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Silicon Times Report Issue 1014
SILICON TIMES REPORT
====================
INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE
=============================
from
STR Electronic Publishing Inc.
April 01, 1994 No. 1014
======================================================================
Silicon Times Report
International Online Magazine
Post Office Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida 32221-6155
R.F. Mariano
Publisher-Editor
-----------------------------------------
Voice: 1-904-783-3319 10am-4pm EST
STR Publishing Support BBS Network System
* THE BOUNTY BBS *
ITCNet 85:881/253 JAX HUB ~ FNET 350 ~ Nest 90:21/350
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-----------------------------------------
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FNET. 690 : PASTE BBS....................1-206-284-8493
FNET. 489 : Steal Your Face BBS..........1-908-920-7981
MNET - Toad Hall BBS.....................1-617-567-8642
______________________________________________________________________
> 04/01/94 STR 1014 "The Original * Independent * Online Magazine!"
"""""""""""""""""
- CPU INDUSTRY REPORT - People Talking - Borland Lays Off 200
- 3-D Sound Cards Unveiled - Early Math Review - Compaq & Walmart Deal
- Chip Scheme; Four Arrested - MAGNUM Announced - Supra -> 28.8!
- PowerMac News & Updates - JAGUAR NEWS - The Old Fishin' Hole
-* AMERICA ONLINE DENIES TAKEOVER *-
-* COMMODORE FEARS BANKRUPTCY *-
-* ATARI CORP. CONTINUES TO LOSE MONEY *-
======================================================================
STReport International Online Magazine
The Original * Independent * Online Magazine
-* FEATURING WEEKLY *-
"Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information"
Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports
======================================================================
STReport's BBS - The Bounty BBS, invites all BBS systems, worldwide, to
participate in the ITC/PROWL/USENET/NEST/F-Net/Fido Mail Networks. You
may also call The Bounty BBS direct @ 1-904-786-4176. Enjoy the wonder
and excitement of exchanging all types of useful information relative to
c o m puters, worldwide, through the use of excellent International
Networking Systems. SysOps, worldwide, are welcome to join the STReport
International Conferences. ITC Node is 85:881/250, The Fido Node is
1:374/147.3, Crossnet Code is #34813, and the "Lead Node" is #620. All
computer platforms BBS systems are welcome and invited to participate.
======================================================================
CIS ~ AOL ~ DELPHI ~ BIX ~ PROWL ~ ITC ~ NEST ~ EURONET ~ CIX
USENET ~ USPOLNET ~ CLEVELAND FREE-NET ~ INTERNET ~ FNET ~ GENIE
======================================================================
COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME
to the Readers of;
STREPORT INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
"The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine"
NEW USERS; SIGN UP TODAY!
CALL: 1-800-848-8199 .. Ask for operator 198
You will receive your complimentary time
and
be online in no time at all!
"Enjoy CompuServe's forums; where information is at its very best!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""
Happy Holidays to one and all. Eeeek! Its also April Fools Day! Oh
well, not being one to go for the "big put on" simply to do so, I'll pass.
Besides there are far better conjurers out there who've already done their
"deeds" of witty deception. Hat's off to D. Thomas of the Marsupial
Slurping Society. Or, was that... er.. never mind. Ya pulled off a good
one Don. <g> Welcome home to Denny Hayes! Maybe now, no soft peddling,
the whole story will soon be known.
There's plenty of news in this week's issue, so I won't bore you with
my 43 cents worth. I would like to say one thing though, thank you to
each and every one of you who've taken the time to write and let us know
how much you appreciate our efforts with STReport.
Ralph....
ps; Don't forget DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME - Spring Forward; Fall Back. Set
your clocks ahead an hour on Saturday night when you go to bed.
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU!
