say? Did I miss it? No way! ;-) Boris ... On another issue, is it possible that you have placed your special characters in the wrong ASCII position? Calamus SL looks for hyphens in ASCII position 252, 253 and 254. Is this where you have your hyphens located? 252 is the en-dash that I always use to hyphenate but I believe the 253 is the proper standard hyphenation dash." Jim Ness tells Nathan: "See the May, '93 issue of CIS Magazine. The DTP article includes a quote from Boris, and even mentions Calamus. Too bad they didn't print a picture of Boris. Heh heh. As I recall, I sent you an email, when Michael Naver requested input for his article in these forums, a few months ago. I did the same for Dorothy Brumleve, when another CIS Mag author requested the same regarding educational software. Dorothy said she did respond. You gotta jump on these opportunities for exposure." Nathan replies to Jim: "Thanks Jim. I haven't gotten that issue yet. I do recall your email and I thank you for bringing it to my attention." Jim, ever-helpful guy that he is, tells Nathan: "If you don't get the issue, let me know, and I'll fax you the article." Nathan keeps us updated on the magazine situation: "The magazine arrived here yesterday. ;-)" From the Atari Portfolio Forum ============================== Don Thomas, Atari's Portfolio Guru, tells us: "Whenever you have a full blown computer with the OS in ROM, there will always be bugs of some sort... if nothing else misconceptions or assumptions of how it should work when it doesn't. We had a couple OS upgrades and as old bugs are fixed, new ones crop up... The UPDATE.COM comes in handy to fix that." Sysop BJ Gleason posts: "Atari [as far as I am aware] made a VERY big investment in the portfolio, and [might still] have a warehouse full of them. If the Portfolio II came out, they wouldn't be able to sell the old ones... There are different versions of the ROMs about, but not very many. It looks as if the Portfolio will remain as is, for a very long time..." Another jewel from the mind of BJ: "Soon... everything will be the size of the Portfolio... :-)" Ain't it the truth? Everything is getting smaller! Perhaps, when everything is the size of the Portfolio, the portfolio will be the size of... size of... oh, heck, pick something you think a computer could be as small as. Jeff Tucker tells us: "I bought a Portfolio (R19B1008926). It was exactly what I needed - size weight and price. Unfortunately I began to get increasingly frequent "**SYSTEM ERROR**SORRY" messages and/or a screen full of high ASCII characters scrolling by. I would start over and download my small spreadsheets, addresses and notes from my desktop. It also became difficult to make a connection to download files - like 20 tries before a connection would be made. I still liked the idea of the Portfolio, so I paid $120 more and swapped the original for a different one (F2031911895). Unfortunately, the second one shared the fate of the first one and I now have a very expensive calculator. I recently tried once more without loading any old files - all information was keyed in. Died again. The only explanation I can think of is that the airport security x-rays may have scrambled its brains when I forgot to take it out of my briefcase, although I don't believe that it ever died immediately after an x-ray. I only used the applications that came with it, never used memory cards. I tried a 7 pound notepad, but it has more horsepower than I need while travelling and it was too heavy (I don't check plane luggage). Anyone had similar experiences? Is there hope of reviving the Portfolio? Are there any diagnostics that might locate problems?" Don Thomas tells Jeff: "Download UPDATE.COM from the libraries and place it on your Memory Card. In your AUTOEXEC.BAT file include the word UPDATE on the first line by itself. The problem will probably disappear forever." If only everything in life was that simple. Just put the name on a line of an autoexec file. What the heck, let's give it a try... AUTOEXEC.BAT for Atari ADVERTISE LISTEN TO CUSTOMERS ADVERTISE LISTEN TO DEALERS ADVERTISE PRODUCE IN QUANTITY ADVERTISE end Nope. But it was worth a try, wasn't it? Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Jon Faiers posts: "I have recently become the proud owner of a Atari Portfolio which I use to store all my contact addresses. Could someone please tell me what I need to buy so that I can download this data from my PC and vice versa? As my batteries ran out when I was on holiday last week causing me to type everything back in, I don't think that I can cope with doing that again!" Marty Mankins tells Jon: "There are 3 different items that you can buy for the Portfolio; 1) Parallel interface: This device comes with software that will let you download files to and from the Portfolio to an IBM PC. You can also print directly from the Portfolio to a parallel printer. ($40) 2) Serial interface: This device does not come with software, but will let you use a communications program to download files to another computer running a communications program. This is needed if you have a computer other than an IBM PC (Macintosh, Atari ST, etc.). You can also use a modem to dial up places like CompuServe or a BBS. ($60) 3) PC Card Drive: This hooks up to an IBM PC via a board inside the computer. It's a small device that lets you take a RAM card from the Portfolio and back it up to your desktop. This is the best way to transfer files, but it's also the most expensive of the bunch ($100)." Aidan Heritage adds: "Just to be awkward, if you have an Atari ST, you can use the parallel interface with the port provided you buy SwiftLink software, which loads as a Desk Top Accessory - I find it great and use it to backup my port files - and to load files into the port when I want them." Well, that's about all the space we've got for this week. I hope you found something of interest... or that you at least read it... or that you browsed it for a moment or two... oh heck, I just hope you didn't cut it right out with a text editor and forget it ever existed. Tune in again next week when we'll listen again to what they are saying when... PEOPLE ARE TALKING _______________________________________________________ > PGST 3.0 STR FOCUS! PageSTReam 3.0 Announced for the Amiga! """"""""""""""""""" ANNOUNCING PAGESTREAM 3.0 ========================= Every few years a program comes along that changes the way people use a computer. PageMaker for the Macintosh and Publishing Partner for the Atari ST were introduced in 1986 and were the first desktop publishing programs. Publishing Partner grew into PageStream, and quickly became the best-selling desktop publisher for Amiga computers. AmigaWorld gave it their coveted Expert's Choice award and proclaimed that PageStream is the best. AmigaUser International named it the heavyweight champion and Amazing Amiga called it a jewel of a program. But underneath the years of improvements, it was still the Publishing Partner that Personal Publishing magazine called a knockout program back in 1986. The way you think about publishing has just changed again. We're proud to announce PageStream 3.0. This is not just an upgrade, but a completely new program. PageStream 3: it will change the way you think about publishing. PARTIAL PAGESTREAM 3.0 FEATURE LIST x feature present o feature present/limited implementation NB unlimited means limited only by memory + more formats may be added before release ? could not be confirmed INTERFACE PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Maximum number of open documents unlimited 7 1 Max number of document views unlimited 1 1 Reveal/Hide document views x Moveable document view windows x x Save program defaults x x Load program defaults x x Pasteboard/bleed area x x x User-specified pasteboard size x x o Toolbox x x o set position x x set tool size x set toolbox orientation x Edit Toolbox x x o Number of palettes/panels 6 6 0 Measurement system options 11 7 3 Set ruler zero point and offset x x o User-specified view magnification x x o Number of view magnifications 13 6 5 View magnification zoom x x x Show/Hide invisible characters x x Undo levels unlimited 1 1 Online help x x context sensitive x o cross-referenced ("hyper") help x DOCUMENT CONSTRUCTION PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Number of pre-defined page sizes 9 5 6 Maximum page size (in inches) 2330"x2330" 48"x48" 48"x48" Different page sizes in a document x x Change page size at any time x x x Maximum document size (in pages) unlimited 2000 9999 Single and double sided documents x x x Page spreads x o Maximum number of master pages unlimited 127 0 Hide master page objects x Visual page arrangement x x x Divide documents into sections x o Divide sections into chapters x Automatic page numbering x o o Link and unlink columns x x o WORD PROCESSING PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Cut, copy and paste text x x x standard keyboard shortcuts x x Multiple Style sheets x o o Load and save style sheets x x x Find and replace text/attributes x x o Find and replace style sheets x Spelling checker x x o Import/Export formats 7/7+ 9/6 9/0 auto conversion of quotes x x auto conversion of commas x x auto conversion of dashes x x Maximum number of tabs unlimited 20 16 number of alignment options 4 4 1 place numerically or manually x x o right indent tab x x User-definable tab leaders x x List all articles used x x TYPOGRAPHY PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Number of outline font systems 3 2 1 Font sizes 1-50,000 2-720 2-720 increments 0.01 pts 0.001 pts 0.125 pts horizontally scale text x x Align text vertically x x Indents and outdents x x x Auto/Manual hyphenation x x o hyphenation controls x x x Auto/Manual kerning x x o edit kerning pairs x x x Auto/Manual tracking x x o Absolute and relative leading x x x increments 0.01 pts 0.001 pts 0.01 pts Frameless text x convert frameless <-> framed x Convert shapes to text columns x Apply color and fill styles to text x o o Automatic drop caps x x o Automatic bulleted paragraphs x GRAPHICS PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Import Bitmapped Pictures x x x number of formats 6+ 8? 5 set frequency, angle and pattern x x contrast and posting control x x bitmap fencing for text flow x x display bitmaps in color x x x externally linked bitmaps x x x Import Structured Drawings x x x number of formats 5+ 4 2 dissolve into paths and shapes x Import EPS Illustrations x x x interpretable EPS formats 2+ 0 3 show bitmap preview TIFF/PICT x x o Make pages into EPS files x x x List graphics in a document x x x COLORS PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Number of color models 6 6 2 24 bit color support x x x Create process and spot colors x x x Color Tints x x shade increments 0.01% 0.1% UCR/GCR x x x Set screen angle and frequency x x x TRAPPING PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Automatic trapping x x User-definable trapping x x Chokes & Spreads x x Knockouts & Overprints x x Set trapping for each plate x x DRAWING AND OBJECT EDITING PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Drawing tools x x x basic shapes x x x freehand x pen/draw tool x Select multiple objects x x x add/remove from selection x x select behind x x Bring/Send to Front, Back x x Bring/Send Forward, Backward x x Cut, copy and paste x x x Move and nudge objects x x Step and repeat duplication x x Rotate and skew objects x x o rotation increments 0.001 0.001 1 Group/Ungroup objects x x o Lock/Unlock objects x x o Distribute objects x x Set color/line/fill of objects x o o Bitmap fills x x Gradient fills x o Object fills x Text runaround objects x x o Extend objects across page spreads x x PAGE LAYOUT PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Margin and column guides x x Object guides x x snap-to-guides, snap distance x x Grid x x x snap-to-grid x x x PRINTING PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Current page, range, even/odd x x o Printer spreads x Print CMYK/mechanical separations x x o Plate control x x Tiling, thumbnails, crop/reg x x x Print PostScript to disk x x x Render to bitmapped picture x Custom Printer Drivers x x PostScript x x Hewlett-Packard inkjet/laser x Epson compatibles x Plotter support x PPD support x x ENVIRONMENT PAGESTREAM QUARKXPRESS PROPAGE Open program architecture x x (for adding extensions) Text (article) editor x x Picture (bitmap) editor x o HotLinks compatible x x ARexx (scripting) compatible x o ARexx (scripting) record x AGA compatible x n/a o Workbench screen compatible x n/a x Public screen compatible x n/a create public screens x n/a Custom screen compatible x n/a x Follows interface style guidelines x x Price $299.95 $895 $299.95 Price and features subject to change before release. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS Amiga computer, hard drive, 2MB of memory (512K chip), and AmigaDOS 1.3 or higher. If you are a registered owner of a Soft-Logik product, you will be notified of the release of PageStream 3.0 (expected in late summer 93). You can order now by Visa or MasterCard and you will not be billed until shipment of your copy. Retail price: $299.95 Upgrade from PageStream 2.x and HotLinks Editions 1.x: $ 95.00 Upgrade from PageStream 2.x: $125.00 Upgrade from PageStream 1.x: $150.00 Competitive Upgrade (from any desktop publisher): $175.00 You must be registered to upgrade from PageStream, and must provide proof of ownership for a competitive upgrade. If you have purchased PageStream 2.2 on or after March 15, 1993, you are entitled to a free upgrade. Sales: 1-800-829-8608 Or: 1-314-894-8608 Fax: 1-314-894-3280 SHIPPING/HANDLING $5 in USA/Canada $15 for other countries CALL FOR A FREE BROCHURE PageStream is a registered trademark of Soft-Logik Publishing Corp. XPress is a registered trademark of Quark, Inc. Professional Page is a registered trademark of Gold Disk, Inc. *********************************************************************** IMPORTANT NOTICE! ================= STReport International Online Magazine is available every week in the ST Advantage on DELPHI. STReport readers are invited to join DELPHI and become a part of the friendly community of Atari enthusiasts there. SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI ====================== Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access DELPHI services via a local phone call JOIN -- DELPHI -------------- Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002 then... When connected, press RETURN once or twice and... At Password: type STREPORT and press RETURN. DELPHI's Basic Plan offers access for only $6.00 per hour, for any baud rate. The $5.95 monthly fee includes your first hour online. For more information, call: DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-544-4005 DELPHI is a service of General Videotex Corporation of Cambridge, MA. Try DELPHI for $1 an hour! For a limited time, you can become a trial member of DELPHI, and receive 5 hours of evening and weekend access during this month for only $5. If you're not satisfied, simply cancel your account before the end of the calendar month with no further obligation. If you keep your account active, you will automatically be enrolled in DELPHI's 10/4 Basic Plan, where you can use up to 4 weekend and evening hours a month for a minimum $10 monthly charge, with additional hours available at $3.96. But hurry, this special trial offer will expire soon! To take advantage of this limited offer, use your modem to dial 1-800-365-4636. Press once or twice. When you get the Password: prompt, type IP26 and press again. Then, just answer the questions and within a day or two, you'll officially be a member of DELPHI! TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (5/5/93) -------------------------- (1) LITTLE GREEN SELECTOR (2) STREPORT 9.18 (3) TOS COMPATIBILITY FIX (4) AEO: VOLUME 2, ISSUE 9 (5) DC XTRACT PLUS 2.1 (6) Z*NET 9314 (7) REHBOCK.ARC (8) DOUBLE CLICK'S DC-SEA (9) XYZPATCH.ZIP (10) SYSINFO.LZH All of the above files can be found in the RECENT ARRIVALS database for at least one week after the posting of this list. Please Note that in the case of online magazines, only the most current issue in the database at the time of this compilation is considered for the Top 10 list. Also, for all files, a submission is eligible for the Top 10 list for only four weeks after its original uploading. DELPHI- It's getting better all the time! *********************************************************************** > CT FEST'93 STR SHOW NEWS The Summertime Atari Event! """""""""""""""""""""""" THE CT ATARIFEST '93! ===================== JUNE 12 & 13, AT THE WINDSOR COURT HOTEL WINDSOR, CT. (JUST ABOVE HARTFORD) Free Parking! Low Room Rates! More Vendors! More Floor Space! CONNECTICUT SHOW TO FEATURE ATARI'S LATEST ENTRY ================================================ HARTFORD, Conn. (April 12) More than 1,000 Atari computer enthusiasts are expected to converge here June 12 and 13 at Connecticut AtariFest '93, and are certain to debate whether the star of the show -- THE LONG-AWAITED FALCON030 COMPUTER -- lives up to its advance billing. Yep, that ACT Atari Group is running another major NorthEast computer event. Last year's successful CT Fest had over 700 attendees, which merited a larger location, so we've moved a mile away (exit 42 on I-91) into bigger and better quarters. We're just as convenient to reach as ever, and only two hours from Boston or New York! The new hotel has excellent room rates ($35.00 per room), free and plentiful parking, easy access from Interstate 91, I-95, I-90, I-84, I-80, an in house Sports Bar, a bigger ballroom and is located just 1 mile from Bradley International Airport (free shuttle service for hotel guests). The Falcon030 is a perfect low cost tool for the professional artist, with 8 track, 16 bit musical capabilities, truecolor graphics and a 32 bit DSP chip. The Falcon will be bundled with several music programs, including a 4 track 'Direct to Disk' editing and recording program, a sound sampler and an all purpose productivity package called AtariWorks. The Hartford show will likely be one of the first encounters the general public has with the new machine and software leading designers have produced for it. Atari was performing quality control tests on the latest production models shipped to the Sunnyvale headquarters in mid-April. The two-day event will feature more than 40 exhibitors, including several of the top names in music software development and MIDI equipment. Tentative music exhibitors include Barefoot Software (formerly Hybrid Arts), Digital F/X, Steinberg/Jones, Pro Musica, Compo Software and others. The show, sponsored by ACT Atari Group, will be held at the Windsor Court Hotel, just off Interstate 91 at exit 42. Connecticut AtariFest'93 promises to showcase the work of several musicians and will include some live music sessions. Other vendors will demonstrate new equipment and software that will be of interest to musicians whether they're on or off the job. Among them, organizers have received tentative nods from A&D Software, ABC Solutions, Baggetaware, Barefoot Software, Compo Software, Computer Studio, Derric Electronics, East Hartford Computer Repair, Gribnif Software, ICD Inc., MegaType Software, Soft-Logik Publishing, Toad Computers, Wizztronics. Last year 14 user groups participated, and that number is expected to grow by June. A Home Business and Entertainment Expo that will focus on high-tech gadgetry designed for home use is also planned. Central activities will include a New England Lynx Tournament for the gamester in the family, a Portfolio corner for the on-the-go palmtop computer user, and other technology such as VCRs, lap/palmtops, voice messaging systems, satellite receivers, CD-ROM, fax-modems, large screen TV, printers, audio-video components, cellular phones, office supplies, video games or add-on units and accessories. We'll have our annual New England Lynx Competition, with multiple Comlynxed competitions underway at all times. Last year's winners took home prizes ranging from games to accessories to complete Lynx Systems! Bring your best player and join the fun. We'll have the Portfolio Corner, staffed with industry pundits and filled with every imaginable palmtop peripheral! Last year we had a few Portfolios disassembled at the booth, a real insight into surface mount technology! For those of you with an eye towards seminars, we'll have them in abundance, last year's question and answer session with Bob Brodie drew standing only crowds! In addition, we had John Eidsvoog's walk through the Codehead graphic tools, Jeff Naideau of Barefoot Software showing off EdiTrack Platinum, Dave Troy of (Guess[ribbet]) Computers, STReport's Dana Jacobson and Joe Mirando and many, many others. And to top things off, come out and see the Falcon 030 in all its glory. By then we expect to see some rad new programs out and some really excitement! All in all, we hope to have the best Northeast show yet, and we look forward to your participation. Make your plans now for the most exciting Atari Weekend this spring! For further information, call Brian Gockley at 203-332-1721 or Doug Finch at 203-637-1034. We can also be found on GEnie in Category 11 or on Compuserve in the Atari Forums. E-mail can be directed to B.GOCKLEY or D.FINCH7 on GEnie or to 75300,2514 or 76337,1067 on CIS. _____________________________________________________________________ > CLEAR VISIONS STR Spotlight "I can see clearly now..." """"""""""""""""""""""""""" LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN ====================== by Drew Reid Kerr It's been several months since I dumped almost every piece of Atari equipment I had (including two complete systems, SLM 605 printer and Portfolio) and a whole load of software to enter the PC/Windows world. Man, what a relief! Atari no longer offered what I needed -- a good contact manager, support and customer service, a word processing program that featured DTP and didn't have to be translated from another language. I was tired of the stupid bickering of a few small, and I mean SMALL, developers. I wanted to be on the edge of technology to run my business, and unfortunately, Atari couldn't cut it. I make my way through areas online devoted to the PC and Windows and you never see the kind of silliness and dumb behavior that goes on in the Atari world. It's really a supportive atmosphere where nobody is taking sides to fight a war. Most of the sysops seem to have their egos in check, because most of the Atari sysops in GEnie were so obnoxious and egocentric, it turned me off from hanging around their area altogether. Before the dwindling group of Atari loyalists scream "traitor," realize where you are and where I am now. Hardware and software prices in the PC world are plummeting rapidly, so that Atari is far from the only bargain these days. I've got the best and most sophisticated software on the market from Lotus and Microsoft that run rings around most Atari programs. I'm multitasked under Windows. Everything is totally compatible. I can go into ANY software store and buy what I want for my computer. I've got a CD-ROM that purrs like a racing car. I can go on-line with America Online without the use of purchasing an additional emulator. And you'll still be bickering and screaming at each other even as the Atari ship goes under. I can read a trillion excellent magazines about my platform where manufacturers care about their customers and they get spanked publicly when they don't. You never hear the word "censorship." There's no favoritism because all these publications are important. And if customers were leaving, they would genuinely be alarmed, as opposed to the director of communications saying, "Good riddance!" During my first few months in the PC world, I downloaded STR regularly and saw how the magazine was constantly being punished for speaking its mind -- first its flag was removed, then it wasn't allowed to be on the Atari RT. I was convinced that the people who ran the Atari area of GEnie were complete control freak lunatics and made me happy that I was leaving them behind to save themselves. The Atari Corporation and a handful of the people who run businesses for it have done their best to turn me off. It's hard to believe that some lady who runs a microscopic business from her kitchen in God knows where thinks Atari is going is save the universe and how dare we tread on its toes is going to be taken seriously. Why wait months and months, and be filled with such incredible fantasy bull from Bob Brodie when the machine and software to do exactly what you want and more and EASILY is right here! My dad is selling his Atari because it's become plain obvious to him that his computer is a dinosaur. He just ordered a Gateway 2000 486SX-25 with a 170 mb hard drive and 4 mb of RAM and everything else for $1495. I've got one more Atari computer running my recording studio, but its days are numbered, too. I've seen some damned good sequencing/notation programs for Windows. I never owned a piece of Atari stock, thank God. I look in the paper and now it has sunk to below 1. It's a penny stock. I'm just waiting, folks. Just waiting any day now for the Tramiels to throw in the towel and say, "We moron-ed ourselves right out of business." Sam Tramiel will say, "We all had a good laugh at that Forbes article." Who will be laughing then, Sam? It will be really sad that after all the screaming, yelling and absolute immature behavior in the Atari world on and off line, many people will be left owning the Edsel of the computer world. I admire your loyalty. But I am sure that after this letter is reprinted, it'll provoke some juvenile reaction like, "Who needs you? Atari's the best! DOS stands for dumb operating system!" I wish I could send all those people pacifiers, spank them, and send them to bed with no supper. Meanwhile, I'm kicking royal butt in the computer world, my documents, brochures and materials look beautiful and better than anything I could ever do with Calamus and Word Writer. And your days will be numbered. I won't be a lemming, folks. Wake up and smell the coffee. Good riddance Bob Brodie, Ron Kovacs, Darlah and her sysops, and the Atari Corporation! Eat my dust!!! -->=<-- Editor Note; Mr. Kerr,a well known advertising exec and publicist from coast to coast and once a severe critic of STReport, sent