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Silicon Times Report Issue 0817
*---== ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---*
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
"The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine"
from
STR Publishing
""""""""""""""
April 24, 1992 No.8.17
==========================================================================
STReport International Online Magazine
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R.F. Mariano
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_____________________________________________________________________
> 04/24/92: STReport #8.17 "The Original 16/32 bit Online Magazine!"
-------------------------
- The Editor's Desk - CPU Report - PORTFOLIO NEWS
- UK LYNX CONTEST - MORE SHAMUS! - Blue Ridge Fest
- GEMvelope! - MIGRAPH'S OCR - GEMFAST 1.8
- TT030 TOWER REVIEW - DUNGEON TIME! - STR Confidential
-* EXPLORER & ZNET JOIN IN ONLINE VENTURE!*-
-* LEXICOR RECALL OFFICIAL! *-
-* REVOLVING DOOR ALIVE & WELL! *-
==========================================================================
ST REPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE
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Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports
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WHAT'S NEW IN THE ATARI FORUMS (April 24)
NEW IN ATARI VENDORS FORUM
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Oxxi Software announces that registered Atari users of Superbase
Personal/2 and Professional/3 can update to the latest version of the
program. Please read message # 25350 for details.
CodeHead Technologies announces the release of Warp 9, formerly known
as Quick ST. This product has been revamped for usability, speed,
compatibilty, and features. See WARP_9.TXT in Library 16, CODEHEAD
SOFTWARE for a full description, availability, and ordering information.
Oxxi, Inc. has acquired the Atari Product line formerly offered by
Precision Software and has begun development on an upgrade to Superbase
Professional. Oxxi is interested in your comments on new features for
this upgrade. Please read and respond to message # 25112 in the Atari
Vendors Forum (GO ATARIVEN), or send a message to Pat @ Oxxi at User ID
number 76711,457 in Section 4 ("OXXI/Precision") of ATARIVEN.
CONTEST IN APORTFOLIO
"""""""""""""""""""""
We are now running a NEW CONTEST for Portfolio Programmers. You can
submit any program you have written, in any language, in either compiled
or source form. Prizes will include free CompuServe connect time, ROM
cards, and a subscription to "Take it With You." Please read message #
28538 for complete details.
THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM ON COMPUSERVE
HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AN
OFFICIAL SUPPORT SITE BY ATARI CORPORATION
"GO APORTFOLIO TO ACCESS THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM"
***********************************************************************
> CPU STATUS REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
=================
Issue #17
Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
-- Atari UK Searching for Best Lynx Player
Atari UK is using a national competition to discover who is the top Lynx
player in the UK. The winner can choose from a prize fund of UKP 3,000
in the form of a holiday, electrical goods, and mountain bikes. Runners
up will receive bundles of Atari software, while finalists will be
invited to win a day at an indoor go-karting track.
Starting on May 9th in 60 computer stores, the competition will run for
one week a month over a five month period. The 12 top scorers will will
go to a grand final at Feltham, Middlesex, on October 10th.
The competition is being held by Atari in conjunction with Game Zone
magazine and the National Association of Specialist Computer Retailers
(NASCR). Plans call for Game Zone, a games monthly, to publish the
results of the competition each month.
According to sources, Atari's Lynx and Nintendo's Game Boy systems were
fairly evenly matched a year ago but after releasing a large quantity of
software, this year the Lynx appears to be beating the Game Boy.
-- Intel to get Technology from IBM
IBM has licensed to Intel Corp. its extended graphics array, or XGA,
technology for improved screen graphics. Intel will design new chips
incorporating the technology and plans to sell the chips to PC makers.
XGA was designed to replace the current video graphics array, or VGA,
also designed by IBM. IBM says XGA provides sharper graphics than VGA.
IBM hopes to make XGA the next standard for video graphics on the PC.
-- Asian Authorities Crack Counterfeit Ring
According to Microsoft Corp., authorities in Taiwan, Hong Kong and China
have broken up international counterfeiting operation that is believed
to be responsible for up to 75,000 illegal copies of MS-DOS and Windows
operating systems. The counterfeit software included manuals, packaging
and forgeries of the distinctive hologram the company uses to identify
its product as genuine.
-- TI's new 1500 Multiprocessing Computer to be Powered by '040
Texas Instrument's new 1500 MP (multi-processing) computer is reported
to be powered by Motorola's 33mzh 68040 microprocessor. The 1500 MP
reportedly delivers three times the computing power of earlier MP
models, and can support large enterprise-wide networks of up to 1,000
users. That is twice the number of users supported by existing TI
systems.
-- Rumors of Lotus/Borland Merger
There are rumors on the street of informal merger talks between Lotus
Development Corporation and Borland International. These talks are
still in the informal stage and might never reach formal negotiations.
--Houston Firm Settles with SPA
Burnett Companies, a Houston based firm, has reached a settlement with
the SPA (The Software Publishers Association) on a copyright infringe-
ment suit settlement.
The SPA was tipped off on its toll-free anti-piracy hotline about the
company using illegal copies of Aldus, Lotus, Microsoft, Software
Publishing, and WordPerfect programs installed in training computers.
-- Apple Drops Some Powerbook Prices 25%
In the second reduction since its introduction, Apple has lowered the
price of its Powerbook 100 by another 25%. Also effected by the re-
duction will be the Powerbook 140. All together, Apple will be lowering
prices on six of its Powerbook 100 and 140 notebook computers.
-- Rumors of a Apple Handheld Computer
Sources are saying Apple Computer Inc. will unveil a handheld "personal
digital assistant" machine, code-named Newton, late next month and that
it will be a pen-controlled device.
The computer, which is said to be powered by a RISC (reduced instruction
set computing) chip, "can organize data such as an appointment calendar
and can communicate with other machines by dialing phone numbers and
sending facsimiles. It is controlled by writing on its screen with a
special pen instead of typing on a keyboard."
The device is reported to be about 6-by-8 inches or a bit smaller. It is
hoped to be shown during the Spring Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago
May 28-30
-- Intel Boosts "Flash" Memory
Intel Corp. this week announced it has increased by five times the stor-
age capacity of its "flash" memory cards for portable computers, making
the credit card-sized product into what the company calls a viable al-
ternative to disk drives.
The card reportedly can hold up to 20MB of data and cas save information
when a computer is turned off, acting as a storage device in place of
hard disk drives. Intel hopes to have a flash memory card capable of
storing a half a gigabyte available by the end of the year.
-- Samsung Debuts First Laser Printer
Samsung announced today a new laser printer that represents no new
technology but may offer the best value in features and performance yet.
According to a company spokesperson, the $1995 Finale 8000 printer
combines six resident emulations (including PostScript), the Intel I960
16-MHz RISC processor, 2MB SIMM RAM (upgradeable to 10MB), and other
benefits to provide a very attractive alternative for small- to
medium-sized businesses.
Perhaps the most notable feature of the new printer is that its eight page
per minute print engine, manufactured by Samsung Electronics Company Ltd.
in Korea, is the first to be manufactured outside Japan. While no other
printer using the Samsung engine has yet been released, Samsung expects
other companies to offer models based on the engine later this year.
Among the Finale 8000's features, users can choose from among six
emulations for a wide range of software support; PCL 4 and 5, a PostScript
clone, HPGL/2, and the dot-matrix emulations IBM XL24 and Epson FX-850. A
proprietary scheme reportedly allows the printer to recognize and switch
automatically to an emulation.
-- Apple Computer and Sharp Confirm PDA Alliance
Apple Computer and Sharp announced on Thursday in Osaka, Japan a joint
license and development agreement for a new Personal Digital Assistant
(PDA) product in the personal information device category. Sharp is the
first licensee of a new Apple software technology and will partner with
Apple to develop the first commercial PDA product in this class, expected
to ship in 1993. Both companies have formed project teams and have begun
aggressive product development efforts with a target product delivery date
of early 1993. Further product details were not made available at this
time.
-- NeXT to Announce 88110, RISC-Based Machine
NeXT Computer is planning to announce in October a new RISC-based
workstation that will be based on the Motorola 88110 processor, according
to an anonymous source. The new machine, currently codenamed NRW, will
include real-time video compression to disk, and may also support FDDI,
the source said. A NeXT representative, when asked about the machine, said
the company will not comment on unannounced products.
-- Kahn Issues Call for Freedom in Programming
Borland International Chairman Philippe Kahn issued a call for freedom in
programming languages and standards as a part of his keynote speech
yesterday at the Federal Office Systems Exposition. Kahn said that one of
the results of Borland's purchase of Ashton-Tate will result in the dBase
language being "free forever." He also said that it is vital for the
future of the computer industry to provide for programming languages being
kept free from all copyright constraints. Kahn received spontaneous
applause when he said; "All programming languages must remain free to all,
or it will mean the death of the industry."
-- NEC Offers 85 MB In 1.8-inch Package
NEC has taken the lead in the ultra-small hard disk drive race with a
1.8", 85 MB drive. This top Ministor's most recently announced 64mb 1.8"
drive and a 40mb version announced a few months ago by Integral
Peripherals. The combination of small size and high capacity is important
because of the growing sophistication of notebook computers. Many 486
notebooks are being used to run all sorts of office applications, this
means they need disk space comparable to that of desktop PCs. In
addition, the hard disk is one of the largest, heaviest components left in
a notebook PC. Getting the weight down is important in the highly
competitive market. The new drive was designed for NEC by Aura Associates
Inc. of Saratoga, CA. Aura plans to market a version of the drive under
their name. Availabilty is planned for this summer.
***********************************************************************
:HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT:
_________________________________
To sign up for GEnie service:
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.
GEnie Announcements (FREE)
1. NEW! GEnie's NewsStand ... Read All About It...............NEWSSTAND
2. You asked-We Delivered GEnie Coffee Mugs..................*ORDER
3. StarShip Feeding Frenzy: 5-MIN Weekend News and FRESH FISH.AMIGA
4. VICTORIA, BC - Local Access Number Now Available...........
5. San Angelo, TX - Access Number Change......................*PHONE
6. 3.5" DS/DD Disks - 29 cents each..........................DIRECTMICRO
7. Apple authorizes release of System 7 Tune-Up 1.1.1. See....MAC
8. Hot games - Big fun - Huge value - hurry, hurry, hurry.....SOFTCLUB
9. Science RTC Contest, & sci/tech consultant Michael Sekora..SCIENCE
10. No Financials Under $15,000. NOW is the Time to............LEASE
11. SINGLES: "How to Meet Your Mate" RTC, 4/26 9pm...Win GOT...FAMILY
12. SECRETARIES: CELEBRATE Your Week with a FREE listing.......DIRECTORY
13. Emigrants in Chains-New View of our Immigrant Ancestors....GENEALOGY
14. Toshiba and Altima announce hot 486 notebooks on...........LAPTOPS
15. Universal Studios, Sea World, Busch Gardens, Disney GIFs...FLORIDA
Atari ST RT
= REALTIME CONFERENCE =
= Scheduled Wednesday RTC Guests =
Have an idea for an Realtime Conference? Wish to promote a product,
show or service? Atari Roundtable Realtime Conference provides an
excellent platform for announcements and discussions. Contact Jeff
Williams [JEFF.W] or Darlah Potechin [DARLAH] for requirements and
information on holding formal RTCs. Jeff also captures and edits the
formal conferences and uploads them into the Atari RT's Library.