""""""""""""""""
Publisher -Editor
""""""""""""""""""
Ralph F. Mariano
Lloyd E. Pulley, Editor, Current Affairs
Section Editors
"""""""""""""""
PC SECTION AMIGA SECTION MAC SECTION ATARI SECTION
---------- ------------- ----------- -------------
R.D. Stevens R. Niles R. Noak D. P. Jacobson
STReport Staff Editors:
"""""""""""""""""""""""
Dana P. Jacobson Michael Arthur John Deegan
Lucien Oppler Brad Martin Judith Hamner
John Szczepanik Dan Stidham Joseph Mirando
Doyle Helms Frank Sereno John Duckworth
Jeff Coe Steve Keipe Guillaume Brasseur
Melanie Bell Jay Levy John Donohue
Jeff Kovach Marty Mankins Carl Prehn
Paul Charchian
Contributing Correspondents:
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Tim Holt Norman Boucher Harry Steele
Clemens Chin Neil Bradley Eric Jerue
Ron Deal Robert Dean Ed Westhusing
Glenwood Drake Vernon W. Smith Bruno Puglia
Paul Haris Kevin Miller Craig Harris
Allen Chang Dominick Fontana
IMPORTANT NOTICE
""""""""""""""""
Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc...
via E-Mail to:
Compuserve................... 70007,4454
America Online..................STReport
Delphi......................... RMARIANO
BIX............................ RMARIANO
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ITC NET...................... 85:881/253
NEST........................ 90:21/350.0
GEnie......................... ST-REPORT
Internet.............RMARIANO@DELPHI.COM
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> CPU STATUS REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
"""""""""""""""""
IBM/POWER-PC/PC SECTION (I)
===========================
Computer Products Update - CPU Report
------------------------ ----------
Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
Issue #14
By: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
******* General Computer News *******
** Atari Corp. Continues to Lose Money **
This last week, Atari Corp. announced losses for the fourth quarter
and for the year ending Dec. 31, 1993. Net sales for the fourth quarter
1993 were $8.5 million as compared to $25.5 million for the same quarter
1992. For the fourth quarter of 1993 Atari incurred a net loss of $22.6
million as compared to a net loss of $21.9 million in the same quarter
in 1992. In the fourth quarter of 1993 the company took charges which
included the writedown of $12.1 million in inventory and other items and
$6.0 million for restructuring charges associated with the completion of
the company's consolidation of its European operations and closure of
its Australian subsidiary. For the year 1993 the company reported sales
of $28.8 million as compared to $127.3 million in 1992. For 1993, the
company incurred a loss of $48.9 million as compared to $73.6 million
for 1992.
Commenting on the results, Sam Tramiel, president of Atari, said,
"While we are disappointed in the magnitude of our losses in the fourth
quarter and 1993 as a whole, we believe that we have substantially com-
pleted our transition from our older technology products and the conso-
lidation of our worldwide operations. In the fourth quarter of 1993, we
successfully launched the Atari Jaguar, the 64-bit interactive multi-
media entertainment system ... In addition to the initial launch markets
of New York and San Francisco, we have now introduced Jaguar in Los
Angeles, and as availability of Jaguar hardware and software increases,
we will broaden our distribution throughout the United States. As a
result of increased spending for marketing activities and until such
time as shipments of Jaguar products are made in substantial volume, we
do not expect to achieve profitability."
In addition, Atari Corp. entered into an agreement to sell 1.5 mil-
lion shares of its common stock to Time Warner Inc. at a price of $8.50
per share for an aggregate investment of $12.8 million. The transaction
would increase Time Warner's interest in Atari Corp. from approximately
25% to 27%. The agreement is subject to regulatory clearance and other
formalities of closing.
Sam Tramiel said, "We welcome the additional investment by Time
Warner. These funds along with our existing cash balances will be used
to expand Jaguar throughout the Untied States."
** Atari, Nintendo Settle Suit **
Nintendo of America Inc. and Atari Corp. have settled litigation con-
cerning Atari's '114 Patent relating to horizontal scrolling in video
games.
In a statement, Atari says that for a cash payment it has granted
Nintendo a license to certain patents in its portfolio. "The license
does not include Atari Corp.'s patents related to Lynx or patents
pending related to the Jaguar technology," the statement added.
Atari President Sam Tramiel says he hopes the settlement "will ...
lead to resolution of other patent infringement claims." (The '114
patent and two other Atari patents are the subject of federal litigation
between it and Sega.)