this item in this past week. It was among approximately forty five "convert" letters we've received over the past month with permission to re-print included. The numbers of staunch Atari supporters leaving the platform is no longer alarming its an outright tragedy. I suppose you've heard this many times before, but it'll never hurt to keep it ringing in the ears of those who KILLED Atari. Atari had it all when they intro'ed the 520ST. They had the market by the chops and let it go. They had the new users by the heart strings but ATE their hearts instead of gently tugging on the strings. They literally had the "cream of the crop" when it came to developers... they abused them, ridiculed them and fought with them instead of nurturing them and encouraging them. Naturally the abused, insulted and angered developers left the Atari platform for more pleasant surroundings and greater earnings. All these things were in the direct control of the Tramiels at Atari. They blew it big time. They took on employees they could control and control them they did, the free thinkers were soon dumped. Take a long hard look at Atari's "casualty list" it contains some of the finest minds in the USA's computing community. The Tramiels either fired, encouraged to resign or abused them all out the door! Again, they blew it big time. Now with latest in the long line of production fiascos at hand, what do we find? The greatest campaign of double talk the community has ever seen. The guys handling Atari Explorer Magazine (the ever elusive Hard Copy), are laid-off, what happens when its reported to the userbase? A disinformation campaign the likes of which we have never seen before erupts. They're OFF the payroll... yet the masters of doublespeak insist that they call the numbers and find they're still there. But are they really? Nope! STReport gets called and told there are those at Atari that are ashamed of us and that STR had "offended" them. Hmmm Truth is truth no matter how you slice it. If anybody is offended, it should be the loyal, continually smoked upon userbase! They're the offended ones perhaps even violated. Where is this Falcon?? Will it ever get here in the numbers needed to make a dent in the market place? STReport feels the Falcon's time has come and gone without a chance. In fact, if Atari goes behind this thing now, they'll cut their own throats. *********************************************************************** :HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT: _________________________________ Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local Echo) Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN. GEnie costs only $4.95 a month for unlimited evening and weekend access to more than 100 services including electronic mail, online encyclopedia, shopping, news, entertainment, single-player games, and bulletin boards on leisure and professional subjects. With many other services, including the biggest collection of files to download and the best online games, for only $6 per hour. MONEY BACK GUARANTEE! Any time during your first month of membership if you are not completely satisfied, just ask for your $4.95 back. .________________________________________________________________________. |============= Welcome to the... ==================== Reference =========| |""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""| | ###### ###### ## ## ## ## ###### BULLETIN BOARD.... M605;1 | | ## ## ####### ## ## ## RT CONFERENCES.... M605;2 | | ## ### #### #### ## # ## ## ## ## ### SOFTWARE LIBRARY.. M605;3 | | ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## ## | | ###### ###### ## ## ##### ###### PRODUCT SUPPORT... M606;1 | | THE GENIE MACINTOSH USERS GROUP ROUNDTABLE MACPRO RT......... M480 | !________________________________________________________________________! .________________________________________________________________________. |=[]========= Hosted by... ||=[]========= Top 10 Downloads - 04/93 ======| |"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""|""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""| | Kent Fillmore ............... DRACO | 1. 28145 MAZER 3D 2.2.SEA | | Erik C. Thauvin .......... MACSPECT | 2. 28121 DISKEEPER V1.9.SIT | | David W. Reid ..... (Unk) DAVE.REID | 3. 28085 OPEN-WIDE-3.4.SIT | | ---{ SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS }--- | 4. 28105 THETYPEBOOK V3.24.SEA | | Education ....... (Rob) R.WHITELOCK | 5. 28124 INSTALL ADOBE PHOTOSHOP | | Fontography ........ (Paul) P.HENRY | 6. 28117 EDISK PRESS RELEASE.TXT | | Games ............ (Bart) MAC.GAMES | 7. 28036 METAMORPHISIS.SEA | | HyperCard ......... (Remo) D.BARTER | 8. 28136 GALLERY 3.0.SEA | | (Chris) C.INNANEN | 9. 28017 FLASH-IT 3.0.2.SIT | | PowerBooks...... (Doc) D.E.JOHNSTON |10. 28080 MAC A LOAN 3.1.SEA | | Telecommunity .... (Steve) S.EBENER |_________________________________ | | ------{ SOFTWARE LIBRARY }------- | For COMPLETE info and TIPS about | | Chief Librarian ....... RANDY.SIMON | downloading read read: item #4 | | Assistant Librarian..... [ vacant ] | pg 605 - "About The RoundTable" | !_____________________________________!__________________________________! GEnie Information copyright (C) 1991 by General Electric Information Services/GEnie, reprinted by permission *********************************************************************** > IAAD PIRACY REPORT STR FOCUS! It certainly does hurt! """"""""""""""""""""""""""""" PIRACY IN THE ATARI COMMUNITY WHAT'S BEING DONE TO COMBAT THIS ONGOING TRAVESTY? Part 2 by Dana P. Jacobson Last week, we at STReport published the recent report from the IAAD about their _ongoing_ investigation of software piracy. I want to apologize for some of the confusion that may have come about in areas of my commentary. I had mentioned that I'd be quoting particular areas of that article and then commenting. At the time that I had written my piece, I didn't realize that we would be including the entire IAAD article. It made sense for Ralph to edit portions of my piece so as not to repeat the original article _and_ my comments. Anyway, since all of you have now seen the IAAD article, I'll just refer to it rather than quote any long passages. To continue, the IAAD article went to on to explain what exactly a pirate BBS is, and what is usually involved. To the naive, or the doubters, there are many seemingly innocent bulletin boards out there. It doesn't take much to eventually learn that these same boards have pirate areas on them that the "typical" user is never aware. Some try to hide it (pirated software) and some are blatant about it. There's really no way to know without either hearing about it from a friend or being referred by someone else you might meet online. There are ways to suspect a pirate BBS, but it's no guarantee, nor really fair to generalize, to determine one. The hair on my neck rises every time I call a BBS that allows, or recommends, that you use aliases or a handle. Users hiding behind an alias oftentimes can mean that there are other things to hide. That's also not to say that a BBS where everyone uses their real name can't be a pirate board. Most BBS programs allow the ability to provide certain access levels for users, and the ability to hide certain file areas from whomever the SysOp wants. There are many ways for a SysOp to provide pirate files to whomever they want, so there's truly no sure-fire determining factor without actually seeing it and downloading the files for yourself. It does make locating piracy more difficult, but certainly not impossible. Discussion of such things as "elite access," "warez," "cracked," and many others are certainly something to question. Pro-piracy discussions, etc. are also a helpful clue. The trouble is, a lot of this stuff is hidden to the first-time caller and he/she may never come across anything questionable unless they look or ask for it - then still unlikely. It's a real mess. To quote from the IAAD article: "Successful software theft has two basic requirements: a dishonest person willing to give away a copy of a program he has purchased -- and another dishonest person willing to accept it. When this activity takes place on a Bulletin Board System, a given copy can be distributed rapidly from BBS to BBS, from user to sysop to user, all over the world. One person's willingness to give away that first copy can lead to its possession by literally thousands of others. Pirate boards succeed because there are many people willing to give or take the copies -- and because the sysop uses strategies calculated to maintain and escalate their involvement." Once this cycle begins, piracy has the ability to run rampant. Software is thus passed along from user to user, BBS to BBS, and so on. There's really no way to estimate how much damage piracy causes. How about all of the software that, once downloaded, is passed along through non-BBS channels? A friend gives it to a friend, who gives it to a friend, ad nauseam. It happens! Be suspicious of boards that ask a million questions when you first log on. What does a SysOp need to know other than your name, address, phone number, and computer type? Be suspicious of those boards that tell you that in order to get higher access, you're required to upload at least one file; and if you do, you're denied that access anyway (because it wasn't commercial). Be suspicious of those boards that list "elite" or "private" file areas, but doesn't define what elite or private signifies. Be suspicious of those boards that require a "byte count ratio"; this usually means that these boards want you to upload commercial files which are usually quite large (total number of bytes). Be wary of those boards that demand that users call in at 9600 baud or higher (to allow more callers to get in and out faster, allowing more files to be uploaded). Be wary of those boards that ask you who referred you to the board, and end up determining whether or not you gain access due to the results of that information. There are so many possible "clues", good and bad, that it can make the average bonafide caller go crazy trying to determine whether or not a BBS is legitimate. There was something in Brumleve's article that did rattle me, somewhat. I may have considered the possibility, but never really gave it all that much thought. To refresh your memories: "As with other criminal activity, the big players in software theft have formed alliances to share files, blacklists, message networks, and other information. There are dozens of these organizations, some international in scope. For example, The Elite, with world headquarters in the Netherlands, is headquartered here by the Outer Region BBS in Colorado and Dragon's Pub in Quebec. The Syndicate (TSC) has representative BBSs on three continents and in both hemispheres; the Happy Hideaway in Florida serves as its Eastern US headquarters and Outer Region as its Western base, while the Shire BBS in Chile and the Eagles Nest and Slime City BBSs in Sweden provide an international link." "Pirate boards have aligned themselves with legitimate networks as well. Many of the BBSs on which we discovered commercial files areas are linked to the F-Net -- and, of course, so are plenty of responsible BBSs. For example, according to a CrossNet Conference Node Listing, The Time Warp BBS (F-Net node 99) serves as the lead node for the "Elite Underground" F-Net conference, which also includes Starlight BBS (node 287), Darkworld BBS (node 305), Outer Region BBS (node 469), Steal Your Face (node 489), Outer Planes (node 558), Gold Nugget BBS (node 622), London Smog BBS (node 632), Million Dollar Saloon (node 639), Speedy's Raceway (node 689) and H.B. Smog (node 712). According to another CrossNet Conference Node Listing, The Gold Nugget serves as the lead node for The "Pompey Pirates Elite" (not directly associated with the Pompey Pirates cracking ring mentioned above) F-Net conference; The Prairie Chip II BBS (node 45), The Blackhole (node 612), The Temple of Doom (node 595), and Spider-man's Web (node 711) are among the 9 BBSs involved in this conference. The "Upper Echelon" F-Net conference ties US and Canadian boards by serving callers on the Gold Nugget in Ohio, Steal Your Face in New Jersey, Space Station BBS (node 248) and London Smog in California, Million Dollar Saloon in Texas, Paybax BBS (node 307) in Delaware, and Aardvarks from Mars (node 38) and Dragon's Lair (node 87) in Ontario." "Conferences of this kind allow pirates from great distances to "get to know" each other, to exchange files as well as messages, to solicit calls to their favorite BBSs. Participation in these conferences establishes an online identity; a pirate recognized from his posts on one node of a conference is likely to be accepted without question when logging on as a new user on another node in the same conference." It's really amazing to see the lengths groups of pirates will go to in order to maintain their confederacy. These networks are something which I hope the IAAD and SPA are investigating in the hopes of taking out some of these links, and if we're fortunate, the top of the chain. So, how can pirate boards be shut down, and what are some of the possible consequences? Brumleve's article