= Monday Realtime Conference =
Monday DTP conferences
Hosted by Ron Grant [R.GRANT11]
and
Nathan Potechin [ISD]
Contact: JEFF.W, R.GRANT11, ISD, DARLAH
Last Week's Top Downloaded Programs/Utilities:
-------------------------------------------------
23662 ONTIME14.ARC X T.SAVINO 920410 28032 236 2
Desc: DA Clock/Date/Calendar,graphic WOW!
23742 STWEL47.LZH (LH5) X B.NOONAN 920416 32384 173 6
Desc: ST Writer Elite v.4.7 Word Processor
23708 JOUTE.LZH (LH5)LZH X O.OKTAL 920413 19200 164 8
Desc: 2 Players tank color game (ST,TT)
23726 CAL62B.LZH (LH5)LZH X V.PATRICELL1 920415 75520 160 2
Desc: Cal 6.2b calendar accessory update.
23725 BOOTYME2.ARC X D.SIMPSON7 920415 6912 131 2
Desc: Latest version of BootTyme.
23703 HDINFO16.LZH X M.MAXEY 920413 20864 117 2
Desc: RENAMES HARDRIVE ICONS /W DISK SPACE
23667 FZP_B33.LZH (LH5)LZH X S.PRICE19 920411 20480 106 7
Desc: FzDS Protocols version .33 Beta
-------------------------------------------------
GEnie Information copyright (C) 1991 by General Electric
Information Services/GEnie, reprinted by permission
***********************************************************************
> The Flip Side STR Feature "... a different viewpoint"
=========================
A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT
==================================
by Michael Lee
----------------
Question from Rich Thurow - Cat. 4, Topic 38, Msgs 107-108 - from the ST
Roundtable on Genie...
My problem: My mega ST2 (unmodified) is having intermittant and ap-
parently random power offs. It only happens, it seems, when my mega-
file 30 is on. The screen on both the color and mono mon goes black
and the light on the keyboard goes off. The hard drive light stays on.
Sometimes I have to repeatedly turn the power off/on to get it to
reboot. My thoughts:
1. The DMA cable
2. The power supply
3. A blown something else ( I am not up on ST internals).
I had just installed a Wuztek mono/color switchbox and did a lot of
switching with the power on (is this not recommended? There were no
docs, other than installation instructions, with the box, purchased
from E.A. Brown). Any help would be appreciated.
Answer from George Richardson (Merlin Group)...
Rich, when the light on the keyboard goes off, there can only be two
things wrong, the light is bad, or the power supply is.
Since the monitor goes black at the same time, I think we can rule out
the light.
You need a new power supply.
----------------
From Scott Sanders (SDS) - Cat. 9, Topic 3, Msg. 56 - from the ST Round-
table on Genie...
For those TT owners who have bought Populous II, it is possible to run
the game off the hard drive and at a reasonable speed. Here's how:
1. Following the instructions, use INSTALL.TOS to install the files on
your hard drive.
2. INSTALL.TOS does not copy 60MHZ.PRG and you do need it so copy it
to the same directory as your newly installed game.
3. To run the game first disable any screen savers (they will engage
and be impossible to turn off after their time limit has expired) and
then run 60MHZ.PRG. Next, turn off the CACHE (unless you want to play
at a psychotic pace. Lastly, run POPII.TOS and enjoy. It takes a
minute to load even on the hard drive but this method has been working
for me for a while now.
EA makes the only games I'd be willing to go through this much to
play.
----------------
Some information from Doug Walter - Cat. 4, Topic 34, Msg. 91 - from the
ST Roundtable on Genie...
For those of you still looking for multisyncs, there are at least 3
companies listed in the April Computer Shopper that are offering used
or factory refurbished & warrantied NEC 3Ds. And JDR Microdevices
(among others) has an add that still lists new 3DSs. Might be worth a
call to see if they really do have them?
pg. 834 - TREDEX (CA.), 1-800-338-0939 3D/$399, 4D/$599, 5D/$1299
pg. 728 - IME (MA.), 1-800-999-1911 3D/$399, 5D/$1499
pg. 725 - Vision Remarketers (MA.), 1-800-242-5224
(1-800-2USED-PC inside MA.)
"call for price"
pg. 858 - JDR (CA.), 1-800-538-5000 3DS/$589, 4DS/$1195 (both new)
pgs. 480 & 588 have "call for price" adds (new units)
BTW, I recently attended a Northgate Computers factory warehouse sale
and they were offering refurbished 3DS models for $325 (S= reduced
emissions). At the end of the sale there were some left. Perhaps they
would sell them. Northgate Computers (MN.) 1-800-345-4633.
----------------
An interesting conversation about TT memory - From Cat. 28, Topic 2,
Msgs. 29-xx - from the ST Roundtable on Genie...
Question from Bill Willis...
Okay, let's say that (hypothetically) I've finally decided to purchase
a TT030 system. I'm currently using a 4meg 1040ST, so I'd like to have
at least as much available memory on the new system as I have now.
What combination of TT RAM / ST RAM do I need on the TT030 to give me
this result? What about monitors? Is there one TT030 monitor that will
display the three current ST resolutions (plus, I assume, the two TT
color resolutions)?
I guess what I'd like to know is, what's the minimum TT030
configuration that will allow me to do everything that I'm currently
doing on my 1040ST? (Of course, I'm willing to accept that some ST
software may not work on the TT. Most of my major applications should,
though.)
Any advice?
Answer from Sheldon Winick (Computer Studio)...
A TT030 with 4 megs of ST-RAM (2 megs on the mother board, and 2
additional megs on the TTSRB2 RAM upgrade board) will give the TT030
the equivalent RAM capacity of your current 4 meg 1040ST. That's where
the similarity ends though --- the TT030 zips along a 32MHz and sports
Atari's new TOS 3.06 operating system and 1.44 meg high density floppy
drive as well as a host of additional ports and features.
Monitor-wise, Atari's 14" PTC1426 Multisync will display all three of
your current ST resolutions (ST low, ST medium and ST high) in
addition to TT Low and TT Medium color resolutions.
Check one out at an Atari dealer or AtariFest show nearest you.
Answer from John Cole...
It is very simple, you will need a TT, a ST ram expansion, and a TT
color monitor. Thats it. You will get 4 meg of ST ram, the TT and a
monitor that will handle the 3 ST rez and 2 TT rez. Where and when you
can get that, well, there are others who know more on that :-)
More questions from Bill Willis...
J.Allen, you're suggesting that I load up with only 2 megs of ST RAM
and 4 megs of TT RAM. Will I still be dealing with as much free RAM
space as I am now? I recall reading that truly TT compatible software
is written to take advantage of the TT RAM; if it isn't written to do
so, does it only recognize the ST RAM?
Sorry if these questions are bordering on the obvious, but I'm one of
those people who *loves* using the system, but *hates* putting the
pieces together. Actually, one of the two main reasons that I bought
an ST is that it was the only computer available that didn't need an
external MIDI interface.
Answer from Jim Allen (Fast Tech)...
Bill, yes. The TT needs the fast ram to get some speed. You'll have
6Megs of free ram, and SW that can use the fast ram will, the stuff
that can't will use the ST ram. You set all this up by using the
PRGFLGS utility provided on the disk.
----------------
From A.BITTON1 - Cat. 9, Topic 17, Msg. 3 - from the ST Roundtable on
Genie...
Flash!!!
Some copies of Grand Prix were shipped with a defective Disk 3. Side
2 of Disk 3 is corrupted. You will notice it when you back up your
disks with the built-in utility on Disk 4. You need to get a new
copy, or do what I did:
I want back to the store I bought it from and, after checking that the
other copy had a good Disk 3, I used the Disk 4 backup program to re-
copy the good Disk 3 on my defective Disk 3.
----------------
One users' comments about HAYAI - From Dorothy Brumleve (Kidprgs) - Cat.
2, Topic 49, Msg. 76 - from the ST Roundtable on Genie...
I've got a MegaST4 with TOS 1.2 hooked up to a Supra 85meg fixed hard
disk drive and a brand-new Toadfile (SyQuest) 44meg removable media
drive. I bought the SyQuest because a very sad experience last year
taught me to make backups of my most precious files. In my case, this
usually means my .DOCs, .GFAs, and .CDKs. I've been making backups of
selected files from the desktop, simply dragging the file from one of
my fixed disk windows to a SyQuest partition window. This is a slow
and laborious process, and it does nothing to defragment the fixed
disk. Accessing that disk is becoming slower and slower as more and
more fragmented files are written to it, deleted, and written again.
So it was that HAYAI caught my attention. It's tailor-made for just
this kind of setup as it backs up one partition to another. I don't
really need the copy benefits right now, since making selected backups
has become a habit. But I very much need to defragment my hard drive.
Earlier this evening, I put HAYAI to the test. The first step turned
out to be selection of the _correct_ backup program (there are six
programs, three each for color and mono monitors) for my setup. I am
not well-schooled on hard drive technology. I knew I had a mono
monitor, so that narrowed my choices down to 3. ;-)
Anyway, it turned out that what I needed was HAYAI512.PRG. Identifica-
tion of the proper program was the hard part. Once I loaded HAYAI512.
PRG, the process was so simple even I could do it. There are some
online help dialogs and the menu options are obvious in any case. You
simply choose the destination and origin partitions from a dialog
format and go. I set the program to both copy and compare the
partitions, and it did this at 9-13 megs/minute, much, much faster
than I could ever hope for with file copying on the desktop. To
achieve the defragmentation benefits, once I had copied a fixed disk
partition to a SyQuest partition, I copied the SyQuest partition back
to the fixed disk. This defragmentation process effectively doubled
the time I spent in copying each of 6 partitions. Even so, the process
was quick enough that I did not become bored. I didn't have time to go
get a snack or something between partition copies.
All in all, I spent less than 1/2 hour from the time I opened the
package to the time my Supra was completely defragmented. I can tell
that success has truly been achieved because: (a) my files are all
still there (whew!) and disk access on my Supra is much faster than
before! ;-)
I do have three suggestions which would be especially useful to novice
backer-uppers like myself. The program comes with some documentation
on the disk; I read this (and printed it), but it assumes more
knowledge than I have, and that's why it took a while to identify the
correct program. It would also be helpful to have an alert box come up
after you initiate the copy process, something asking: "Do you really
want to copy Drive D to Drive K?" I know that everybody tends to
ignore these little alerts, and many times I wish programmers would
_omit_ them, but it would really be disasterous to choose the wrong
drives. An alert could avert disaster for folks who would bother to
read it (I would!). And lastly, I miss bells and whistles. ;-) A nice
feature would wake up the weary backer-upper after the two- or three-
minute copy process is over. A little ping perhaps.