** Commodore Fears Bankruptcy **
Computer maker, Commodore International Ltd., says that, unless addi-
tional funding is found, it could be thrown into a bankruptcy reorgani-
zation or liquidation proceedings. Commodore said it is trying to nego-
tiate a restructuring with creditors.
Commodore officials say financial constraints have hampered its abil-
ity to supply products, leading to weakened sales. They say the firm's
Amiga CD32 video game machine sold poorly in Europe due to the bad
economy, but that sales were stronger for its Amiga 1200 machine.
** Dvorak April Fool Column Causes Stir **
Columnist John Dvorak's remarks in the new issue of PC/Computing mag-
azine had some readers calling to complain to a U.S. senator.
Dvorak wrote that Congress was moving fast to outlaw drunk driving on
the information highway, making it a crime to use a computer network
while intoxicated.
He also said the FBI planned to use the bill to tap the lines of any-
one who "uses or abuses alcohol" and that it had access to computer com-
munications. And, he wrote, the bill also would make it illegal to dis-
cuss sexual matters on a network.
Dvorak deadpanned that passage seems certain, quoting an unnamed
congressman as saying, "Who wants to come out and support drunkenness
and computer sex?"
The April Fool's column aggitated at least 20 readers enough to call
the office of Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), identified by Dvorak as the
bill's sponsor.
The joke attracted The Washington Post's attention, which reported
this morning, "One caller was hopping mad; others wanted information.
That it was a gag was signaled by the bill number (040194) and the name
of a contact person, Lirpa Sloof.
"But," added The Post, "with the communications industry abuzz with
what it sees as White House demands for excessive surveillance rights on
the highway, some people believed."
Paul Somerson, PC/Computing's editorial director, told the paper,
"There's a lot of resentment and fear about government intrusion. I
think John really hit a nerve."
** 3-D Sound Cards Unveiled **
Media Vision has introduced a new family of sound boards that provide
three-dimensional sound. The 16-bit, CD-quality cards also offer a var-
iety of other features, including wave table sound synthesis.
The cards feature SRS (Sound Retrieval System) technology. SRS is the
same process used by Sony and RCA in their high-end television sets.
When combined with Media Vision's 16-bit sound technology, it enables
any multimedia software program to play back with a three- dimensional
sound effect, without special programming.
Both cards are due out in April. The Media Vision Pro 3-D sound card
will cost $379. The Media Vision Premium 3-D sound card will sell for
$199.
** Borland Restructures, Lays Off 200 **
Borland International Inc. this week announced it will layoff 200
employees, which is about 14% of its workforce, as part of a corporate
restructuring.
** Chip Scheme Leads to Four Arrests **
Two Intel Corp. workers and two others have been arrested in what
police says was a scheme to steal rejected computer chips and sell them
at bargain prices to computer firms, including one based in Taiwan.
Reporting from Chandler, Ariz., writer Jim Walsh of the Arizona Repu-
blic says the operation "involved an Intel production worker putting the
'486-series computer chips into a bin reserved for rejected components
and a custodian smuggling them out of the Chandler factory in his
pockets."
Police Lt. John Summers told Walsh, "It's a low-tech crime involving
high-tech products. It's pure and simple greed."
Walsh said it is unclear how many rejected chips have been stolen,
but police say they understand the ring began operating in February
1993.
Says Walsh, "At least 1,000 of the hot Intel chips were scheduled to
be sold by an intermediary to J-Mark."
** Piracy Cost $7.45 Billion in '93 **
The Software Publishers Association now estimates copyright piracy
cost the software industry $7.45 billion worldwide last year.
Releasing the SPA's first annual Global Report on Software Piracy,
Director Ken Wasch said, "Software piracy is a global problem. The in-
dustry's loss on a global basis continues to be staggering."
The SPA reports says:
-:- Pirate copies made up 95% of all business-applications software
used last year in the India/Pakistan region, costing the industry an
estimated $69 million in lost revenues.
-:- Other top 1993 software-piracy areas included South Korea (with
an 89% piracy rate), Brazil (89%), Malaysia (88%), Mexico (82%), Taiwan
(82%) and Latin America (excluding Brazil and Mexico) (95%).