sums it up well: "There are, in fact, many approaches to shutting down pirate boards. Copyright infringement is one obvious track. The Software Publishers Association is a watchdog agency which works with the FBI to shut down large-scale BBS operations. There are legal departments at major computer, game machine, and software companies devoting time and effort to this task. There's the IRS connection for unreported caller "donations". Some boards come down because of the availability of pornography. There are a variety of criminal laws related to activities common on pirate boards, and, especially in cases of copyright infringement, civil law may offer the most effective route to compensation for the victims." "When a board is busted by the authorities, the related equipment and property is usually seized. Any records of callers, caller donations, etc., are seized along with that equipment. Callers could be charged with conspiracy. For this reason, it's not wise to have one's real name, address, and real phone show up in the records of a pirate board, even though the sysop adamantly insists upon it and uses verification checks to enforce it..." With this type of potential redress, I'm really surprised that pirate boards are still flourishing. Perhaps with continued vigilance and pressure, this community of piracy will diminish. I don't believe that we can eradicate it completely, but to be able to cut out a good number of them is a terrific start! I think Brumleve's article ended on a very somber set of points which she brought out beautifully: the moral aspects of piracy, and what this might instill in people: "8. The Moral Toll: As the Twig is Bent..." "~ Right and wrong now seem the same ~ -- Rats Nest" "As a parent, I'm concerned about the numbers of young people logged on to pirate boards. These kids put themselves in a very vulnerable position. In earning their right to download, young callers are implicated in the illegal activity. The adults who run and participate on these boards set an example which could, by extension, lead to ignoring the laws which govern other areas of their lives. Do these kids also shoplift, steal from other kids' lockers, buy termpapers to submit as their own? Children learn to run and to use pirate boards from adults whose character is questionable by definition. When a child has such a sysop as a role model, what does that spell for his future?" "Like the proverbial stranger who offers candy, these criminals lure teenagers and young adults with promises of free software in exchange for their services. The service, of course, is to provide more free software -- which the sysop can then use to lure more callers and to keep his current clientele calling back. The first step is to inspire fear; this is achieved right off the bat with a new user questionnaire threatening denial of access if caller doesn't provide just the right answers. And the second is to force the caller to incriminate himself with his initial upload. Once the kid begins downloading and playing commercial games he could never afford to buy, the pressure cycle of upload/download counts begins." The topic of piracy is not one that can be mentioned and discussed for a short time and then be forgotten for months until someone else feels the pinch and the need to bring it up again. This is a problem that has really reached epidemic proportions, not only on our small Atari community, but other platforms as well. It seems worse for Atarians because of its lesser size. I really feel that the pressure needs to be kept on these pirate systems. They _need_ to feel paranoid every time a caller logs on to their BBS. There is a need for the legitimate userbase to read about pirate systems being caught, brought down, and punished substantially to deter others from either continuing or started. Users need to become aware of the harm that piracy inflicts on everyone. We need to be constantly reminded about piracy. As an example, here's what these latest articles on piracy has done to get people to start thinking about the problem it's causing, from an an E-Mail message to me on my own BBS: From User: 'XXXX XXXXX': "Well, now I'm really bummed out. I haven't heard about pirating (though I knew it still existed) since I [sic] STart did a cover article on it several years back. Nobody seemed to pay it much attention. It's bad enough that atari is caving in on itself, but the final blow seems to be this pirate thing." "Good article, Dana. I look forward to reading more next week. Enough [sic] people read STR, so hopefully your series and Brumleve's article may bring this disease to more people's attention." "Reading the comments from Rat's Nest and Fawlty Towers, plus the actual listings of the software was like touring some skinhead nazi's hideout. It really made me sick. Plus when I think of the lost revenue to those developers..." In an ongoing discussion, we deliberated some possible steps to take once a pirate BBS and/or pirates is discovered. Although this is not something that can be done without proof, once a pirate or system is uncovered, there are some possible means to publicize them: From User: 'XXXX XXXXX': "It sounds like contacting the owners [of the original pirated program] would be a good first step in their punishment. A second step may be to publish their names in different Atari publications or uploading an ascii file to commercial and local boards. I'm sorry, but if they're Atari users, they know how fragile our platform is and if they can't be fined, they should be punished in a way that would make them think twice about what they did to all of us." That sounds good to me, "XXXX"!! STReport has extended its full support to the IAAD investigation. Whatever we can do, whether it's to offer our own ongoing commentary, or publish the findings of the IAAD, will be done. We feel that it's everyone's responsibility to help in any way possible. If you're aware of pirate BBSs, let us or any member of the IAAD know. The information will be kept in the strictest confidence. Again, if you haven't read Dorothy Brumleve's article, read STReport 9.18, or the stand alone article available on any of the online services. The article is definitely an eye-opener, and extremely well-written and researched. Also, if you have comments about piracy, please send them along to us at STReport - your input is always welcome. Until next time... _____________________________________________________________ > BLUE RIDGE ATARIFEST'93 STR SHOW NEWS "The Summertime Atari Event!" """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" 1993 Blue Ridge ATARIFEST """"""""""""""""""""""""" FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION """""""""""""""""""""""""" The Blue Ridge Atari Computer Enthusiasts (BRACE) and Computer Studio invite you to participate in the Fourth Annual Blue Ridge AtariFest in beautiful Asheville, North Carolina. Show dates and times are: Saturday July 24, 1993 10am - 6pm Sunday July 25, 1993 Noon - 5pm Just as in previous years, we have arranged for FREE Booth space for Atari developers!! (We're only requesting the donation of a door prize). We can promise both developers and show-goers an energetic and exciting show with as enthusiastic a crowd of Atarians as you'll find anywhere, plus the support of Computer Studio in the mall. We're once again taking over the Courtyard Shop (mall) area at Westgate Shopping Center for the show (location of Computer Studio), plus the use of vacant store spaces for seminar sessions. Seminar sessions will be 45 minutes in length, and developers are welcome to conduct a seminar on their product line or approved topic of their choice (seminar sessions are limited, so first come, first served). This year's show dates also coincide with Asheville's annual Bele Chere street festival, when downtown Asheville is closed to vehicular traffic and becomes what must be one of the largest street fairs in the country. Westgate Shopping Center is one of the primary Park-and-Ride shuttle centers for transporting people to and from downtown, and we've arranged to have the shuttle service pick up at the front entrance of the mall and drop off at the rear entrance, so everyone taking the service from Westgate WILL walk through the AtariFest exhibition area sometime during the day. This will be a great opportunity to showcase Atari and Atari related software and peripherals, and introduce them to people who aren't already Atari owners. Bringing in NEW blood is the key to the growth of this platform, and this will be our opportunity to begin that process with a captive audience. Additional discussions of the show, as well as confirmations of your participation, are welcome in GEnieMail and in the Blue Ridge AtariFest topic 13 in Category 11 here on GEnie. HOPING TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON. HAPPY ATARI COMPUTING. IT'S HAPPENING IN ASHEVILLE! Where: Westgate Shopping Center - Asheville, N.C. Take any major highway into Asheville (US 19-23, US 26 or I-40) to the I-240 loop, then take the "Westgate/Hilton Inn Drive exit" into the Westgate Shopping Center parking lot. When: 24-25, July 1993 Time: 10:am to 6:pm SAT 12 Noon 'til 5pm SUN Points of contact: Come for a day or come for the weekend, but do come and enjoy yourself. Great Smokies Hilton Resort Hilton Inn Drive (704)254-3211 Toll-free reservation phone number 1-800-733-3211 Radisson One Thomas Wolf Plaza (704)252-8211 Rate: $62.00 per room (1-4 people) ====== Additional Hotel / Motel Information =========== Days Inn I-26 and Airport Road (704)684-2281 I-40 Exit 55 (704)298-5140 Econo Lodge US 70 East, I-40 Exit 55 (704)298-5519 Holiday Inn 275 Smoky Park Hwy (704)667-4501 Toll-free reservation phone number 1-800-HOLIDAY Red Roof Inn I-40 and US 19-23 Exit 44 (704)667-9803 Toll-free reservation phone number 1-800-843-7663 Budget Motel I-40 Exit 44 (Enka-Chandler) West Asheville Exit (704)665-2100 Best Western Asheville Central 22 Woodfin St (704)253-1851 ========= Local Bed & Breakfast lodging Information ========= Aberdeen Inn 64 Linden Ave (704)254-9336 Albemarle Inn 86 Edgemont Road (704)255-0027 Applewood Manor 62 Cumberland Circle (704)254-2244 The Bridle Path Inn Lockout Road (704)252-0035 Cairn Brae B & B 217 Patton Mountain Rd (704)252-9219 Carolina B & B 177 Cumberland Ave (704)254-3608 Cedar Crest Victorian Inn 674 Biltmore Ave (704)252-1289 Corner Oak Manor 53 St. Dunstan (704)253-3525 Cornerstone Inn 230 Pearson Dr (704)253-5644 Flint Street Inn 100 & 116 Flint Street (704)253-6723 The Lion and The Rose 276 Montford Ave (704)255-7673 The Ray House B & B 83 Hillside St (704)252-0106 Reed House 119 Dodge St (704)274-1604 The Wright Inn 235 Pearson Drive (704)251-0789] (1-800-552-5724) A more complete listing of Bed & Breakfasts can be obtained through the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce. Reservations should be made immediately, as July is the height of our tourist season. =========== CAMP GROUNDS ================ (reservations are a must during this time of season): Mount Pisgah: About 20 miles southwest of Asheville on the Blue Ridge Parkway at mile post 408.6 (National Park Service). 690 acres. Elevation 5000'. One of the nicest campgrounds in Western North Carolina. 67 tent sites, 70 RV sites. For reservations: P.O.Box 749, Watnesville, N.C. 28786; phone (704) 235-9109. No showers. Groceries and restaurant. Nature program. 14 day stay limit. Lake Powhatan: 4 miles south of Asheville on State road 191, 3.5 miles west on SR 806. 30 acres. 98 tent/rv sites. Reservation available thru Mistix 1-800-283-CAMP. Disposal station. No showers. Swimming; lifeguard; fishing; nature trails; bicycles. 14-day stay limit. While in the area, you might want to consider a little sightseeing, and include a visit to the Biltmore House here in Asheville (the largest single family residence ever built in the U.S.