Neat program! Great speed! Consistent results! ;-)
---------------
More games reviews from Shamus...
MORE SHAMUS REVIEWS --- VOLUME III
HYDRA - Hydra is an arcade conversion of a game with the same name. In
the arcade, this game has gone relatively unnoticed. There is good
reason for this. Hydra is essentially a car racing game on the water.
You control a speed boat through various tight spots. Well, you can
just imagine this game. As a conversion, the game is about average.
The sprites are well drawn but the animation is chunky and could be
faster. The weakness of the game is with the arcade original. GRADE:
C+
ATOMINO - It is always refreshing to see a game with a new idea. There
are a few games which use the idea of building molecules such as
VAXINE and ATOMIX. Both of these games are very inventive and a lot of
fun to play. Not only is there a lot of cerebral activity involved,
but trying to beat the clock requires fast reflexes and a study hand.
Atomino takes a completely new perspective and many distinctive
elements to make this game an original. There are not any detailed
graphics which you might witness in other PSYGNOSIS games, but the
graphics are very well drawn and more than functional. Overall, people
who like a "mind challenge" will like to give this game a whirl ...
others should try before they buy. GRADE: B
SHADOWLANDS - I will not pretend to be to upmost authority on
adventure games. In fact, the closest I have ever come to role playing
were the old TEMPLE OF APSAI games. This role-playing game was
programmed by TEQUE. It does not take an adventure fan to tell a
quality piece of programming. This game features isometric graphics
which are almost identical to U.S. GOLD's SHADOW SORCERER. Fact is,
this whole game is an awful lot like SHADOW SORCERER. This is not
necessarily bad since both games are quite good in their own right.
This game is not for all adventurers as these games are not similar to
the very popular SIERRA-type adventure. Regardless, the role playing
adventures carry a following of their own. Although it is hard to
choose, SHADOWLANDS edges out the competition. GRADE: B+
RACE DRIVIN' - HARD DRIVIN' was one of the first vector graphics games
in the arcade. With the tremendous speed of the arcade machine's
hardware, the game proved to be very playable and very powerful. Many
people looked forward to the conversion from the arcade because it was
done by the same group at DOMARK which converted the remarkably
accurate STAR WARS arcade game. Unfortunately, HARD DRIVE was just too
slow and the controls were too dodgy to be much fun. Regardless of how
short HARD DRIVIN' came up from a technical point of view, the game
was a commercial success. To cash in on this success, DOMARK released
an unofficial sequel called HARD DRIVIN' II: DRIVE HARDER. Basically,
HARD DRIVIN' II had a track editor but was the same worn-out
conversion. RACE DRIVIN' is an official conversion of the HARD DRIVIN'
sequel. Fortunately, many aspects of the game play have been cleaned
up. The updating of the graphics is much faster and the controls allow
you to adjust the sensitivity to your liking. Best of all, a computer
link-up mode is the strongest aspect of this conversion. Many new
tracks have been added to hold your interest longer. It would be
unfair to compare this game to its arcade counterpart but as a game on
its own, it is a good game for driving fans. Unfortunately, there is a
good chance that this game will be overlooked because of the far
superior FORMULA ONE RACING. RATING: B
FORMULA ONE RACING - If you want to play one of the best racing games
on any system, with some of the most detailed vector graphics and some
of the fastest vector updating, you have to buy FORMULA ONE RACING.
This tremendous game is the culmination of a lot of hard work from the
creator, Geoff Crammond. Not only can you view the game from your own
cockpit, you can view the race from any cockpit and various camera
angles and towers. There are many options including over a dozen
actual race tracks from around the world. There are also some
excellent options. For example, you can turn off some of the
background and detail to make the game play even faster. Tie all of
these great points with some excellent regular graphics and this game
is a real sparkler! If there is anything to criticise, the sound
effects are generated by the sound chip and the usual limitations
apply. This game may cost a bit more, but dollar for dollar, this game
is a steal! GRADE: A+
NO BUDDIES LAND - Let's face it. There is no shortage to the great
platform games on the ST. NO BUDDIES LAND is another such game. This
game is a real challenge! The graphics are nothing short of
tremendous! This game is very comparable to the cream of the ST
platform games such as ENCHANTED LANDS. This game is very playable but
also very unforgiving. For example, the screen scrolls up but not
down! Your character is constantly being chased up by water but if you
fall down to the bottom of the screen, you lose a life. Although there
is nothing new offered in this game, if you are a veteran action
gamer, you will really dig this game! GRADE: A
VIDEO KID - Video Kid is the latest game from the masters of graphics,
GREMLIN. This game is much in the same vein of cartoonish titles such
as Impossimole, Rick Dangerous and Switchblade. The graphics are
extremely colourful but the game is somewhat hollow. Everything about
this game is well done, but there is something missing which makes you
want to come back for more. GRADE: B-
ALCATRAZ - In the early days of INFOGRAMMES, they always had some nice
graphics with some interesting approaches to games but the animation
was always very weak and not very addictive. Ever since the cartoon
fun of STIR CRAZY and the unusual strategy/action game NORTH AND
SOUTH, this company is all about quality. One of my favourite games is
ADVANTAGE TENNIS and I would recommend that tennis game as the best
tennis on any system. This is basically an action combat game. The
simultaneous two player action is terrific. The backgrounds are mainly
dark and create an excellent atmosphere to this game. There are
various sections to the game but one of the most interesting is
searching out the buildings with a first person perspective armed with
a machine gun. There are so many innovative aspects to this game and
far too many to speak about in a short review. If you are interested
in any type of action game, you will enjoy this game. Set your
difficulty level so the game remains interesting. GRADE: A
HOT RUBBER - Hot Rubber is the latest entry into motorcycle racing.
Unfortunately, this game plays quite smooth but the graphics are
tiresome and the gameplay is quite boring. There are too many good
racing games to really seriously consider paying a lot of money out.
As a budget game, this game might be worth a second look. GRADE: C
HARLEQUIN - This is another game which has come out at the same time
as VIDEO KID. Unlike VIDEO KID, this game has a lot of value and
originality to offer. Firstly, this platform game actually mixes in
some very nice vector explosions. The play area in this game is
enormous! The sprites are extremely well drawn and animated to a very
high standard. This game would look great on any 16-bit system, but
the ST is glad to have it. In my opinion, this game will match NO
BUDDIES LAND in quality pixel for pixel. This is another game with
some terrific atmosphere created by the patented colourful GREMLIN
graphics. Anyone who enjoys a good platform game with some excellent
puzzle elements will enjoy this game! GRADE: A
----------------
Until next week.....
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
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.
If you spend more than 200 minutes online a month, you'll save money
by enrolling in DELPHI's optional 20/20 Advantage Plan. You'll enjoy up
to 20 hours online each month for the ridiculously low price of just
$20.00! And if you go over that 20 hours, the rate goes up to only $1.20,
still 1/5th the price of other services.
There is no signup fee for joining the Basic Plan. There is a fee of
$39 when you join the 20/20 Advantage Plan, a one-time $19 signup fee and
your first month's $20 fee.
These connect rates apply for access via Tymnet or SprintNet (within
the continental United States) during home time (7 p.m. to 7 a.m. weekdays
and all day weekends) or via direct dial around the clock. Telecom
surcharges apply for daytime or international access via Tymnet or
SprintNet. See Using DELPHI online for detailed information on telecom
surcharges.
For more information, call: DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-544-4005
DELPHI is a service of General Videotex Corporation of Cambridge, Mass.
DELPHI- It's getting better all the time!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> GEMvelope! STR InfoFile PRINTS ENVELOPES WITH AN ATARI LASER!
=======================
GEMvelope! Ver. 2.6
===================
This program was created to fill a long time need - to print envelopes
with an ATARI LASER PRINTER. Laser (and most other printers) will not
feed an envelope in the standard horizontal orientation for printing
across it. GEMvelope! allows you to print an envelope, fed the long way,
on almost any printer. This includes virtually all laser printers and
most dot matrix printers. GEMvelope uses GDOS because it has font
rotation built in and there are nice fonts available, especially now that
Atari's FSMGDOS is semi-available.
GEMvelope features:
- Import allows extracting an address from a letter in almost any word
processor format.
- Load-able and save-able addresses and configuration.
- POSTNET bar code printing. (This will save you 2 cents per letter in
the near future according to the US Post Office!)
- Adjustable positioning for different size envelopes.
- Mail merge allows printing many envelopes, each with a different
address imported from a database or text file you create.
- Fully compatible with FSM and bitmapped GDOS fonts.
- A desk accessory version.
You must have some form of GDOS (Atari GDOS 1.1, G+PLUS, FSM-GDOS,
but not FONTGDOS 2.0 as there currently is a bug in it which prevents
it's use with GEMvelope) there is currently an incompatibility with
FONTGDOS) a printer driver, and fonts for your printer. If GDOS is
already installed on your system, no further setup in required to use
GEMvelope. If GDOS is not installed, then if you have any other program
that uses GDOS, you have all you need to use setup your system for
GEMvelope. The Atari laser printer comes with a GDOS driver and a nice set
of fonts. Other GDOS programs such as Easy Draw, Timeworks Desktop
Publisher, WordUp, and Wordflair come with the drivers and fonts needed
for other printers.
All of the controls for GEMvelope are located in the dialog box you
see when you run the program. The horizontal position of both the return
and the main address is adjustable in half inch increments. In addition,
the main address is also adjustable vertically. There are a set of
adjustment buttons with arrows in them and reference lines that show what
they adjust. Note that the main address horizontal position is measured
in relation to the return address position. This is so that the return
address horizontal position may be adjusted to the length of an envelope
and the main address is just an offset from the return address. The
default position for the return address is 8.5 inches from the right side
of the envelope and 0.25 inch from the top of the envelope. This top
position may not be changed (if you would like to have it adjustable, let
the author know!) The main address default is 3 inches offset from the
return address and 2 inches from the top of the envelope. Printing the
return address is optional. Clicking on the small square box to the left
of "Print return address" will toggle it on or off. Two additional
settings are "Envelope Size" and "Offset". Envelope Size is only needed
if the POSTNET bar code is printed. Offset allows the "top" of the
envelope to be shifted. For the SLM804, Offset should be set to 0 since
you feed an envelope all the way to the left of the manual feed slot. For
the SLM605, and some other laser printers that center a manually fed
envelope, the Offset should be set to compensate for how your printer
feeds the envelope.
You can't imagine the pleasant surtprise I got when I booted this
jewel. GEMvelope is a first class utility. Contained herein are a few
highlights of the program and as soon as the upgrade is received, an in-
depth review will appear here. At this point this program has already
earned a "must have" badge of honor.