-:- The lowest piracy rates were reported in the United Kingdom/
Ireland (27%), Singapore (29%) and the United States (33%).
** Compaq Inks Deal with Wal-Mart **
Compaq Computer Corp. this week announced a reseller pact with Wal-
Mart Stores Inc., which calls for the nation's largest retailer to sell
the home-oriented Compaq Presario 425.
Beginning today, Wal-Mart will offer the Compaq Presario 425 through
more than 900 of its retail stores located in small- to mid-sized
cities.
** Mac Peripheral Sales to Rise 15%? **
A new computer industry study predicts sales of peripherals for the
Apple Macintosh will rise at a 15% compound annual rate to more than $21
billion worldwide by 1999 from 1993's $8.9 billion.
** Software CD Sales Surge **
Sales of computer software programs on compact disc reached $102 mil-
lion in the fourth quarter of 1993 on unit sales of just over 4 million
software CDs, reports the Software Publishers Association. The figures
represent the sales of 62 leading publishers of software on CD.
For all of 1993, software publishers surveyed by the SPA reported
total sales of $202 million on 8 million CDs sold. Fifty-two percent of
the CDs reached the user from the original equipment manufacturer, while
the remainder were distributed through other channels.
The average price for each CD was $39.30.
** AST Offers New Notebook PC **
AST Research Inc. has unveiled the Bravo NB 4/33s, its newest note-
book computer. AST says the system offers enhanced power saving capabi-
lities, 70% faster graphics performance, a 33% faster processing speed,
a 14% longer battery life and pre-installed DOS and Windows software.
The Bravo NB 4/33 includes a 33MHz Intel 486SX microprocessor, local
bus video, an enhanced nickel-metal hydride battery and an optional
dual-scan 9.5-inch STN color display.
Other features include PCMCIA card support, 4MB of RAM (expandable to
20MB), a 200MB hard disk and an integrated trackball.
The Bravo NB 4/33 costs $1,669 (monochrome) or $2,335 (color).
** Toshiba Introduces Color Notepad **
A color pen tablet computer has been unveiled by Toshiba Corp.'s com-
puter systems division. Reports say the Dynapad T200 weighs 4.4 pounds
and will begin shipping in late April. The price has yet to be announ-
ced. The wire service says the unit is targeted toward health care,
utilities and field force automation markets.
** America Online Denies Takeover **
Rumors were flying last week that America Online was ripe for a take-
over, causing the stock to surge $8.75 to $91.50; however, when company
executives firmly stated after the market closed that America Online
would not be acquired, shares plummeted.
America Online officials did confirm there have been takeover inquir-
ies, but they refused to elaborate on what types of companies are making
the overtures.
One analyst from Chicago Corp. estimated that should America Online
be acquired, the stock would sell for as much as $200 a share.
______________________________________
> MAGNUM STR InfoFile
"""""""""""""""""""
DeSCRIBE MAGNUM ANNOUNCED
=========================
White Plains, NY, March 31, 1994 - Today, DeScribe, Inc. announced the
Company's plan to develop a "component shell" designed to manage a
collection of high level office productivity applications. The name of the
component shell which manages these applications has been code-named as
DeScribe Magnum.
Included in the productivity applications shipped with DeScribe Magnum
will be the DeScribe Word Processor as well as a newly developed Magnum
Spreadsheet, Magnum Mail and Magnum DynaBase, a database interface
product.
All products will be accessed using a common user interface which may be
customized by users of the system. Individual components may be
selectively attached to, or deleted from, the component shell. In a
minimum configuration, DeScribe Magnum would appear to a user as a single
application selected from what is commonly marketed as a "Suite" of
applications.
Future DeScribe products will be integrated into DeScribe Magnum.
Subsequent to the initial release of Magnum, DeScribe intends to publish a
specification of system interface calls which will permit independent and
corporate developers to directly access the functionality of all
DeScribe Magnum components. Magnum system calls will be based on industry
standard protocols for every operating system on which DeScribe Magnum
operates. Current 32bit platforms upon which DeScribe products operate
include OS/2, Windows NT and, upon general availability, OS/2
for RISC and Windows 4.0.