--its a "castle"). A visit to the Biltmore can be a full-day's activity as you will want to view the house, visit the winery, and walk some of the grounds and gardens. Hours: The House 9 am to 6pm The Gardens 9am to 7pm Conservatory 9am to 5:30pm The Winery Monday-Saturday 11am to 7pm Sunday 1pm to 7pm Other areas of interest include; the Thomas Wolf home (adjacent to the Raddison), the Blue Ridge Parkway and Folk Art Center. A drive up the Blue ridge Parkway to enjoy the higher elevations and incredible views of our mountains. Perhaps a hike up to Mount Pisgah and look back down to Asheville(you can see Mt. Pisgah from most anywhere in Asheville). A short drive from Mt. Pisgah will take you to Sliding Rock (for those of you travelling with kids who are still kids at heart), the Cradle of Forestry (first forest school in the country), waterfalls, trout hatchery, etc. For the adventurous, white water rafting on the Natahala River near Bryson City (approx one and a half hours from here). There's obviously loads more to see and do around Asheville (in addition to the Blue Ridge AtariFest and a visit to Computer Studio :-). If any of y'all would like maps and additional tourist info of the area I might suggest contacting the Chamber of Commerce: Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce 151 Haywood Street P.O. Box 1010 Asheville, NC 28802 704-258-6111 FAX: (704)251-0926 ___________________________________________________________________ > AIM SLAMMED! STR FOCUS! Another DIVERSIONARY TACTIC! """"""""""""""""""""""" CONCERNING THE EXPLORER SHUTDOWN ================================ THE HEAD GAMES ABOUND! by R. F. Mariano It never ceases to amaze me at how clever agendas can be ingeniously inserted into the course of current events. What is about to unfold here clearly depicts the deft administration of a personal and heavily biased opinion and slant on a seriously controversial occurrence in the Atari platform. In fact, its rather neat to watch the manner in which an attempt to change the focus of the situation is being tried. The fact remains, Atari Explorer is, at this time, no more. Until such time as its announced that either Lindsay or someone else is now handling Explorer with full intentions of fulfilling its subscription obligations, the users must be cautioned. There may be NO future issues done. from Delphi's Atari Area 54288 4-MAY 08:39 General Information RE: What's going on here? (Re: Msg 53912) From: ISDMARKETING To: DPJ (NR) You and Ralph have jumped on the subscription issue re: Atari Explorer real fast. I've been reading most of the thread with disgust because of the possibility that a double-standard is being used. You stated in your message #53912, that you took out a years subscription to Explorer. How come STReport appears to have ignored the fact that AIM sold subscriptions at WAACE 92 and, to date, after much yelling screaming by paid subscribers, finally shipped a single issue 6 months later. Oh, I understand. It is ok to start yelling "FOUL" at Atari Explorer days after the cutback is announced although it has been made clear to us all that Mike is trying his best to get the magazine out regardless, because Atari owns Atari Explorer. But it is NOT ok to say one single negative word about the AIM situation because Atari doesn't own AIM. The above is not a commentary on the relative quality of either magazine but a point on the manner in which Atari Explorer is being singled out. Nathan @ DMC Nathan, It's nice to see you are still up to your old "tricks" of showing a "side" of a story but NOT the whole picture. You truly are a master debater. Let's see now, why would Nathan be so interested in bringing out negatives relative to anything that Bill and Patti Rayle do? Could it be because of relentless hardhearted feelings between Nathan, Darlah and the Rayles? Say... stemming back to a certain feud that occurred in the ST RT over a year and a half ago?? Remember?? When the Rayles told Darlah to "keep" her free flag? Getting to the point, Atari Explorer suffered _how long_ a delay from the time Atari grabbed it away from John Jainschigg and took it back in house for "so-called" money saving reasons just a year or so ago? Nothing was said about _that_ lengthy delay. Atari announced it was doing so to cut back the expense of producing Explorer Magazine. Now, we are being told that to cut back expenses, Atari is contemplating taking the Explorer Magazine "back out of house"?? Time for a _serious_ reality check! Who is blowing smoke now with this doubletalk malarkey? Until such time as a change in the "shutdown" condition of Explorer is made known, let the userbase be aware that as of 4/8/93, Explorer was, for all intents and purposes, shutdown. Temporarily or permanently? Who knows? Now comes the TRUE AIM story; AIM has offered an alternatives to the AIM subscription. I might add that the first notices of a choice of refund/subscription change came well before the "six months" indicated, unbiasedly, by Nathan. They repeatedly offered, on CIS and in STReport, either a refund or a full subscription to their successful CONNECT magazine which is a highly acclaimed publication. The subscriber's value was protected and in the case of Connect, it was enhanced. What the Rayles DID NOT DO was to obscure the truth in waves of half truths and distraction. What the Rayles didn't do was totally ignore the controversy and leave the entire matter hanging in mid-air. Since Explorer's future is STILL in a state of heightened abstruseness, it's incumbent upon all of Atari Explorer's subscribers and advertisers who've paid in advance to be very concerned about the future of Atari Explorer Magazine. After all, the least they could've done was be UP FRONT and truthful about the lay-offs and the overall situation instead of trying to sandbag the situation into oblivion. As for "singling out".... heck, that's a given these days in the Atari community. One can only wonder who will be singled out next for the slaughter. Seems entire topics are devoted to the singling out of individuals, companies, dealers and/or just about anything that may generate some "traffic or action". It began way back before the PC DITTO thing blew. So please, don't try to make this issue look so unique, new and different. For the record, subscribers and advertisers who've paid in advance for services "to be rendered" have every right in the world to be concerned with Explorer's current state of affairs. Coupled with the level of doublespeak that's been palmed off upon the userbase since April 08, 1993. The time when Lindsay, Explorer Editor and Meer, advertising and art layout Mgr., were laid off, only increases the urgency as to whether the questions should be asked. Dana Jacobson, STReport Editor, answers Nathan's equivocal missive; 54321 4-MAY 22:40 News & Reviews RE: What's going on here? (Re: Msg 54288) From: DPJ To: ISDMARKETING (NR) I'll tell you why _I_ didn;t jump down AIM's throat because of late issues, Nathan. First of all, I did get my year's subscription from AIM, and I subscribed to them much later than AE. Also, the Rayles kept their subscribers up-to-date with regard to the problems that they were having; it also hasn't been 6 months in-between issues, but I can check to verify that for you. Unicorn Publications is also just a two-person operation with hardly as near the resources to put out a magazine than Atari is capable of doing. This is not to belittle the Rayles - they did a fine job with what they had to work with. They were also more regular over the years (since the MAM days) than AE ever was. so, had rumors come out about AIM, I'm sure that we would have discussed them online and in STReport. I also believe that we carried an item about AIM's problems, a number of weeks back. Why is it that "rumor" didn't cause nearly the reaction that the AE issue has caused? You know why. Also, why is AIM going through rough times? Mismanagement? Hardly. Could it be just one more in a long line of Atari support problems? The independent folks can't survive without the company doing something to help the market. Losing AE won't hurt me (personally) as much as losing AIM or of all of the others we lost over the years (nothing personal to the AE staff, past or present/future). But, I can't find fault with those who have done just about everything that they could to survive in today's Atari marketplace, and find it extremely difficult, if at all possible any longer. Dana @ STReport International Online Magazine So naturally, even though Nathan stated privately he would not post further on the subject after his first post.... the game continues... 54367 5-MAY 09:43 News & Reviews RE: What's going on here? (Re: Msg 54321) From: ISDMARKETING To: DPJ (NR) I agree that we are both more concerned over the loss of a 3rd party magazine more so than over the loss of an Atari-owned publication. I was referring to the fact that Pattie and Bill sold new subscriptions to AIM at WAACE last October 1992. Since that time, they released one scaled-down 8 page newsletter with dated info and no editorial or anything in March of this year. When complaints started piling up on GEnie, STReport carried the offer from AIM, 5 months after they had last shipped AIM. I commend AIM for offering to refund subscription money. I commend them again for attempting to compete in a more sophisticated market with CONNECT and wish them the best of luck. All I was attempting to point out to you was the fact that NO, they did not keep their customers informed. In fact, no one heard a thing for almost 5 months Dana (or at least no mailout was done to their subscriber base to inform them of anything). And the single issue they did publish was a far cry from the issue upon which people paid subscriptions. Wouldn't you agree? And yes, the Atari market has seen better days. Atari takes the blame for that without a doubt. ;-) My point still stands. Mike Lindsay is actively attempting to work something out with Atari so that he can take over Atari Explorer, which would be GREAT NEWS! The position of STReport totally ignored that aspect, instead going off on a tangent about doom and gloom and what about the subscribers. So I ask you, how come you didn't ask about the AIM subscribers for 5 months but managed to wait about one day when it was Atari Explorer. That's all. ;-) I'll now try and go back into lurker mode and patiently wait for Calamus questions. :-) Sincerely Nathan @ DMC Doom and Gloom Nathan?? Are you serious?? Can you say that with a straight face? The real Doom and Gloom as you say comes straight from Atari's lack of performance and delivery. Not from the FACT that STREPORT PRESENTS A TRUE STORY ABOUT ATARI. Talk about the ultimate "set-up" to twist and squirm the attention away from the basic fact that Lindsay and Meer were laid off and Explorer was shut down, this takes the cake. As far asking about Aim the answer is easy we spoke to the Rayles on an almost daily basis on Compuserve, they kept the users abreast of ongoing developments and their options. What they didn't do was blow smoke and try to amplify non-existent controversy. Nice try but no cigar. STReport's point still stands tall; Mike Lindsay and Darren Meer were laid off on thursday, April 08, 1993 and at the same time Atari Explorer was effectively shut down. While on the topic of misleading; Do you think its correct to have a recording of Mike Lindsay's voice answering calls at the 408-745-2182 number while, in fact, he is not on the payroll and has not been since the 8th of April.?? Don't you think THAT'S misleading and improper? You know, the recording that sez; "they're either on another line or out of the office"? They've been laid off that's what. Its certainly not what that recording infers. I don't see you saying anything about that. The bottom line... to reiterate, is to let those who have paid for subscriptions and advertisements know a possibility of there not being another issue of or, a lack of regularity to Explorer and to govern themselves accordingly. __________________________________________________________________ > EXPLORER NONSENSE STR Spotlight IS IT?? OR, IS IT NOT? """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""" After having received a multitude of calls and emails relative to this matter I decided to bring forward as much material as I could find and allow our readers the opportunity to decide for themselves if a "smokescreen" of confusion was perpetrated by certain of Atari's reps. You be the judge.. From the Delphi Atari Areas... ABOUT THE LAY-OFFS.. 53809 28-APR 15:45 General Information RE: What's going on here? (Re: Msg 53803) From: ABARBIERO To: RMARIANO That was never contested, and not the point. Mike is planning restructuring of the magazine, with or without Atari as the owner. The next issue is being worked on, and that is all there is to say about the topic. Andreas@AEO FORUM>Reply, Add, Read, "?" or Exit> rep To: [ABARBIERO] Subj: RE: What's going on here? > "That was never contested, and not the point. Mike is planning > restructuring of the magazine, with or without Atari as the owner. The > next issue is being worked on, and that is all there is to say about the > topic. Really??? Its the whole point! They WERE laid-off at the time we reported the event and we've been forced to endure a barrage of empty words ever since!! I'm almost inclined to believe the whole thing was perped to ward off fears of a deluge of Explorer subscription refund requests. Ralph @ STReport International Online Magazine 53812 28-APR 19:26 General Information RE: What's going on here? (Re: Msg 53809) From: DPJ To: ABARBIERO Wait just a minute, Andreas!!!! How can you say "that was never contested and not the point"????? This is exactly what was the center of this entire debate!! The initial story from STReport was that 22 people, including Mike & Darren are no longer with Atari. You, along with others, jumped down Ralph's throat because of it; and now you're saying it was never contested?! Now you're implying that Ralph was correct all along. It sounds like you were all side-stepping the issue and refusing to confirm it while letting Ralph take the heat; something you had a part in also. It's amazing to hear the story of Atari Explorer's changes and reasons for them over the past couple of years. It goes from an in-house publication to an outside contract. John Jainschigg has some terrific success with it; and then Atari decides to cut back on expenses and decides to bring it back in-house. Not only does Jainschigg lose out on