To obtain your registered copy send $30. to:
Roger Richards
Synergy Resources
754 N. Bolton Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46219
The latest version of GEMvelope will be mailed immediately.
You will be notified of any updates with new features or bug fixes.
If you need support, it is best to write or use GEnie EMail.
My GEnie EMail address is: R.RICHARDS2
_____________________________________________________________________
> BLUE RIDGE ATARIFEST STR SHOW NEWS "The Summertime Atari Event!"
==================================
1992 Blue Ridge ATARIFEST
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
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: 18, July 1992
Time: 10:am to 6:pm
Points of contact:
Van Estes, BRACE Pres. Clifford E. Allen, V.Pres.
704-685-8358 GEnie: C.Allen17
INTERNET: callen@UNCA.EDU
704-258-3758
Sheldon Winick
GEnie: S.WINICK
Computer STudio
704-251-0201
Come for the 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 number1-800-HOLIDAY
Red Roof Inn I-40 and US 19-23 Exit 44 (704)667-9803
Toll-free reservation phone number1-800-843-7663
Buget 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 resturant. Nature program. 14 day
stay limit.
Lake Powhatan:
4 miles south of Asheville on State road 191, 3.5 miles west on FR
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
___________________________________________________________________
> MIGRAPH'S OCR STR Review "COMPUTERS READING A BOOK!"
========================
PICTURES TO TEXT, OCR COMES TO THE ATARI
========================================
By Bill Pike
STEP & PAC
review version 1.05
What does OCR from Migraph(tm) do? OCR has one purpose and that is to
change a IMG or TIFF(IBM format) monochrome format picture of a page of
text back into computer data files of the text. Currently the only output
available is ASCII text, almost every wordprocessor will accept this file
type for import. How does it work?, it works very well.
The manual isn't kidding when it tells you to disable all auto
programs and accessory programs, this program does use all the memory that
it can get, also on general principles (this is something that I routinely
do with a program that uses all the memory) don't set the fastload bit,
telling the program to fastload.
The system requirements for this program are: #1. some way of getting
a picture of the page into the computer. (some type of a scanner either
flatbed, page, or hand) #2. Two or more megabytes of memory.(the more the
better) If you don't have enough memory for the document OCR will use
"Hard Drive Caching" to store the extra data but it is slower than using
the existing ram. #3. A hard disk. #4. near $300.00 for the program.
You are probably asking your yourself who needs this program? People
that are doing extensive Desk Top Publishing work need this program. OCR
allows the operator to scan in text from ANY hardcopy and make a file out
of it that can then be edited, spell and grammar checked, reformatted, and
output to a printer. What about the poor forgetful person who is writing
the Great American Novel and didn't make floppy disks backing up the text
that they have saved to hardisk, the hard disk crashes, Oh, @#%%#@! Now
they have to retype the entire thing. If they have hard copy they are
able to scan it in and recreate the original files with a little effort, a
LOT less effort than retyping the original. Anywhere you need to transfer
something from a written page to a computer text file.
OCR already recognizes: Artisan, Bookman, Brougham, Caroll Pica,
Courier, Courier italic, Delegate, Elite Modern, Helvetica, Herald Elite,
Letter Gothic, Lori, Lubin, OCRB, Pica, Prestige Elite, Prestige Italic,
Prestige Pica, Times, Titan, and Title typefaces. If the document you are
scanning isn't one of these, by renaming the .ALD file (from the control
panel, OCR will create a dictionary of the typeface you are using and save
it for you to use the next time you scan a similar document, if you
forget to rename the dictionary just rename it after you exit the program,
no problem. OCR also creates a dictionary for letters it doesn't
understand within these typefaces, this dictionary is overwritten the next
time you use OCR if you didn't rename it. I would strongly suggest that
you create your dictionaries by the type of document you are working with
rather than by typeface. For example ST-Informer(tm) rather than Times,
Computer Shopper(tm) rather than Times and so on. The typefaces aren't
consistent enough to allow full recognition of all characters from one
publication to another. The dictionaries are around 100k long.
Let's get down to the nuts and bolts. Migraph's OCR will take direct
input from any of the following Hand Scanners: Migraph(tm) (you know that
it would support that one didn't you?), AlfaData(tm), and Golden
Image(tm). OCR also accepts IMG and TIFF (IBM format) monochrome format
graphics files, for those that have page or flatbed scanners. There is a
problem in using a hand scanned image and that is the scan is only 4 or so
inches wide. So if you are trying to scan large areas of text there is a
problem. Needless to say Migraph(tm) has a cure for that. They recommend
scanning directly into the OCR program and processing each scan
independently. OCR will then construct the text file for the first scan
and append the later scans to it. There is also a scanning frame
available to facilitate scanning. If you are scanning with a flatbed
page scanner you must first save each page as a IMG or TIFF file. You
then load the file into OCR.
Now that you have a image in the program you are ready to start. Not
quite yet. You need to define what is text (that you want) and what is
graphics (if you want to save out the graphic as a file), this helps the
program to keep things on track. If the text has been "flowed" around
graphics you can use a polygon to define the text area, you aren't stuck
with a rectangular area. If the text is broken up all over the page you
can define a number of text areas and tell OCR what order you want them
processed in. If you got the scan kitty corner (that is a little bit
catty corner) OCR will perform very minor rotation of the image so that
imperfections in the scanner are taken into account. If there is to much
rotation you will need to rescan the document. Also OCR will perform
major rotations in 90 degree increments you can even scan something
sideways or upside down. You can also scan white text on a dark
background OCR doesn't care. Sometimes it may be advantageous to work
from an black-white inverted image, the program will invert if you
request it.
Text from 10 to 18 point sizes are accommodated directly, letters of
larger sizes also work ok, scans of smaller sized text are also taken into
account by setting the smaller text option. I have found that a
150-200dpi scan is adequate for 12-18 point text and 300dpi is ok for
10-15 point text. It is recommended that 400dpi be used for text smaller
than 10 point, I have been able to use 300dpi for 8 point type without to
much trouble.
Once you have scanned the hard copy, loaded the image into OCR,
rotated the image as needed, defined the graphics (if you wish to output
the graph only, otherwise you only need to define the text areas) and text
areas, set the output file for the dictionary (if the typeface isn't one
that is already recognized by OCR), and set the text output file. By the
way if you forget any of these OCR will muddle thru on its own and get
things pretty right (idiot proofing).
Now you can tell OCR to "go for it". It checks out the typeface
against its dictionary, then runs the text thru 25-100 odd linguistic
tests, as needed, and checks it, then goes thru what it has and asks for
help on specific letters and letter groups. By the way if it doesn't
recognize the type face it will ask for help then and move onto the checks
later. It checks for English, German, Dutch, and French letter
combinations, according to your settings (you may only have one linguistic
base at a time active but may have all the various bases on the drive),
this has to do with the words, letters and types of letters it is
expecting to find. OCR also does a very good job at differentiating
between 1 and l, also 0 and O, one of the things that it does very well is
keeping numbers separated from letters. OCR can even be trained to
recognize Handwriting if the letters are consistent.
One thing that does cause OCR to have fits is printed copy that
doesn't have all the segments of the letters connected such as a copy of a
copy that is to light and the letters are fragmented or if the scan is to
dark and letters are not separated. This is due to the method of
character recognition, that of using a mathematical description of the
letters rather than a bit map. The mathematical method picks up letters
that bit mapping chokes at however it needs the complete form of the
letter to work from. Of course bitmapping the letter is even touchier
with what it will accept. The point of this whole discourse in to make
sure you have a good printed image to scan from and that you have a good
scan.
A way around this is during the "Interactive Learning Stage" when OCR
sees letters (usually a,u,o,b,d), most fonts have thin and thick sections
to the letters, the thin sections will sometimes be broken, where lines
are broken it will try to make letters out of the parts it sees. There is
no way of combining these parts back together. Define the most
characteristic portion of the letter as the letter then, either delete the
second section each time it occurs (Interactive Learning Stage) or let the
program do it's thing. Take the output text to a spell checker and do a
spelling check, correcting the errors as you go, this will take care of
99.999% of the errors. Or if you are braver just do a global search and
replace from a word processor for the letter pairs eliminating the
incorrect letter for the replace.
The installation of the program couldn't be simpler. You put the
first disk in the floppy drive. Click on the install.prg. Then tell it
what hard drive partition you want installed on and what language to use
as a default. It does all the rest of the work. It also deletes the
install program at this time so only work from your work disks (the work
disks should be full disk copies, not file copies)not your backups.
I am using a 4meg 520st, a Canon page scanner, and hard drive. I
would suggest a monochrome monitor (OCR also works in Med res. if you
don't have access to a monochrome), it just looks nicer to me. The only
problems that I have had are ones of my own impatience while in the
learning phase of the program, pushing the button to fast.
Early versions of OCR had a bug involving the paragraph setting for
output (earlier than version 1.05). Migraph automatically ships you the
upgrade to 1.05 when you send in your registration card. Later versions
of the program will incorporate support for direct input from various page
and flat bed scanners. The program is quite goofproof and well done. The
manual is small but it doesn't need to be big. Everything is covered in
it.
If you have a need for this program I would strongly suggest the
purchase of it. The program is excellent. However near 300 smackers is a
lot just to have sitting on the shelf.
review copy loaned by:
IB Computers
9244 SW Beaverton Hillsdale Hwy
Beaverton, OR
_______________________________________________________________
> STR Portfolio News & Information Keeping up to date...
==========================
======
THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM
=========================
On CompuServe
by Judith Hamner 72257,271
EXTRA! EXTRA!
The forum staff announces a new programming contest. Any program in
any language is eligible. Programs must be submitted by midnight April 30
to lib 1. See message #28538 for details. Don't forget to include your
name in the file description so I can give you credit. The clock is
ticking ....
Hugh J. Campbell has jumped in with several contest entries. WSH10.BAS
is a database for architects and builders. There are 187 steel shapes
with with information on depth, width and thickness for each W section.
CSH10.BAS contains similar information for C sections with information on
30 different channels. STAIR.BAS is a program to calculate design
requirements for stairs. It will help determine the number of risers and
treads required for a given floor-to-floor height. It can also handle
multiple-run stairs. Pbasic 4.91 is required for all of these programs.
Pbasic is also available in the forum library.
In a lighter vein, Hugh has an electronic golf scorecard. SCARD.BAS
is also a Pbasic program. It will keep score for a foursome and display a
statistical report.
Don Thomas has produced a new tool for graphics fans. VPORT.ZIP is a
shareware program that will display Portfolio graphics on a VGA desktop
PC. The formats supported include PGC, PGF, PGX, and compiled COM. All
files with these extensions will be displayed in sequence.
STOCK.ARC is a spreadsheet for tracking and evaluating a portfolio of
securities. You can price the securities and compute capital gain, annual
yield and total return. Uploaded by Ted Baynes.