As "Suites" become the most popular form of purchase for office
productivity products, the industry's design goal will be to remove
unnecessary redundancy for items such as spellcheckers, text format
functions, menus, print managers and screen handling routines.
DeScribe Magnum addresses this by placing all common functions into a high
level component shell. The shell would, for example, support text editing
as a high level function. The mail package, the spreadsheet and the word
processor will then inherit this common editing function, as will any
independently produced application designed for use within the DeScribe
Magnum shell. The high level component shell will be designed to
incorporate licensed third party software as a method of making additional
functionality available to the component applications. As an example,
DeScribe is evaluating the IBM Personal Dictation System (IPDS) as a
supported third party function. The dictation features of IPDS would then
be available for use in all text based activities within the Magnum
products. An example of such support would be the ability to address
and dictate Magnum Mail messages to a hidden background task while working
on the Magnum Spreadsheet in the foreground. The Mail message would be
preprocessed by an auto correcting spell checker prior to final review
and/or automatic transmission.
The widely renowned feature of DeScribe's Word Processor, "Unlimited
Undo", will be a key capability shared by all DeScribe Magnum component
programs.
DeScribe Magnum, as a true 32bit application take advantage of the best
features of each of the 32bit operating systems. Multi-threading will be
used whenever appropriate. IBM's System Object Module (SOM) and
Microsoft's Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) will both be supported.
The first release of the Magnum Spreadsheet component is expected to
support three dimensional arrays, make extensive use of object oriented
technology and support a new level of programmability never before
available to spreadsheet users. The initial release of the Magnum
Spreadsheet is intended to support the key functions used by 90% of
spreadsheet users. Future releases will focus on advanced functionality
such as data modeling.
The Magnum DynaBase is a database access system with support for all
popular SQL and non-SQL databases. The Magnum components will be capable
of rapidly and easily accessing external database material for inclusion
in Magnum documents.
Magnum Mail is a mail management system which provides a consistent
interface to industry standard mail systems such as cc:Mail and Microsoft
Mail or may use its own internal mail system for peer to peer
communications within an OS/2 or Windows workgroup. Access to IBM's PROFS
will also be provided.
The first deliveries of DeScribe Magnum are scheduled for the first
quarter of 1995.
____________________________________________________
> HP's HELP Lines STR InfoFile
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Hewlett-Packard Guide to Peripheral Support Services (U.S. and Canada)
======================================================================
Pre-Sales / Product Literature
------------------------------
800-752-0900 (U.S.) Customer Information Center
6 a.m. - 5 p.m. (PST) M-F
800-387-3867 (Canada)
416-206-4383 (Toronto)
Ordering Product Manuals / Replacement Parts
---------------------------------------------
916-783-0804 (U.S. - to obtain part number)
800-227-8164 (U.S. - part number required)
6 a.m. - 5 p.m. (PST) M-F
800-387-3154 (Canada)
905-206-4747 (Toronto)
Service or Dealer Locator
---------------------------------------
800-243-9816 (U.S.)
24 hours/day 7 days/week
800-387-3867 (Canada only)
905-206-4383 (Toronto)
Supplies & Accessories
-------------------------------------
800-538-8787 (U.S.) HP Direct Ordering
6 a.m. - 4 p.m. (PST) M-F
800-387-3154 (Canada)
905-206-4747 (Toronto)
Common Printer Drivers (for LaserJet, DeskJet, PaintJet, Plotter,
PaintWriter, DeskWriter, and HP Network Accessories)
LaserJet Family Paper Specifications Guide
LaserJet 4 Family Software Notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------
303-339-7009 (U.S. and Canada) HP Distribution
24 hours/day 4 a.m. Mon through midnight Saturday
Printer Drivers, Software Notes, Hardware/Software information,
Technical Documentation, Self-Help Documentation
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Electronic and Subscription Services:
A. CompuServe Electronic Information Service
24 hours/day 7 days/week Type: GO HPPER
Call 800-848-8199 rep. #51 for information
(For: LaserJet/FAX/DeskJet/ScanJet/Plotter/HP with
PostScript/HP with Macintosh/HP Network Accessories)
B. AppleLink Electronic Information Service (Macintosh only)
24 hours/day 7 days/week Type: HP Folder
Call: 408-974-3309 for information
(For: HP LaserJet, DeskWriter, Paint Series, and ScanJet)
C. Ziff's Support on Site (TM) CD ROM Subscription Service
24 hours/day 7 days a week
Call: 800-827-7889 ext. 811 for information
(For: LaserJet, DeskJet, FAX, ScanJet, Plotter)
Material Safety Data Sheets, Printer Driver Request Form,
Software Notes, Technical Documentation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
HP FIRST - fax document retrieval 24 hours/day 7 days/week
800-333-1917 (U.S.)