the contract because he opts not to foolhardily go to Sunnyvale, but he's owed money from Atari. Now AE is in Sunnyvale and Atari is still trying to save some money. Mike and Darren are no longer with Atari but have the option to "restructure" the magazine with or without Atari as the owner. Why all the secrecy? Is Atari concerned about possible repercussions from even more subscribers complaining about their potential loss of subscription fees and more delays at getting paid-for issues? With good reason - I subscribed to Explorer at WAACE '91, and still haven't got a year's worth of issues _yet_!! How many similar cases are there? Personally, I don't care whether AE is published inside or out of Sunnyvale. I do hope Darren & Mike stick with it, and I wish them and the rest of the staff the best of luck. But, I see no shame in admitting that someone, including STReport, reports what starts off as rumor and ends up being true. Atari should have better things to do then try and stop the spread of the truth just to save face. Much better things.... Dana @ STReport International Online Magazine 53833 28-APR 23:12 General Information RE: What's going on here? (Re: Msg 53812) From: ABARBIERO To: DPJ (NR) The reasons why it was done is TOTALLY different than was the printed intent of the 'report' Atari Explorer is expensive to maintain, and for whatever reasons it was brought in house, the savings were not enough, and without a in house magazine they had to lay off Mike and Darren. The problem is that it was created into a negative media event, and that is the last thing it was intended to do. Hard decisions have to made, and I am not in the decision circuit, but all I know that all this will appear in ST R as a major conspiracy, and yes we all have much better things to do.... we dont try to stop spreading the truth, we just have to deal with the overreaction that comes from sensationalism. I end up hating to answer people's questions here as EVERYTHING that is said is turned around. I am not trying to make Atari seem flawless, they aren't, but when I talk to Mike Lindsay and he is upset about what is being said here and in your magazine I try to tell his side of it all. YES they were laid off,NO there is no 'coverup', NO there is no fear of people demanding refunds, YES it may be bad news for the magazine, and YES it may make the magazine better than it was. I understand now why no one from Atari wanted to take this job, or come online regularly to help out, everything is taken to extremes, and all the work is taken up with things like this instead of helping out with questions and problems. this does not help anyone. Andreas@AEO 53818 28-APR 20:44 General Information RE: What's going on here? (Re: Msg 53816) From: DPJ To: AEO_MAG Travis, I think that emotions are taking over and the original points are being missed. The initial story was that Darren & Mike are/were no longer with Atari. If _that_ is not true, please tell us. If this is true, and it appears that it is, the first reaction of _anyone_ is that AE is no longer with us, as we know it. If _this_ is true (or false), please say so. Now, with all of this said and done, hearing that Mike and Darren are currently in the process of restructuring AE, and on their own, is something which we did not report because that info was not (IMO) available at the time of our initial report. This came out _after_ we reported the initial "layoffs" at Atari. Working for Atari, publishing AE is not the same as working independently of Atari. publishing AE. All of the smoke and mirrors has been coming from the west coast. All that it did was cloud the issue. It appears that what we did report was true. It turns out that here was more to it with the apparent re-structuring in Oregon. All of this could have been avoided had _someone_ been up-front right from the beginning instead of blowing out more smoke. Dana @ STReport International Online Magazine 53859 29-APR 00:38 General Information RE: What's going on here? (Re: Msg 53818) From: AEO_MAG To: DPJ (NR) Dana, > Now, with all of this said and done, hearing that Mike and Darren are > currently in the process of restructuring AE, and on their own, is > something which we did not report because that info was not (IMO) > available at the time of our initial report. This came out _after_ we > reported the initial "layoffs" at Atari. This is not true. If STR had called Mike _the_same_day_, Mike would have told STR what was in AEO. The information was there from the beginning. STR, to my amazement, did not choose to follow through. Why? Lapse of judgement? Maybe. Everyone suffers from that. Intent to blacken Atari's eye? Maybe. It _seems_ that could be the case, after reading some messages. Within 24 hours, both you and Ralph have brought up the point of Explorer susbscriber refunds. Why? Explorer is still with us. After he was laid off, Mike has worked his behind off these past few weeks at Atari, trying to build something positive. All I see online is attempts to tear it down. Nothing positive has been contributed. I feel that if STR had talked with Mike, and if STR had the best interests of the Atari community at large, it would not have run the story as it did. It would not have left the impression that Explorer was dead. Anyway, Mike left a message on Ralph's machine tonight. I say, let's let this cool down until something more concrete develops. --Travis Editor Note: In all fairness, Mr. Guy must be confused as to the timetables here. Mike and Darren left Atari's employ on 04/08/93 Holy Thursday. We ran the bulletin on Monday April 12, 1993. Atari was closed for the long weekend. When the number was called, we heard the announcement pertaining to their performing "other duties". For Mr. Guy to question the veracity of the release is one thing but to continue the attempts to coverup a bold and very clumsy coverup is akin to a complete disaster. Now, we find indirect admissions that the lay-off reports were true and that the indignation has to do with subsequent information released. First, the bottom line is; Both Mike Lindsay and Darren Meer are not on the payroll. Mike Lindsay is at Atari attempting to negotiate a deal to take over Explorer. Facts are facts Travis, if Explorer is going to follow the bumpy road it has in the recent past, then it stands to reason that subscribers will need some sort of reassurance that they will receive future issues in a timely fashion. Having the best interests of the Atari Community at heart means much more than hiding the real facts of an occurrence from the userbase. It means letting them know all the facts and have them make a well informed decision. I indeed had a long talk with Mike today and I support his effort to bring Explorer back as strong as, if not stronger, than before. I must also say he agreed that STReport, its publisher and staff are owed an apology for the actions of AEO's reps recently on Delphi. ______________________________________________________________ > STR Mail Call "...a place for the readers to be heard" """"""""""""" STReport's MailBag """""""""""""""""" Messages * NOT EDITED * for content ----------------------------------- from Delphi's Atari area 53564 24-APR 22:01 General Information Atari? A game company? From: CMILLAR To: ALL Long post about a possible future for Atari follows. Read it? Over the past month or so, there has been a great deal of talk concerning Atari becoming a "game company", again. The general tone of these discussions has been that Atari will phase out the computer line and begin to strictly manufacture games and game machines. The obvious message these people are trying to get across, then, is that we, the Atari _computer_ user base, will be left out in the cold. I feel that this is an inaccurate assessment, but not wholly without a basis in fact. This situation was first brought to my attention when I read the numerous posts by Norman Weinress stating that it was an almost undeniable fact that Atari was currently in a "transition" to game company status. When I first read this I dismissed it offhand as completely ridiculous, and, in actuality, if one takes the statement at face value it _is_ ridiculous. But, if one looks at such a statement as perhaps a bit overemphasized, than numerous current events in the Atari world begin to make a great deal of sense. So, while it is obvious that Atari is shifting its market segment emphasis and hardware directions, to what extent and what areas remain a mystery. As things look right now, I believe that Atari is making an attempt to penetrate three markets. These markets are: music, games, and the home. The first is obviously the music market. The Falcon030 is a musician's dream (as I can attest to), and while definitely suitable for professional studio work, it is _ideal_ for the low budget and "budding" musician - perfect for a niche platform. Couple this with the fact that Atari already has some major inroads in the music world, most importantly a mature software base, emphasizing this market should lead to some spectacular results. The second market is game machines. Atari now knows that if you have a technologically inferior product with a lot of software support (i.e. 7800, etc.), it will fail. They also realize that if you have a technologically superior product with little software support (i.e. Lynx), it, too, will fail. Thus, it appears that they are approaching the Jaguar game console from precisely the right direction. From what we have been told, and from what some developers have leaked, the Jaguar is technologically superior to all machines currently on the market, and all machines slated for release this year. Also, Atari has held at _least_ two developer conferences as far back as 6-8 months ago, and has already hired 17 people to "pave the way" for the Jaguar. Since the release of the machine is not expected until late summer to early fall, a great deal of support should be forthcoming. Did the Lynx receive this much initial support? Not at all. If it had, the Lynx would have taken the market by storm. Just having software and developers, though, does not ensure success. Knowing this, I was very pleased to read an article in the industrial edition of BusinessWeek which stated that Atari had at least a $12 million advertising and promotion budget for the Jaguar. Finally, I would like to mention that there is much more to the Jaguar project than meets the eye. I foresee Atari going after two markets with the Jaguar - one will be as a low priced game system, which will appeal to children, and the other will be as an expandable platform from which a great deal of multimedia work can be accomplished (see below for more information). Whether Atari can successfully do this is the question. The third market is the home market. As things currently stand, there are two distinct ways in which corporations are attacking the home market. One method is the "business method". Essentially, the emphasis is based upon all of the business related functions a person at home could perform on his or her platform, etc. Usually, clones and Macintosh computer are marketed via this method. The other method is the "multi-media" method, and it is just barely beginning to catch on. There are several ways to approach this method, but it usually involves combining two usually separate components in some fashion and selling it as a single package. The most common examples would be the game machine/computer amalgamate. The Coleco Adam, the Atari XEGS system, and even Commodore's CDTV can fall into this category, and none of them succeeded to any great extent. While the history of this approach is bleak, it appears as though the market for this sort of machine is ready to explode. Recently there has been a glut of "interactive" machines on the market, but none have caught on. It is my opinion that the market only needs a viable machine to become active, because the current slew of interactive machines are not sufficiently useful to attract the conventional buyer. What this buyer needs is a combination of conventional abilities (word processing, etc.), and the multimedia features of interactive machines. When looking at the capabilities and the software development of the Falcon030, it is obvious that it definitely fits the bill. I don't think that the Falcon030 is intended primarily for such a market, though, but what I _do_ feel is that Atari realized that they could begin to grow accustomed to such a market by testing how the current Falcon was received, and, based on that knowledge, see if they wanted to pursue it further. Also, from what has been said about the Jaguar: "Electronic Gaming Monthly said (approximately): Atari is planning to do the same (as 3DO) with their Jaguar 64bit RISC based Mega system with add-ons for hard drives, keyboards and VR goggles to draw the computer heads.... (hmmmm Sounds like a whole computer to me. Maybe with atari emulation??? Don't know, so don't take my word for it!) Game Pro said: Atari told us recently that they wouldn't be at the Summer CES and would instead be showcasing their Jag at a private conference some time after June. They said that the Jag would be VERY expandable and that there would be available a AV for playing LYNX games over the TV. Seeing is believing." -it seems evident that Atari wants to make the Jaguar a lower-tier of a double multimedia thrust. From this evidence I can see several different situations. 