_____________________________________________________
> GEMFAST 1.8 STR FOCUS IN-DEPTH DESCRIPTION & OVERVIEW
=====================
GEMFAST V1.8 BETA RELEASE
=========================
From BIX
From: ilepore@isis.cs.du.edu (Ian Lepore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Subject: GemFast v1.8 pre-release announcment (long)
Date: 21 Apr 92 19:41:08 GMT
Organization: Nyx, Public Access Unix at U. of Denver Math/CS dept.
Well, GemFast v1.8 is very near its beta release. I've dropped a few
hints about things that'll be in it, and now I've been asked for more
details, so I decided to put together a little summary. GemFast v1.8 has
more changes and new things than any version of GemFast since v1.0. I put
away the metaphorical microscope I've used in working on previous versions
and added a lot of new high-level functionality.
The changes start with appl_init(), a logical starting place. It now
initializes a new group of global variables which are then available for
reference in your code. I found that every GEM program I write has calls
all over the place to get the system desktop rectangle and other common
values, so I decided to just get all the common values once and make them
globally available for reference at runtime. There are also easy-to-use
new interfaces that open and close VDI workstations without all the
tedium.
A group of new medium- and low-level object utilities have been added.
This ranges from simple things like dealing with extended object types to
complex functions that implement new types of objects you can use in
dialog boxes. For example, there is now a thermometer-display object
type, G_THERMO, which lets you easily use this type of progress indicator
in your dialogs. There are also several new types of buttons, including
CUA/Windows3 style buttons and rounded-corner radio buttons.
Some miscellanious changes were made to extend the functionality of
existing AES functions. Certain aspects of the GEM GUI make it hard to
write 'blackbox' library routines which are independant of the current
state of the main applicaton. For example, GEM doesn't allow you to query
the current shape of the mouse cursor, so a library routine can't
temporarily change the mouse to an arrow then change it back. Under v1.8,
the graf_mouse() call returns the old cursor shape when you set a new
shape. Likewise, the standard wind_update() function isn't so hot: any
number of wind_update(BEG_UPDATE) calls can be cancelled by a single
END_UPDATE. Now wind_update() works like turning the mouse on and off; if
you made 3 BEG_UPDATE calls, you'll need 3 END_UPDATE calls to actually
release control of the window semaphore. This lets library routines
aquire and release the window and mouse semaphores without disturbing the
state of the main application.
There are new high-level functions for blitting areas of the screen
easily, using your memory buffer or allocating one for you. There are
some new rectangle calculation functions, such as creating a scaled copy
of a rectangle, confining a rectangle within the boundaries of another,
etc.
But by far the biggest changes are in the forms library. The old
forms library consisted of a single function, frm_dsdial(). Now there are
25 functions, and I'm still thinking of new ones on a daily basis. The
heart of the new forms library is the frm_dialog() function, which
conducts dialogs for you. Basically, it does the form_dial(),
objc_draw(), form_do(), and so on. But, it does a lot of extra stuff
along the way, including handling the following options for you:
- Saving and restoring the screen via blits instead of redraw
messages.
- Dialog boxes are moveable; the user can drag them around to anywhere
on the screen.
- The mouse can be forced to an arrow shape during the dialog then
restored to its prior shape.
- The dialog can be centered within the screen, or made to pop up
centered over the the current mouse location.
- It supports both standard dialogs and menu dialogs, in which the
objects highlight as the mouse crosses them, like dropdown menus do.
Here's a summary of the new dialog functions:
The functions which help you conduct your own dialogs are:
frm_confine Confines dialog to rectangular area.
frm_defaults Sets default options.
frm_dialog Conducts your standard dialog.
frm_menu Conducts popup menu dialog using your object tree.
frm_eflag Reports error made by user in a dialog.
frm_enableblit Enables screen save/restore via blit.
frm_mkmoveable Makes your dialog moveable.
frm_desktop Installs your custom desktop.
frm_sizes Calculates dialog's on-screen sizes.
The basic dynamic dialogs are:
frm_dsdialog Automatic text dialog - hard to use.
frm_dsmenu Automatic menu dialog - hard to use.
frm_nldialog Automatic text dialog - easier to use.
frm_nlmenu Automatic menu dialog - easier to use.
frm_printf Formatted text dialog, like printf().
frm_error Formatted error reporting.
frm_vprintf Alternate form of frm_printf.
frm_verror Alternate form of frm_error.
frm_progress Formatted text with thermometer progress display.
The quick-and-easy dynamic dialogs are:
frm_qchoice Formatted text and choice of 5 buttons.
frm_qerror Formatted error reporting.
frm_qmenu Automatic popup menu (like dropdown in a box).
frm_qtext Formatted text display.
frm_question Formatted yes/no question.
The other big change in GemFast v1.8 is the documentation, it's been
completely rewritten. It now resembles the library reference manual from
a commercial compiler or graphics library. It includes cross references
to related functions, a complete table of contents, a quick-reference
chapter and detailed explanations of functions in separate chapters, and
in general it's easier to use. Printed out, it's 100+ pages long; there's
certainly no lack of information on how the functions really work.
::grin:: As usual, v1.8 will be released with full source code. I've
taken major steps towards portability, but it's not there yet. I hope for
v1.9 to be the true portability release, with source code that will
compile on all ST C compilers, including GNU and other 32-bit compilers.
< OK TO PORT >
This information comes from
the atari.st conference on BIX(r), the BYTE Information Exchange.
For additional information about BIX call;
800-695-4775 or 617-354-4137
_____________________________________________________________
> DUNGEON TIME! STR Spotlight ...STILL A KILLER!
===========================
RESURRECTING OLD MEMORIES
=========================
by Dana P. Jacobson
When I first bought my 520ST back in '87, most of the software that I
saw for it, and made any real "sense", was games. I did buy some
application and productivity software back then, but just the basics. I
didn't buy my ST to play games, but I did realize that the possibility
existed that I'd eventually wind up playing some. The dealer that I
frequented usually had at least one customer playing one game or another,
so it was easy to get a look at new game titles before actually buying
them. After seeing many new games, I was eventually hooked on playing
games along with doing other things with my computer. Game titles started
to become the bulk of my total software. Okay, the ST was a good machine
for games. Sound and graphics were done very well back then; and I didn't
care if the machine was considered a games machine or not then, I was a
novice.
My tastes for games wasn't too broad then. I liked some of the basic
shoot-em-up games the most. I wasn't crazy about racing games, sports
games, or flight simulators; they just didn't appeal to me, and still
don't. The Dungeons and Dragons craze was peaking about that time, but I
wasn't too interested in those types of games either. Give me something
like Missile Command or Megaroids, and I was contented for hours (when is
that dual-game version coming out for the Lynx???).
I was "gamed-out" after awhile, usually wearing out a game for three
months and moving on to another one. Finally, I just didn't buy anymore
games, I had plenty to choose from already. Then one day I walked into
that very same dealer's store and heard this "WHOOSH"! I looked over at
the machine where that sound emanated, and saw a huge "FTL" on the screen.
Shortly after came the suspenseful "Welcome to.....Dungeon Master". Hmm,
another of those D&D games. But, since I had no specific plans for that
Sunday afternoon, I sat down to watch. I was very surprised to see it
wasn't a typical D&D game; or at least what I envisioned one to be. The
player was somewhere in the early stages of the game. He was "shooting"
at these monsters and alternately "fighting" them. My interest was
piqued. The graphics and sound effects were great, as well. I think that
I watched this game being played for two straight hours, and I was
enjoying it. I took a few "turns" at it, but I was "killed" fairly
quickly. The enjoyment faded rapidly, and I left.
On my next trip to the dealer, Dungeon Master was again on one of the
demo machines. It was loaded, but no one was playing. I sat down an
started. Someone else came into the store, and we both worked on the
game. Once we realized what we were doing, with a few helpful hints from
others who happened by, my interest in it grew again. The only real
problems we discovered was that neither of us had a great sense of
direction; we were constantly getting lost. But, playing along with
others to provide tips made those problems a lot more bearable. We let
someone else demo something else; after all, it _was_ a store and the
machines couldn't be tied up _all_ of the time with game-playing!
A few days later, I noticed a few new uploads to my BBS. On looking
closer, I noticed that the file names were DM_MAPS. Being curious as to
what these maps entailed, I didn't bother to wait for one of my SysOps to
check it out, I did. I printed the first couple of maps out and looked
them over. They appeared to be pretty complete. Included in one of the
archives was a spell list as well. Hmmm, this is starting to appeal to me
even more! That weekend, I bought Dungeon Master and a couple boxes of
floppies.
Everywhere you went that had any "connections" with Atari, there was
talk of Dungeon Master. Call your local BBS, and there were constant
message threads of questions about the game. How do I do this, where do I
find that, what's the answer to this riddle, and more. And what was so
great was that there were people who were able to give you the answer, or
at least provide useful hints so you could manage to resolve the answers.
Having the maps seemed to be cheating, but for me, it provided the help I
needed. After all, I still had to battle the various monsters and solve
all of the various puzzles presented throughout the game. I still had
to get my "team" to various levels of competence while making sure that
they didn't starve to death or die of thirst; not to mention battle the
many monsters and traps along the way.
Our user group meetings were the same: where are you on Dungeon
Master? That far!, I'm only on Level "X"! Although I didn't frequent the
online services back then, I was aware that similar discussions were going
on there as well; I still have a capture of messages from one of the
onlines on my BBS dealing with discussions and tips. Dungeon Master was
everywhere!!
Well, after playing for quite awhile, I grew weary of being routinely
"beaten" on the Knights level. If I didn't get killed off by the knights
or other monsters, I starved. I missed one important key which would have
enabled me to get back to that infamous Screamer Room for more food and
water. I finally gave up and went on to something else. I made a few
futile attempts from time to time to pick up where I left off, but it
became hopeless. That was over 3 years ago. Even when the long-awaited
sequel, Chaos Strike Back, was released, I didn't resume playing, although
I did buy Chaos on-sale! I didn't even open the package, though.
Well, these last few months I've been seeing messages on the onlines
and local bulletin boards discussing such games as Captive and Knightmare,
and probably a few others. Comparisons were being made of them and
Dungeon Master. Even though I don't own any of these newer games, I read
the messages with interest. All of the discussion reminded me of the same
interest being paid to Dungeon Master, albeit not as much, yet. Well,
knowing all too well that I haven't finished Dungeon Master, or even
starting Chaos, I wasn't about to get really involved in yet another D&D
game! And, all of the sudden there was some discussions again about
Dungeon Master on the local boards that I frequent. More of the usual,
what do I do, types of messages.