-208-344-4809 (outside U.S. and Canada only)
Instructions: Press 1 after dialing.
If you have a document ID#, press 1
OR press 2 for an Index.
(For: All HP Peripheral Products)
Free Audio Support for Common Technical Support Questions
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Audio Tips - recorded answers with option to fax solutions
800-333-1917 (U.S.)
208-344-4809 (outside U.S. and Canada only)
24 hours/day 7 days/week
Instructions: Press 2 then choose 1 for Mac or 2 for DOS.
Optional: Press 1,1,1 for Road Map
(For: DeskJet, LaserJet, DeskWriter, ScanJet, HP with
Macintosh)
Hewlett-Packard Peripheral - Telephone Technical Assistance Guide
=================================================================
Hours: 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, except
Wednesdays, 7:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. (MST).
Current Hewlett-Packard Peripheral Products:
208-323-2551
Toll Charge only
Customers with current HP Products will continue to use the
208-323-2551 number for technical assistance.
Two Fee-Based Technical Support #'s for Discontinued Products:
==============================================================
900-555-1500*
No Toll Charge
(U.S. Access only)
$2.50/min. (price subject to change)
Charge begins when you reach support technician
Payment charge to Customer's Local Phone Bill
800-999-1148
No Toll Charge
$25.00 per call fee
Payment: Visa or MasterCard
U.S and Canada only
Telephone Assistance will only be provided for the following
discontinued products at the two numbers listed above (Current as of March
1, 1994 - updated as necessary on the 1st of each month):
Fee-Based Support Options For Discontinued Products:
900-555-1500**
(U.S. Only)
Toll-Free
$2.50 per minute (price subject to change)
Charge begins when you reach a technician.
Payment: Customer's phone bill (U.S. access only)
800-999-1148
Toll-Free
$25.00 Per Call Fee
Payment: VISA or MasterCard (U.S. and Canada access only)
Telephone support will be provided for the following discontinued products
at either of the two numbers listed above.* This list will be updated
regularly as older products are phased into sharing the cost of support.
HP LaserJet (2686A), HP LaserJet Plus (2686A) printers
HP LaserJet 500 + (2686D), HP LaserJet series II (33440A) printers
HP LaserJet 2000 printer (2684A) - 800-999-1148 number only
HP LaserJet IIP (33471A) and HP LaserJet IID (33447A) printers
HP DeskJet (2276A) and HP DeskJet Plus (2277A) printers
HP ScanJet (9190A) and HP ScanJet Plus (9195A) scanners
HP PaintWriter (C1662A) and HP PaintWriter XL (C1613A) printers
HP Fax 300 (C2111A)
HP PaintJet XL (C1602A) printer
HP Plotters: (7470A, 7550A, 758x series)
HP DraftMaster plotters: (7595A or 7596A)
HP DesignJet plotters: (C1633A or C1633B)
Phased into Fee-Based Support effective May 1, 1994
===================================================
HP LaserJet III (33449A) and HP LaserJet IIISi (33494x) printers
HP LaserJet IIID (33459A) and HP LaserJet IIP plus (C2007A) printers
*HP PostScript and JetDirect Network Products will only be supported
during their (JetDirect or PostScript) warranty period at the 208-323-2551
number. After that time, customers will need to call one of the two
fee-based numbers.