1.) The Falcon line will be placed as the high end multimedia/conventional computer which will appeal to college students, families, etc. The Jaguar will be placed as the expandable low end system which will appeal to pre-teens as a game system, and then as a semi-computer system as they mature. 2.) The Falcon line will be emphasized only as a music computer, and the Jaguar will be released as a game machine and as an expandable base from which a computer may be built - the operating system would not be TOS compatible. 3.) Same as above, but with a TOS compatible operating system. All three approaches would be equally risky, as there really are no positive precedents at such market techniques, but even if the Falcon were subjugated to "music only" status, it would still receive support as a generic platform, and allow it to be used as a conventional computer. Or, if the Jaguar were eventually TOS compatible, we would all still have a platform to work with. So, as you can see, it does not look as though Atari will become "games-only", but it does look as though there are major changes ahead. While the Jaguar seemingly represents "games", it will probably mean much more. And, while 22 "computer" employees were fired and 17 "game" employees were hired, this does not mean that computers will be phased out. It does mean that Atari needs to keep a strict balance of manpower and that "games" are taking on more of an emphasis. The truth of the matter is that there is severe weather ahead for the Atari world at large. There are going to be some major changes, and I wouldn't be surprised if a great number of current users were "swept off the boat", so to speak. From the way I look at it, although the technology involved is not as divergent as with the 8 bit/ST situation, we will be going through such a shift once again. While they are TOS compatible, once the new machines are out in great enough numbers, the ST/STe/TT will begin to be phased out of software development considerations. Some might ask, "Why is this happening?!", and the plain truth is that the Tramiels need to put the last eight years behind them. They tried, unsuccessfully, to make the ST into a respected business platform since at least 1987, and have completely missed the mark. Because of the lack of steady progression during that time, they feel obligated to make a clean break and "try again", for better or for worse. The future is as of yet completely undecided, and upcoming events in the computer market are really going to blow things wide open. Hopefully, with their new approach, Atari will be able to adapt accordingly and cash in. If TOS survives, as I think it will, we would all benefit. The main point, then, is that Atari is currently undergoing drastic changes, and for once, Ralph Mariano and I agree... "While the company is not going under by any means, it will never be the company we've grown accustomed to... ever again." Ralph, your words have never rung more true. - Chris Millar from the FNET Conf : STReport Online Msg# : 23804/23823 Lines: Extended Read: 2 Sent : Apr 25, 1993 at 10:35 AM To : Kerry Bowman From : Frank Sereno Subj : Re: Food for thought -=> Quoting Kerry Bowman to All <=- KB> You use another online mag as an example of wasting your online time KB> and you turn around and tell me that you don't really care, since you KB> have a 14.4k modem. I don't get what exactly you're trying to say. KB> One message you're against wasting online time, now you don't care... KB> you do have a point right? I don't remember saying that the OTHER magazine's size was a waste of my on-line time, but I pointed out to people that were complaining about STR's size that the OTHER magazine was becoming just as large. As far as it goes, there is one board in the Chicago area that carries the conference that the OTHER magazine is distributed in but the magazine usually isn't available as F-mail because it scrolls off the message base because of too many posts. And apparently the powers that be in that conference like lots and lots of posts because when traffic slowed down in the conference, they gated in the Atari ST Fido conference to make up the difference. KB> Well, it could be that we just have a difference of opinions. Meaning KB> keeping which end happy, the dealer of the customers. Better if both KB> are kept happy. I won't even go into how Atari has been handling KB> things, you're not going to get much disagreement from me. But hey, I KB> just wanted to hear your thoughts regarding the discount matter. KB> Wen This is really strange how the message is intended for me but addressed to ALL and is posted by one person and signed by another. Back to student discounts, I doubt if most dealers give them for Atari products. And that wasn't what Mr. Brodie told me when the subject came up in the Anti-Piracy Fnet Conference. He posted about colleges becoming VAR's of Atari products. Most PC dealers probably don't give discounts to college students either. On the other hand, most PC dealers and manufacturers are not in as dire straits as Atari is now. If Atari wants to make sales, they have to aggressively seek new customers by offering price incentives, discounts, promotions, etc. But it is really blind of Atari to intimate that their product has any kind of pricing advantage against the clones when you can walk into almost any PC dealer and get a loaded 486DX2-66 system complete with monitor for under $1800. These are my opinions of course, but bear in mind that I have owned Atari computers for over 9 years, an ST for five years and wanted to buy a Falcon almost TWO years ago. When the waiting became unbearable, I bought a clone system. I wanted to buy a Jaguar almost TWO years ago (heck, maybe 3) but still nobody can buy one, so last Christmas I bought a Sega Genesis (I refuse to own Nintendo products--something about staying away from the PC so long, the Nintendo suit with Atari and others, and not wanting to be a darn Lemming). I do own a Lynx, but now it appears that the Lynx will no longer be available at Toys R Us, Babbages, Software Etc., and other stores. Atari has disappointed me so many times that maybe I am a bit hard on them. On the other hand, maybe my perspective on Atari is correct. --- Blue Wave/QWK v2.10 from the FNET Conf : DTP - ART Msg# : 3216/3216 Lines: 6 Read: 1 Sent : Apr 26, 1993 at 5:36 PM To : S. Michael Hallack From : Le SysOp at Fnet Node 168, C.C.B.B.S. - Bridgeton, N.J. Subj : Re: <3211> Re: Atari Works & Speedo GDOS That's a very good question! I wish I knew the answer, though it's supposed to be that FSM-GDOS was never quick enough or something?? And it's beginning to look like I may never get a look at Speedo GDOS either as I'm tired of waiting for Atari to get off it's dead a** and do something with the Falcon.... Too bad they the Tramiels had to go and screw the company up so bad... from the FNET Conf : STReport Online Msg# : 23850/23854 Lines: 15 Read: 1 Sent : Apr 27, 1993 at 12:25 AM Recv : Apr 28, 1993 To : Ralph Mariano From : Thomas Kolakowski at Fnet Node 669, Dateline: Atari Subj : Re: <23825> IAAD PIRACY REPORT I just got through reading the IAAD's Piracy Report. I was shocked! I was amazed! I was confused! But most of all I wonder... if they have so much damning evidence against these BBS's and users... why are are all those BBS's still up and operating? In some ways this report seem to me like a beginner's guide to pirating. If you were never on a pirate board you now know where they are, how to get online, what the procedures are! I think that if the report is 100% factual it will do more harm than good! I agree with you, their statements about this conference were wrong, and that the talk of piracy just began with that one user (which led to much debate here!). Hell, for all we know that was just a plant by the IAAD to see what users in this and other conferences have "piracy tenancies"; so they know which users they should examine? --- ~ MMST 2.60 UnRegistered (Tagline under construction) from GEnie Category 4, Topic 36 Message 135 Mon May 03, 1993 TOWNS at 19:01 EDT Steve.. CD-ROM drivers for MultiTOS.. Yet another reason to upgrade to MultiTOS when it becomes available. You can't expect Atari to support versions of TOS that it doesn't even sell anymore. MultiTOS is Atari's future for TOS based machines. From my viewpoint, you either upgrade or you stick it out with what you got. This isn't to say that Atari isn't going to do a CD-ROM driver for the older versions of TOS. I have no idea if they are planning one or not. As you might imagine.. they aren't exactly keeping me up to date on their software development efforts ;-) -- John ------------ Category 4, Topic 36 Message 136 Tue May 04, 1993 S.SCHAPER [Quinctius] at 00:11 EDT John (TiNT) Towns, Will it be possible to run the new MultiTOS desktop without slowing down the system by running all of MultiTOS? ------------ Category 4, Topic 36 Message 137 Tue May 04, 1993 LEPULLEY [Lloyd] at 08:47 EDT John, >>You can't expect Atari to support versions of TOS that it doesn't >>even sell anymore. Of course not - another company maybe, but not Atari. So what if 99.9% of all Atari users still use the old TOS - just desert them. Atari's same old upgrade path - whether hardware or software. Throw away your old system and buy a new one if you want to upgrade. Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. ------------ Category 4, Topic 36 Message 138 Tue May 04, 1993 TOWNS at 14:53 EDT But.. Lloyd.. you have known this for _five_ years. Atari's pricing doesn't have margins built-in for upgrade paths and Atari just doesn't do it. Complaining about it doesn't make it any better. ------------ Category 4, Topic 36 Message 139 Wed May 05, 1993 LEPULLEY [Lloyd] at 00:28 EDT Towns, >>But.. Lloyd.. you have known this for _five_ years. At least it's nice to see you admit it. And _I_ might be stuck with the 'throw away' upgrade path that Atari supplies, but others should be warned about it before they make their purchases. They might think that Atari is like most of the other computer world and makes upgradable computers. >>Atari's pricing doesn't have margins for built-in upgrade paths... ROFLAO - Tell the truth John. Atari couldn't make as much money selling new systems if they supplied a built-in upgrade path. >>Complaining about it doesn't make it any better. Complaining? No, commenting after you bring up the old saw about Atari not being able to support previous TOS versions, the one that 99.9% of the current owners have. The one that 95%+ (IMO) will still have next year. In other words, not supporting most of their current customers. Does it make it any better? Maybe not. But Jerry should be aware of the upgrade path that Atari offers when (if?) he writes his column. BTW, has Atari sent Jerry a Falcon030 yet? Afterall, they just got in that huge shipment - must have been a two month run - of 150 machines. Surely they can afford to send one free to a guy who can give them millions if FREE publicity. Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr. ------------ Category 4, Topic 36 Message 141 Wed May 05, 1993 S.SCHAPER [Quinctius] at 19:12 EDT When I bought my ST, there was the understanding that all sorts of upgrades would be available, out the DMA port, the Cart port, etc. Even the ABAQ was originally spoken of in this sort of way. (to me a logical upgrade path would have included some of those external boxes, as well as having the ROMS in a cart you could exchange. However, to an extent, in a different, and more difficult fashion, that is sort of available, with later ROMs available in different chip sets). I'm just sad because I don't think Atari is going to make it (maybe hang on for another five years, if that), and I really like my ST, and wish it held the market prominence of at least the Mac, preferably the DOS machines. (And certainly it could be doing as well as the Amiga, but you have to have customer support for more than just the modem-literate (I've gotten lots of support, but I'm online), places where you can buy them, a reliable future for the machine, and people have to know about it. ------------ Category 4, Topic 36 Message 142 Wed May 05, 1993 D.MCNAMEE [Dan @ Atari] at 19:23 EST -> Atari's same old upgrade path - whether hardware or software. <- -> Throw away your old system and buy a new one if you want to <- -> upgrade. <- Yep, just like IBMs, Apple's, Commodores, Chevy's, Ford's, Chrysler's and everyone else's in the world (although, admittedly Commodore did have a trade up thing going for a while). Dan ------------ Category 4, Topic 36 Message 144 Wed May 05, 1993 D.PATERSON2 [Dave] at 21:59 EDT Heck, at one point Atari was selling 520STs at half price if you sent in an 8-bit Atari. One hacker chum put all his burnt chips and blown boards into a single 400 and sent it in for the 50% off. No problem. Of course, now that Atari Canada has closed, who knows if anything like that will happen again. ------------ Category 4, Topic 36 Message 145 