I decided to give it a try again, and get hooked once more! But this
time, I decided to forego resuming where I left off, and I started from
the beginning. Damn, I was regretting having to face those purple worms
again without anyone sitting beside me to guide me when I veered off
track!! Naturally, when I initially encountered the worms, I panicked. I
left messages on my BBS and on a couple of the onlines; I tried to
memorize the map of that level in the hopes that I could outrun the worms
- nothing helped once I got cornered! Finally, I managed to get through
with half of my party intact. I made it!!
I've learned to build up my characters' abilities and skills. I can
now wield the fiercest of fireballs and learned what some of those special
weapons can do to make things _much_ easier. Currently, I'm somewhere
early on in Level 8, The Arena. You remember that level, the one where
the Banshees (green ghosts), Skeletons, Mummies, and Thieves roam around!
Even more troublesome is that incessant "transported" fireball coming at
you from all directions. I had to stop early on, or I'd never get
anything done, _especially_ this little retrospective article!! Actually,
I can't wait to finish this so I can resume playing. Hmmm, the weekend is
almost here....!!
I think that Dungeon Master has to be rated one of the all-time best
games that ever came out for the ST; it has to be one of the top 5
sellers, if not the top one. It's one of those games that doesn't lose
interest (patience, yes!). I don't remember seeing any ads in which
someone was selling it, or looking to trade it away. Another good
lasting-point for the game is that after people finished the game, they'd
start it over again. Then, they'd attempt the game with fewer players,
and eventually trying with one player. I hope that I'll make that attempt
as well.
If you don't have Dungeon Master yet (is there anyone?) I'd highly
recommend that you get it, it's still available. For those "newcomers" to
the Atari line who might be starting out with Knightmare, etc., try
Dungeon Master as well. For those of you, like me, who gave up playing
due to lack of patience and/or frustration, try again. There's nothing
like going back to the purple worm area again and blowing those suckers
away with a high-level fireball like it was nothing!! It feels good to
get even with them, finally!
I remember reading way back when, that FTL had considered another
sequel to Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back. It was also rumored that
there were going to be additional "scenario" disks. I never heard, or
don't recall, whatever happened to those ideas. Heck, I don't even know
if FTL is still around anymore! If anyone has any information on these,
please let me know on the onlines somehow. I'd be interested in hearing
any news.
It's nice to go back to some of those favorite games that are
probably collecting dust somewhere in those stacks of disks, but somehow
we all forgot about over the years. I intend to go through mine once I
complete Dungeon Master and Chaos (and I will complete them this time!).
I already have a few ideas as to what I will attempt next, and recapture
that enjoyable retrospective appeal once more.
But, for the present, it's time to get back into the dungeons!! I'm
outta here!
__________________________________________________________________
> TT030 TOWER STR Review "Installing the TT into a tower case..."
======================
TT TOWER REVIEW
===============
by Clemens Chin
Even though there seemed to be quite a few people who didn't like the
way the TT (and Mega STe) case looked, I never had any problems with it.
As a matter of fact, I thought the case looked pretty nice. When I got my
TT a year ago and placed my monitor on top of it, the case actually bent!
Since then I've wanted to put it into another case. The number of cables
behind my desk were multiplying with the addition of a second floppy drive
and SyQuest drive.
One day, I just decided that it was time to put all of this into a
tower case. Instead of buying a clone case and have to drill holes to
mount the mother board and relocate the multitude of ports that us
ST/STe/TT owners have gotten so used to, I went with a case especially
designed for the TT from a company in London (it is made by a German
company).
I. INSTALLATION
When I finally received the case in the mail, I was ecstatic! I
immediately went to grab my tools and began disassembling my TT.
Installing the TT into the tower case was pretty much straight forward
and self explanatory (luckily since the english documentation wasn't
complete and I had half of the english docs and the german docs)... The
case includes a board that allows users to connect additional floppy
drives easily, adds an additional reset button to the front of the case
and monitors the thermosensor (which continuously monitors the system for
overheating).
Towards the front of the case there is a bay for the original 3.5"
hard drive (this bay is hidden, therefore, removable media will not be
suitable for this bay). There are also 3 exposed bays. Here is where I
put my two floppy drives and SyQuest mechanism. All bays are vertical.
Installing the SyQuest was as simple as removing the old 50 pin ribbon
cable and replacing it with a longer one with an additional IDE plug for
the internal hard drive.
The power cable and ribbon cable that used to goto the internal floppy
drive is now connected to a pc board that controls any other floppy drives
you will connect to the case.
II. POWER SUPPLY
Though everything is working flawlessly after running this set up for
four days non-stop, the power supply concerns me. Everything is powered
by the original TT power supply. It is rated at 64.6 watts (not much at
all). Still, it seems to be handling everything nicely; two floppies, a
hard drive, a SyQuest, an ST RAM board and a TT RAM board.
III. FUTURE UPGRADES
This case definitely has room for upgrading. The manufacturer of the
case even has an option for an internal VME card cage (with its own power
supply), Octobus (adds ability to drive up to four floppies, monitor
switching, bi-directional printer buffer and system protection) and power
outlets for 4 additional external peripherals (sort of like having a power
strip on your tower, no power surge suppression though).
IV. FIT & FINISH
The fit and finish is EXCELLENT. The holes for the TT's ports in the
rear are a perfect, virgin fit. Access to the Lan prt, Midi port,
Cartridge port and original reset button are not lost as opposed to going
with a clone case. Adding any of the above mentioned upgrades would
require prying off of part of the metal casing.
At 20" high x 6" wide x 16" deep, this case is not small. But it has
reduced to footprint of my original set up considerably (as well as
reduced the number of cables and power cords behind my desk). Also, the
case is very sturdy.
V. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES
None! Installation went perfectly, the most difficult part being,
trying to align the drives so that the face plates are flush with the face
plate of the case!
Having done things like installing a T16, TOS upgrades, etc. this was
a relatively easy upgrade to do, especially since no soldering is required
(I love those).
I am also happy to announce that there is absolutely no visible RF
interference with the monitor as I had with the original TT case.
VI. PERFORMANCE AND VALUE
Everything is performing as it should, no problems anywhere. Even
after continuous use (without powering down for four days), no heat
problems, no power problem, nothing.
The case was flat out expensive. It cost 145 pounds (1 pound=$1.70,
estimate). Was it worth it? Well, I'm in love, so, I say "YES!" (You
don't know how long I've been trying to clear the clutter and cables from
my desk!) That original bending case always did get me a bit nervous.
Interested in the case? (ST/Mega/STe/MSTe versions available)
Contact:
System Solutions
19 Sumner Workshops
80 Sumner Road
London SE15 6LA UK
Phone: 011-44-753-832212
_________________________________________________________________
> FULL RECALL! STR InfoFile LEXICOR RECALL OFFICIAL!
============
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Lexicor Software has learned of questionable versions of Rosetta &
Prism-Render being sold as legitimate copies of our software. Due to this
fact, Lexicor is recalling all versions of Rosetta and Prism-Render sold
by RIO Computers. Rosetta is a file translation program which can
translate various 3D objects between platforms and Prism-Render is
Lexicor's ray-tracing program which allows reflections and other features
to be added to an animation from Lexicor's key-frame animator, Chronos-3D.
Only Rosetta and Prism-Render are included in this recall! If you
purchased your copy from RIO Computers or your copy of Rosetta or
Prism-Render has a RIO stamp on the disk or in the 'ABOUT' dialog you
should send in your ORIGINAL to:
Lexicor Software
ATTN: Rosetta/Prism-Render Recall
58 Redwood Rd.
FairFax, CA 94930
Phone: 1-415-453-0271
All recalled copies will be examined for authenticity. If it is found
that you purchased a legal copy of the program, you will be returned your
disk as well as a coupon worth $25 off any Lexicor product as well as a
special utilities disk. If we find that you purchased an illegal version
of our software, that disk will be confiscated under (Title 17) of the
Copyright code. However, in return for your cooperation, you will be
given a legal courtesy copy of the software, as well as the utilities disk
and an option for either a full warrantee and upgrades for the courtesy
copy or the $25 coupon for Lexicor software. Lexicor has tried to make
this as fair as possible for its loyal customers and we regret any and all
inconvenience this may cause.
Lexicor Software Corp.
_________________________________________________________________
> SENATOR WHO? STR InfoFile REACHING YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
=========================
In light of this being an election year, we at STReport, felt we should
bring you a list of our Senators and Representatives along with their
FAX numbers. This week the Senators, next week the Representatives.
From Jim Wells on the Jerry Pournelle Roundtable on Genie...
In light of the performance of our Congressmen, I thought a list of
their FAX numbers might be handy...Drop them a line and tell them
_exactly_ what you think of them; good or bad...
-------------------------
* NP means Not Published
SENATORS FAX numbers SENATORS FAX numbers
---------------------------------------------------------------------
SEN ADAMS =1-202-224-0238 SEN AKAKA =1-202-224-2126
SEN BAUCUS =1-202-224-4379 SEN BROWN =NP
SEN BIDEN =1-202-224-9516 SEN BENTSEN =1-202-224-1863
SEN BINGAMAN =1-202-224-1810 SEN BOND =1-202-224-7491/8149
SEN BOREN =NP SEN BRADLEY =1-202-224-8567
SEN BREAUX =1-202-224-975/2435
SEN BRYAN =1-202-224-1867 SEN BUMPERS =1-202-224-6435/6437
SEN BURDICK =1-202-224-1193 SEN BURNS =1-202-224-8594
SEN BYRD =1-202-224-8070 SEN CHAFFEE =1-202-224-7472
SEN COATS =1-202-224-1966/8964
SEN COCHRAN =1-202-224-9450/3576
SEN COHEN =1-202-224-2693 SEN CONRAD =1-202-224-7776
SEN CRAIG =1-202-224-2573/1006
SEN CRANSTON =1-202-224-8128
SEN D'AMATO =1-202-224-5871 SEN DASCHLE =1-202-224-2047
SEN DECONCINI =1-202-224-3464/2302
SEN DIXON =1-202-224-5581 SEN DODD =1-202-224-5431
SEN DOLE =1-202-224-8952 SEN DOMENICI =1-202-224-7371
SEN DURENBERGER =1-202-224-9486
SEN FORD =1-202-224-1144
SEN EXON =1-202-224-5213 SEN FOWLER =1-202-224-8227
SEN GARN =NP SEN GLENN =1-202-224-7983
SEN GORTON =1-202-224-9393
SEN GRAHAM =1-202-224-0587/6843
SEN GRAMM =1-202-224-6843 SEN GRASSLEY =1-202-224-0473
SEN HARKIN =1-202-224-9369/3254
SEN HATCH =1-202-224-6331
SEN HEFLIN =1-202-224-3149 SEN HATFIELD =1-202-224-0276
SEN HELMS =1-202-224-1376 SEN HEINZ =1-202-224-8167
SEN HOLLINGS =1-202-224-4293/3573
SEN INOUYE =1-202-224-6747
SEN JOHNSTON =1-202-224-2501 SEN JEFFORDS =1-202-224-1507
SEN KASSEBAUM =1-202-224-3514 SEN KASTEN =1-202-224-7700
SEN KENNEDY =1-202-224-2417 SEN KERREY =1-202-224-7645
SEN KERRY =1-202-224-8525 SEN LAUTENBERG=1-202-224-9707
SEN LEAHY =1-202-224-4797 SEN LEVIN =1-202-224-5908
SEN LIEBERMAN =1-202-224-9750 SEN LOTT =1-202-224-2262
SEN LUGAR =NP SEN MACK =1-202-224-9365
SEN MCCAIN =1-202-224-8938 SEN MCCONNELL =1-202-224-2499
SEN METZENBAUM =1-202-224-6519/8906
SEN MIKULSKI =1-202-224-8858
SEN MOYNIHAN =1-202-224-9293 SEN MURKOWSKI =1-202-224-5301
SEN MITCHELL =1-202-224-6853 SEN NICKLES =1-202-224-6008
SEN NUNN =1-202-224-0072 SEN PRESSLER =1-202-224-1630
SEN PRYOR =1-202-224-8261 SEN REID =1-202-224-7327
SEN RIEGEL =1-202-224-8834 SEN ROBB =1-202-224-8689
SEN ROCKEFELLER =1-202-224-7665 SEN ROTH =1-202-224-2805
SEN SANFORD =1-202-224-7406 SEN SARBANES =1-202-224-1651
SEN SASSER =1-202-224-9590
SEN SHELBY =1-202-224-3416 SEN SEYMOUR =1-202-224-8438
SEN SIMON =1-202-224-2223
SEN SIMPSON =1-202-224-1315 SEN SMITH =1-202-224-1353
SEN SPECTER =1-202-224-1893 SEN STEVENS =1-202-224-354/1044
SEN SYMMS =1-202-224-5893 SEN THURMOND =1-202-224-1300
SEN WALLOP =1-202-224-3230 SEN WARNER =1-2023 202-224-6295
SEN WELLSTONE =1-202-224-8438 SEN WIRTH =1-202-224-1933
SEN WOFFARD =1-202-224-8187
____________________________________________________________
> STReport's Editorial Page "Saying it like it is."
From the Editor's Desk
----------------------
The news is slim these days... or, is it? I think there is plenty
going on out there. For example, the minor layoffs at Atari, the
departure of Simon Westbrook and Gary Weiner to the "joint venture" of
Atari Explorer and znet. (A marriage made in heaven?) Which brings me to
the point of wishing John Jainschigg, Ron Kovacs and every one else
involved in this project all the success possible in their new endeavor.
With this news, in particular, in mind, it now appears STReport will
be the sole, truly independant, Electronic Magazine remaining. Being such
is quite a responsibility and to that end, we pledge to be unbiased and
try at every turn to provide "both sides of every issue" while remaining
the "voice of the users".
STReport's goals have always been to 'say it like it is' and we feel
that goal has been achieved and cherished. In this light, we also strive
to bring you a wide variety of informed reviews of software and in-depth
evaluations of hardware. While we tend to shy away from the "technocrat
style", we do attempt to present our findings in a manner that's easy and
enjoyable reading. Our expose's have been "interesting" and at times,
catalytic in creating interest in a particular topic or topics. Speaking
of expose's, where was Sam all week long and what was on the "agenda"? We
shall continue with our full variety of presentations in STReport. We
do, at all times, welcome reader mail and input. We will if told to do
so, present any mail sent to us in STReport.
Thank you for your continued strong support!
Ralph @ STReport International Online Magazine
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU!
----------------
Publisher - Editor
------------------
Ralph F. Mariano
PC DIVISION AMIGA DIVISION MAC DIVISION
----------- -------------- ------------
Roger D. Stevens Charles Hill R. ALBRITTON
STReport Staff Editors:
-----------------------
Lloyd E. Pulley Sr. Dana P. Jacobson Michael Arthur
Lucien Oppler Brad Martin Judith Hamner
John Szczepanik Dan Stidham Joseph Mirando
Steve Spivey Doyle C. Helms
Contributing Correspondents:
----------------------------
Michael Lee Richard Covert John Deegan
Brian Converse Oliver Steinmeier Tim Holt
Andrew Learner Norman Boucher Harry Steele
Ben Hamilton Neil Bradley Eric Jerue
Ron Deal Robert Dean Ed Westhusing
James Nolan Vernon W. Smith Bruno Puglia
Clemens Chin
IMPORTANT NOTICE
================
Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc...
via E-Mail to:
Compuserve.................... 70007,4454
GEnie......................... ST.REPORT
Delphi........................ RMARIANO
BIX........................... RMARIANO
FIDONET....................... 112/35
FNET.......................... NODE 350
NEST.......................... 90:19/350.0
____________________________________________________________
> STReport CONFIDENTIAL "Rumors Tidbits Predictions Observations Tips"
=====================
- Sunnyvale, CA. THE REVOLVING DOOR IS ALIVE AND WELL!
--------------
Recent development have found Gary Weiner, Intn'l Sales has left
Atari. His old office, beneath JT's has been dubbed the "office of
death", has once again fulfilled its ominous reputation as being the last
stop at Atari.
- Sunnyvale, CA EXPLORER & ZNET JOIN IN ONLINE VENTURE!
-------------
Atari's Explorer Magazine and ZNET online will undertake a joint
effort in producing an online newsletter. According to our sources, the
current editor of Explorer will oversee the operation. Ron Kovacs will
assume the duties of editor of the new online newsletter. Frequency of
publication is expected to be bi-weekly.
- Sunnyvale CA. ATARI ACQUIRES HUMAN DYNAMO!
-------------
Atari has signed on Bernie Stolar. This fellow come with impeccable
credentials in the "Can do" dept. Formally with the Village Voice in
Manhattan, NY, Bernie brings a level of promotional expertise the likes
of which Atari has yet to experience. Mr. Stolar's official title will
be; Director of Business Development. Best Wishes & Good Luck to you!
- London, UK MARPET TO MARKET ARBEN/FRONTIER PRODUCTS!
----------
Marpet Developments took over all rights to the product range
previously manufactured and distributed by Frontier Software - the trading
name of Arben Electronics Ltd, on Wednesday the 8th of April.
Marpet Developments is a new business formed by Atari specialists
Martin Walsh and Peter Franklin. Both have a long involvement in the
Frontier product range. Commenting on the new set-up Marketing Manager
Martin Walsh said "We are both very excited about this deal. We have
received tremendous backing for our move both within the industry and from
our bankers. Marpet will continue to supply products to existing Frontier
dealers both here in the UK and throughout the world." He then added,
"Recently dealers have not been getting as much product as they ordered
creating a worldwide product shortage. Marpet will ensure that both users
and dealers find it much easier to get our Frontier products."
The product range includes the market leading Xtra-RAM and Xtra-RAM
Deluxe memory expansion boards for the Atari ST range, Forget-Me-Clock and
the low cost expandable Printer-Q-buffer. Other products recently
launched or soon to be released include the Xtra-RAM A500+expansion board
for the Commodore Amiga A500+, a sophisticated disk duplication system for
Atari ST owners and a range of electronic products for the agricultural
sector.
Development of new products for 16 bit computers including a new
memory product for Atari ST owners will continue. Product Development
Manager Peter Franklin said, "Marpet sees a real need for new, innovative
products and we will be actively developing for the ST and Amiga markets.
We are committed to keeping up the reputation Frontier products have for
reliability and easy fitting. This deal also means that support for
existing users will continue to be available through Marpet."
Over the past three years over 15,000 memory expansion boards have
been manufactured and distributed by Frontier to Atari ST owners. Many
owners of the recently launched Xtra-RAM Deluxe range may be interested to
learn that Marpet are prepared to take on the remaining warranty on these
units. For an inclusive handling charge of 4.99 Xtra-RAM Deluxe owners
can register their product with Marpet and receive a written warranty and
details of special offers.
Marpet Developments
Meadowfield Farm
Fellbeck
Pateley Bridge
North Yorkshire HG3 5ET
Marpet can be contacted:
Tel 0423 567140/530577
Fax 0423 522874
Martin Walsh also gave these contact numbers:
Tel 0423 711671 (office hours only)
Fax 0765 603646 (temp)
____________________________________________________
> STR Mail Call "...a place for the readers to be heard"
=============
STReport's MailBag
==================
From GEnie
Category 4, Topic 11
Message 149 Fri Apr 17, 1992
J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] at 00:55 EDT
I've decided to let people who want 50Mhz chips for sure go get them from
a mail order source. We'll knock $95 off the Tiny030 price for those who
supply thier own 030 chip. We'll also test your chip for you right away so
you know you got a good one. Just buy it...$130? great...and send it in,
we'll test it immediately, then put it aside for your unit. We'll also
cover the unit including the chip under the normal warranty. How's that
for flexibility?
All 50Mhz 030 equipped units will ship at 50Mhz, we've thoroughly tested
the design now at 50, so away we go!!
Further tuning report...Turbo030 running at 40Mhz:
NBM mem = 1.78
math = 2.23
dial = 5.05
graf = 10.83
QI 2.2
memory 1110
reg 1024
div 1268
shf 4457
txt 1084
str 5053
scr 160
draw 1792
Dynacadd 3D cup.... 30 secs
Nevin's Pagestream test:
8Mhz ST.........161 secs
32Mhz TT..........31 secs
40Mhz Turbo030-4..20 secs
50Mhz Turbo030-4..16 secs
I still need to get the blitter talking to the 32bit ram, page mode turned
on, and the 32bit video turbocharging on. Also need to test my "rom-ram"
utility. Should be a long weekend ;-)
From GEnie
Category 4, Topic 11
Message 166 Tue Apr 21, 1992
J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] at 22:22 EDT
Hi Folks,
Just a quick update on the Turbo030-4Meg board. We've got it up and
running at 50Mhz!! Still no page-mode or blitter, but here are the
results:
NBM v1.2
Math 1.67 986%
Memory 1.42 1136%
Dialog 4.53 1067%
Graphics 8.87 904%
That is an average 10X...TEN TIMES... the speed of an ST, on the
toughest benchmarks around. Benchmarks other speed wizards hold sacred ;-)
QIndex 2.2
Memory 1249%
Register 1303%
Divide 1584%
Shift 5395%
Text 1506%
String 6519%
Scroll 160%
Draw 2021%
The above were running in ST Mono, with QuickSTE 3.04, with everything
running in 32bit ram.
Dhrystones....12,004 ;-)
I'm not kidding, Calamus 1.09N looks just like TEMPUS2 when using the
scroll arrows!!! You load the PRINTER.CDK file, and it's on screen in 2
seconds flat (an LPS105 Quantum helps a bit ;-)
The Dynacadd 3D CUP is a cool 24 seconds!!! And Nevin Shalit's
Pagestream test is 16 seconds flat (the TT takes 30 seconds)!!!