Wed May 05, 1993 SLP at 23:31 EDT Lloyd, I agree with Dan on the upgrade path question. I really don't see any difference between Atari and any of the other companies (with the possible exception of Commodore, but I don't know if they still have an upgrade program for the Amiga) when it comes to upgrades. Sure Apple will sell a motherboard upgrade, but the cost is about the same as buying the computer new and selling your old system. I don't know if they even do that much anymore. I bought my 520 in the summer of 1985 when I had to load the operating system from disk. Right now I've added memory, a hard drive, TOS ROMS, the CPX control panel, and several other items. I've run Speedo GDOS on the system, and I can still run most all of the current software without a problem. Both my color and monochrome monitors that I bought with the machine have always performed admirably, and I really have no complaints at all about the value that my Atari system has provided in the last 8 years. How many Amiga 1000s, Fat Mac 512s, and 286 machines, all of which cost much more than the 520 did, can still be used without feeling that you are working with a tired dog of a machine? Scott ------------ Category 4, Topic 36 Message 146 Thu May 06, 1993 STEVE-J [Steve @ NLS] at 03:38 EDT D.MCNAMEE - Yeah, in fact A LOT of people are very upset with Apple for introducing a new line of Mac's every 4-6 months! MacWorld magazine even suggests waiting 6 months after a Mac is introduced before buying one just to make sure it isn't immediately discontinued. However, some clones now come with the ability to upgrade the processor w/o switching out the motherboard, all the new Mac's have easy upgrade access (e.g. installing cards/RAM/etc. w/o having to take the whole machine apart), and the new Amiga 4000 has the CPU on a plug-in daughterboard so that it can be easily switched out. ------------ Category 4, Topic 36 Message 148 Thu May 06, 1993 ST.REPORT [Ralph] at 08:09 EDT Amazing...... Simply amazing!! Because Atari leaves its loyal and thinning userbase hanging for months... heck, years on end with only a bleak picture for the future, its ok if other companies do it. That's terrific rationale... Dan, you leave me breathless with your; just like IBMs, Apple's, Commodores, Chevy's, Ford's, Chrysler's.." That is really the truth right?? Its really as clear and accurate as can be... wrong. Please Dan, don't fall into the "doublespeak" trap others at Atari have. You've always been straight forward and frank. Don't ruin that now with this sort of example. In the automotive world there's trade-ins at DEALERS in every city, county, state and country. With Apple, at least they are providing new and exciting products for their userbase and potential new customers on a very regular basis. Finally, with IBM & Clones... that platform is vibrant, alive and loaded with new product like the Apple platform. So much so, that the user must be careful in respect to what they buy. The impulsive buyer is in trouble with these two platforms. You see, there's DEALERS and STORES and PLENTIFUL PRODUCT available around most every corner. Where is Atari? Ralph @ STReport International Online Magazine ------------ from the FNET Conf : Amiga Msg# : 9050/9061 Lines: Extended Read: 1 Sent : May 02, 1993 at 5:59 PM To : All From : Tony Astolfi at Fnet Node 683, Ayer - Force Subj : the future of computing All right, in the continuing "The world according to me" series, I have decided to address the subject of the future of computing. In about 30-50 years, computer processors will have reached the point at which the only speed constraint will be the speed of light. At this point, the object will be to feed the computer with enough data to keep it busy. Once this has been achieved through the use of higher speed data transfer in about 10 more years, the easiest way to increase the speed of computers will be to write tighter, more efficient code. The companies that have been doing this all along will be all set, but those that have ridden on the success of the hardware industry will have to shape up, or go under. In the end, about 70 years from now, the focus will be on innovation in interface design, such as new input tools, and display devices, such as laser-driven holographic displays. With that out of the way, there will be no way to increase speed further than to use networking for parallel processing and resource sharing. Everyone will own a similar box, and they will all be connected in an extremely high-speed network. Like, if all your neighbors were not using their computers, then you could access their processor resources of their computers for increased speed. When your next-door neighbor decides he wants to simulate a virtual world or something, your computer will cease to be allowed access to your neighbor's computer's resources. This dynamic system of processing would be the best way of increasing speed in about 75 years. Not that the computers of this era will be short on power. One of these boxes would be able to do a virtual reality simulation, in 24-bit raytraced graphics at 60 frames a second and photographic resolution for about 10 people simultaneously without breaking a sweat. But there will be some tasks that will require extra speed. A true simulation of fluid dynamics in realtime in an entire environment, for example, would be beyond the capabilities of a single unit. Why someone would want to do this, I don't know, but the potential will be there. The average user, of course, would usually not be able to come up with tasks that could really strain the system. The standard, word processing, spreadsheet, and other tasks, would be trivial compared to the sheer speed and power of these systems. Even high-power entertainment would not pose too much of a problem for these systems. Virtual reality street fighting games would be common place. The next frontier would be virtual entertainment. What is virtual entertainment? It would be an incredible task of artificial intelligence, realtime rendering, and human-like thought processing. The computer would combine these to produce entertaining programming using existing plots, jokes, themes, and other elements from preproduced works of the past. You would never see the same thing twice, and you could even rate the things that the computer produces so that the computer could tailor its productions to your specific tastes in humor, areas of interest, types of plots, etc. Beyond virtual entertainment, the future is quite foggy indeed. There are hints of space exploration, genetic engineering, and other things, but not too many significant developments in the area of computers. So this, however strange it sounds, is what the future looks like. If you have any questions, or ideas, or things to add, please tell me so I can respond to the best of my ability. AND IF YOU SKIPPED OVER READING THIS MESSAGE BECAUSE IT WAS TOO LONG... READ IT!!! you will be glad you did. from Delphi's Atari area.. 54414 6-MAY 06:04 General Information Professional Usage of Ataris From: OCS To: ISDMARKETING Nathan, the following is not really a question about Calamus, but I think you are the appropriate person to ask it: After reading Jack Tramiel's latest comments at CeBIT ("Our machines are aimed at the consumer market. If some are used for professional purposes, that's fine, but not our company's philosophy" [from ST Computer 5/93, retranslated into English by me ]) and seeing their latest actions, what do developers like DMC, 3K Computerbild, Application Systems, (i.e., companies that make software mainly for professional purposes) etc. think about their future in the Atari market? Are there attempts going on in the background to convince Atari that a successor for the TT is badly needed NOW? Or can we expect some or all of the developers of professional software to move on to more professional platforms (*)? Calamus is one great piece of software, and while I have never really used it myself, I have worked for a magazine (Atari Journal) that was published entirely with Calamus from 1989-1993. And as some people here who have seen some issues can confirm, the result looked absolutely awesome. Thanks for reading this!) Oliver (*) "more professional platforms" does not necessarily mean more expensive platforms. Seen yesterday: 486DX33, Vesa Local Bus, ZIF CPU socket (allows installation of (Pentium), 4 meg RAM, 3.5" drive, Multi I/O card, 170 meg Connor hard disk, VESA Local Bus 1 meg accelerator graphics card with true True Color (16.7 million colors), VESA Local Bus High Speed hard disk controller Super-VGA color monitor 0.28, free choice of case (tower, big tower, desktop...), temperature-controlled fan, MS-DOS 6.0, Windows 3.1, plus 4 software packages from Computer Associates (Windows word processor, spreadsheet, DBASE compatible database, time and resource management program) The price for this offer: 2,998 marks ($1875) The Falcon 030 (4/65) : 2,298 marks ($1440) + monitor from above : 700 marks ------------- 2,998 marks ($1875) A German saying comes to my mind: "Es war schon immer teuer, einen besonderen Geschmack zu haben." (it has always been expensive to have a special taste). 54416 6-MAY 08:05 Desktop Publishing RE: Customer Support (Re: Msg 54388) From: ISDMARKETING To: FBRUCH (NR) Yes Fred. The next update to the Calamus SL program is supposed to have Leader Tabs in and working. It had better. That is the top of my own personal list of things I want. Did you receive the customer mailout yet? I think we finished mailing them yesterday. Thanks for asking. Sincerely Nathan @ DMC 54417 6-MAY 08:06 Desktop Publishing RE: Customer Support (Re: Msg 54407) From: ISDMARKETING To: BONDSERVANT (NR) I made a blanket offer some time ago to sell Calamus 1.09N to any Pagestream customer for $95.00. That offer still stands. And you keep the Pagestream. ;-) Sincerely Nathan @ DMC 54418 6-MAY 08:19 General Information RE: Professional Usage of Ataris (Re: Msg 54414) From: ISDMARKETING To: OCS (NR) Hi Oliver: The quote from Jack is just about what I'd expect him to say under the circumstances. ;-) He's standing at a show where Atari's exhibit consists predominantly of Atari Falcon030's. It has always been Jack's personal business philosophy to go after the home market, in my opinion. That quote just makes it official. Companies such as DMC, since I am only qualified to discuss DMC, :-), are in the process of writing Calamus SL on another platform, one that does not consider its machines SPECIFICALLY for the consumer market, although we are all consumers, and does have serious market share in professional applications. However, we are very conscious of our large existing customer user base, most of whom are loyal to Calamus far more so than they are to Atari. ;-) We will insure compatibility. We will NOT abandon the Atari line! That statement has nothing to do with Atari or their actions but with the thousands of people that depend on Calamus to earn a living, on the Atari platform. Imagine the nerve, using Jacks machine for professional purposes. ;-) And if that's not bad enough, as most of you know, I am also involved with DynaCADD. I guess I'll never learn. ;-) There are many things going on in the background Oliver, which, by definition, must remain there. ;-) Thank you for your kind words about Calamus. I naturally agree. :-) Sincerely Nathan @ DMC ___________________________________________________________ > STReport CONFIDENTIAL "Rumors Tidbits Predictions Observations Tips" """"""""""""""""""""" - Washington DC USERS GETTING WARY & WEARY OF WAITING ------------- Although the users asked that they not be named (yet) they are quite weary of waiting for product ordered well over a year ago, prepaid, and have yet to receive the goods. The are however, quick to point out that they've been kept abreast of ongoing developments but as they said... still no product. It appears these good folks have been in contact with a number of users both in the USA and Canada and they have, among themselves, agreed to wait another sixty days before bringing the matter to the US Trade Commission. During the course of the telephone conversation it was made known that there had been a few refunds made but only after extensive complaining and refusals of substitute offerings. At the end of the sixty day period, if nothing has been done to rectify the matter STReport will at the user's request publish a list of those who've paid money up front and received nothing. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON" """""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > A "Quotable Quote" "The Implosion Continues...." """"""""""""""""" "There'll be NO CLONES of the Atari! Understand? NO CLONES! You did it! You said it! You You You You!! Its all your fault! You WILL UNDERSTAND! You betrayed.... You are .... EEEEIIIII!!! ...A Freudian Observation pssst.... a rubber room candidate for sure! :-) """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" > DEALER CLASSIFIED LIST STR InfoFile * Dealer Listings * """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" --------------- ABCO COMPUTER CONSULTANTS ========================= P.O. 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