I can't tell you how happy I am that my design, nearly a year old, has
proven to be right on target. With out question the right way to go
<grin>.
See ya- Jim
From the FNET
Msg # 4305 ( 4 of 4 ) Date: 04-16-92 (12:54)
To : ALL
From: THE SHAMUS
Subj: FLASH II
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
SO ... what is everyone verdict of FLASH II??? It is a real let down for
me. The main problem I have with it is that it seems very slow. When you
turn the capture on or even without it, it is slower than the original
FLASH! Also: DON'T forget, silent line works with all of the protocols
except Z-MODEM ... I have heard a few people say it does not work ... but
it does. Overall, I am sticking with FLASH ... I find the long distance
charge calculation too much of a pain in the a$$ to set up. In fact,
entering all the boards and configuring this program is a huge pain in the
a$$! Usually a program defaults to the most common configuration ... this
is certainly not the case with FLASH II --- let's hope a better terminal
program comes out soon!
/\/\/\/\ the Shamus /\/\/\/\
*Origin: Fnet Node 38, AArdvarks From Mars #38 (EE)
From the FNET
Msg # 37 ( 3 of 10 ) Date: 04-14-92 (21:06)
To : RON KOVACS
From: BOB BRODIE
Subj: UPL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In reply to:
- John.. I have learned one thing over the years.. You cannot please
- everyone no matter what you do. Be fair and that is all anyone can ask
- for. I think your efforts are appreciated!
-
- Ron
Yeah, but just let him list your board and mine as ST Report support sites
and we'll see how much we appreciate him!!!! <grin>
regards,
Bob Brodie
*Origin: Fnet Node 706, Z*Net Golden Gate - California
From the FNET
Msg # 431 ( 6 of 11) Date: 04-14-92 (21:23)
To : STEVE RIDER
From: BOB BRODIE
Subj: NEW TOY ALERT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In reply to:
- I've been playing with a new toy today. It's a TT030 with
- eight megs of RAM and a hi-res monitor, oh a laser printer too!!!
-
- Gosh, those people over at Atari sure are NICE folks!!! And
- that TT kicks butt.
-
- Chances are that I'll be putting the BBS on it in a few days.
- It seems like FoReM may run a wee bit faster on a 32MHz machine.
Glad you like it STeve!! But I sure hope that your message doesn't make
Bill Turner start accosting the UPS man looking for HIS system!!
Again, my thanks to you for your assistance in making Node 319 a success!
*Origin: Fnet Node 706, Z*Net Golden Gate - California
Msg# : 3353/3358 Lines: Extended Read: 1
Sent : Apr 18, 1992 at 8:28 PM
To : John Miller
From : Jason Alexander at Fnet Node 736, The MIDI Clinic BBS
Subj : Re: <3322> Znet messages
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
All I can think of saying is that Atari US should smell the coffee and get
looking and become more educated with ///Turbo BBS, as it is in my
opinion, MILES ahead of the others. The other software out there just
doesn't stack, up. As I have told you before, (John), I have had many IBM
members on my BBS inform me that your software is VERY frindly, FAST, and
efficient, and is much better than the currently available and popular
Maximus software. If that isn't a good enough indication that ///Turbo is
a hit...I don't know what is. I for one would be EXTREMELY UPSET if you
left the ST world, and it would almost FORCE me to pick up an IBM...which
wouldn't be bad...but still! Please don't be too hasty on abandoning us.
As for Atari and Ron....I can see how a hasty move such as doling out two
complete TT systems could affect your spirit, but don't let the spirit of
the hundreds of happy ///Turbo owners vanish! We are strongly supporting
you and your brother's software. Also, don't forget, ...we must have had
high praise for your software, since we have paid for it, in hopes that
you would continue and make the terrific package that you have started.
Don't be afraid to show this to Mr. Brodie at Atari. I hope he opens up
his eyes and understands that ///Turbo _IS_ the definitive BBS software
for the Atari!
Jason Alexander - MIDI Clinic BBS -
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Msg # 42 ( 3 of 14) Date: 04-22-92 (08:42)
To : BOB BRODIE
From: JERRY BECHARD
Subj: NEW TOY ALERT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previously Bob Brodie wrote:
- This is starting to get a little bit out of hand...
-
- We *loaned* stuff to the FoReM developers upon request. Same courtesy
as
- we offer all of our registered developers that are working on projects
- that require specific hardware.
-
- Dee's comment was in jest. Right, Dee? <grin>
-
Does this mean if the Turbo developers register and work on projects that
require this hardware, they will get them too?
*Origin: Fnet Node 686, THE SEWER RATS DOMAIN @686
Msg #12246 ( 41 of 131) Date: 04-17-92 (10:34)
To : ALFA
From: BOB BRODIE
Subj: ST-REPORT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In reply to:
=[RK>> The only rights allowed here are those I permit. This is my conf
=[RK>> and I want the rules followed. Reprinting of messages from thi
=[RK>> conference consitutes crossposting
=
= Ahh, you just violated the most basic principal we live by
=
= ************ F R E E D O M O F S P E A C H ***********
=
First of all, it's Feedom of Speech, not SPEACH. Sheesh. Ron has a lawyer,
and we have staff attorneys at Atari as well. I've discussed this with our
attorneys.
You're blowing smoke, in their opinion. However, since I pride myself on
being a fair man, I will acknowledge that if there is one thing that
lawyers agree on, it's agreeing to disagree. Yours may think that ours are
all wet. I'll stick with our guys anyway. At least they spell correctly.
And somehow, I have a hard time believing that the Human Rights Commision
patrols BBS looking for behavior that needs to be corrected. They are much
too busy in Uganda, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Lenannon, Eithopia, and anywhere
else some penny-anny dictator is inflicting real human suffering.
have a nice day,
Bob Brodie, Director of Communications, Atari Corporation
*Origin: Fnet Node 706, Z*Net Golden Gate - California
[Ed Note:]
pssst.... Its FREEDOM not "feedom" and its COMMISSION not "commision"
Hmmmmmmm! Who is...... _REALLY_ "blowing smoke"?
Msg #12 ( 4 of 13 ) Date: 04-17-92 (11:11)
To : STEVE RIDER
From: BOB BRODIE
Subj: FREEDOM OF SPEECH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In reply to:
- There is a saying I enjoy that applies here. "Freedom of Speech
- belongs to the man who owns the presses". I personally am all in favor
- of freedom of speech. You can stay outside of my home and say anything
- you want to say and I will support your right to do so.
-
- My BBS is a slightly different story. It is MY PROPERTY, a part
- of my home. I lay down the rules. Anyone who does not like my rules
- can call some other BBS, or start their own, or stand on a soapbox
Well said, STeve. And tell them to make an appointment when they come
over. That way a few of us will have time to help you "discuss" this with
them.
The guy is blowing smoke. I checked about this with our staff attornies
long ago, and again after reading his message. At least with our lawyers
on staff it didn't cost me much, just another trip to Spoon's! <grin>
(Favorite eatery in the Sunnyvale area, gang)
*Origin: Fnet Node 706, Z*Net Golden Gate - California
Msg #12 ( 59 of 13 ) Date: 04-15-92 (22:35)
To : ANDREAS BARBIERO
From: STEVE RIDER
Subj: WINDOWS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In reply to:
- Wasn't MultiTOS shown at a show recently?
-
- Andreas
-
Have you noticed all these messages about MultiTOS which have
WINDOG (intentional mis-spelling) as the message subject ?
If you would like to see MultiTOS live in person call me voice,
I'm local. You could see a really messy apartment at the same time!
Anyone want to buy some empty cardboard cartons ?
*Origin: Fnet Node 204, Full Moon: FoReM Support
Msg #12342 ( 6 of 9 ) Date: 04-16-92 (08:16)
To : ALFA
From: STEVE RIDER
Subj: MULTI-TASKING OS'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
In reply to:
- But how great is it? Are there any performance test results we/I can
- see?
It's great! Hmmm, how great ? --- Better than MS-Windog by a long
shot.
Faster, more user friendly, more transparent, equipped with very
useful tools for debugging and monitoring performance. The other night I
was dialed out into another BBS on one of my serial ports while a user was
logged into my BBS, then I logged off that board while he was still on
and started editing files on my system while he was using it. I doubt
very much that he noticed a thing.
*Origin: Fnet Node 204, Full Moon: FoReM Support
Msg #123 ( 3 of 9 ) Date: 04-18-92 (09:39)
To : STEVE RIDER
From: LE SYSOP
Subj: MULTITOS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
And yet I know another developer (personally, but he's not from right
around here) who also has it and he is having problems getting it to run
anything..........on his TT that is......
*Origin: Fnet Node 168, C.C.B.B.S. - Bridgeton, N.J.
From GEnie
Category 14, Topic 8
Message 55 Sun Apr 19, 1992
F.BELL1 [Frank @ Home] at 13:10 EDT
Rich,
Gee, If your dealer doesn't know how to install TOS 2.06...
Anyway, in my machine there are (were) two jumper resisters, one called
w102, the other call w104. Just unsolder the outside pin of both
resisters and resolder it to the other side of the resister.
+-------------------+
| - - - |
| | | |+-----+| | old TOS 1.06
| - - - |
+-------------------+
W104 (W102) before
+-------------------+
| - - - |
| |+-----+| | | | new, better, up-to-date TOS 2.06
| - - - |
+-------------------+
W104 (W102) after
If your luckly, I wasn't, then all you have to do is switch/move a jumper.
If you break the resister off, I did, then just replace it with short
piece
of wire (if you have a DOS PC then take the wire from there, any wire)
Frank...
------------
Category 14, Topic 8
Message 56 Sun Apr 19, 1992
T.MCCOMB [=Tom=] at 14:57 EDT
My friend, who bought his roms from his local dealer (he's lucky, he HAS a
local dealer, and is interested in supporting him) was in the SAME
predicament.
Atari ships the ROMs in a piece of black anti-static foam WITH NO
DOCUMENTATION WHAT-SO-EVER.
He was at his dealer when the package arrived, so it's not some line of
bull. Atari Corp is really amazing at times.
How much time/effort/money would it take to type up the info in my
previous message and Xerox it and send a copy out with _each_ set of
ROMs?????
Gee, if they were REAL slick they would have printed the info right on the
(c) sticker on top of the ROMs.
Duh.
-Tom
------------
Category 14, Topic 10
Message 92 Sun Apr 19, 1992
T.MCCOMB [=Tom=] at 14:42 EDT
Chip EE goes in U102
Chip EO goes in u103
W102 -> Jumper 1 to 2
W103 -> Jumper 2 to 3
W104 -> Jumper 1 to 2
The above info is for an STE
In a MegaSTE
EE -> U206
EO -> U207
W201 1 to 2
w202 2 to 3
W203 1 to 2
-Tom
_______________________________________________________________
STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON"
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16/32bit Magazine copyright 1987-92 No.8.17
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