Plotters: 722x and 9872x series are supported through documents on HP
FIRST only.
* AT&T's new 900-"555"-xxx business-to-business number can be unblocked by
companies who still want to block other 900 numbers.
**For information on unblocking specific AT&T 900 numbers, see HP FIRST
document # 9010. to unblock this 900 number from your place of business.
___________________________________________
> VERSION 4.1 Announced! STR FOCUS!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
DeSCRIBE, Inc.
ANNOUNCES NEW VERSION 4.1
for
OS/2, Windows 3.x, and Windows NT
White Plains, NY, March 31, 1994 - Today, at the Westchester OS/2 User
Groups' 2nd Annual OS/2 Celebration to Benefit The National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, DeScribe, Inc. announced their latest
upgrade to its celebrated 32-bit word processor. Version 4.1 is the latest
in feature rich upgrades of the most stable PC word processor on the
market.
DeScribe Word Processor Version 4.1 adds significant new features such as
a unique "Proper Names" list, highly productive "Initial Spell" checker, a
misspelled words dictionary for automatic correction of typos, simple
mathematics in tables, footnotes, an equation editor and a great new
feature for creating newsletters with the ability to link and flow text
through multiple frames and "grow-as-you-go" stretchy frames.
DeScribe has also programmatically circumvented the codepage restrictions
of OS/2 to provide true single and double open or close typographical
quotes, en and em-dash, single and double daggers, ellipsis and soft
hyphens. Plus much, much more.
"DeScribe's 4.1 has so many great new features that it
might as well be called 5.0"
...Steve Weeks, beta tester, Bansal, & Assoc.
"We have built a solid reputation for providing consistently innovative
features, solid code and comprehensive support. In version 4.1 we've made
extensive, end-user oriented, improvements to the user interface along
with many new features that have one common goal, PRODUCTIVITY ON THE
DESKTOP."
... Allan R. Katzen, President & CEO, DeScribe, Inc.
In addition, those registered purchasers of DeScribe 4.0 SE (Subscription
Edition) after April 1, will also receive all interim updates of 4.1,
thereafter. All other registered users of DeScribe 4.0 can upgrade to 4.1
for $75 plus S&H. Based on an expected ship date of July 1, 1994, all
registered purchasers of DeScribe 4.0 after April 1, 1994 will receive
the upgrade to 4.1 for free.
Available from major dealers with distribution from Ingram Micro, Merisel
and Micro Central, DeScribe is available in the U.S. and Canada for US$495
List for the stand-alone version. The LAN versions of DeScribe are
available domestically in 10 and 20 paks for US$1,995 and US$2,995,
respectively. New Enterprise licensing is available direct from DeScribe
for corporations with over 350 users.
For Information Call:
Allan R. Katzen, President & CEO
916/ 646-1111
FAX 923-3447
__________________________________________________
> Early Math STR Review Kids' Computing Corner
"""""""""""""""""""""
Sierra On-Line
and
Bright Star Technology's Early Math
by Frank Sereno
Early Math is an educational program intended for 3 to 6 year-olds to
teach the beginning concepts of mathematics. This program is available
for IBM compatibles and Macintosh computers. Requirements for clones are
Windows 3.1 with 4 megs of memory, 11 megs of free hard drive space, a 640
by 480 with 256 color display, a sound card with a DAC chip and a mouse.
For the Mac, required are a color display, 4 megs of memory, System 6.0.7
or higher and 13 megs of hard drive space. After installation, the
program will use 9 megs of drive space on both clones and Macs after
temporary files and directories are deleted by the installation program.
The program features Loid, a space creature living on an asteroid, as
the child's tutor. Using patented technology, the animated Loid's lips
are synchronized with the words that she speaks. Loid directs and
encourages the child in six different learning exercises. The skills the
child is intended to learn include counting, number symbols, addition,
subtraction, shapes, pattern recognition and spatial relationships.
Early Math is easily installed using the normal installation
procedures for Mac and IBM compatible computers. To run the Early Math
program, simply click on the icon of Loid which is placed on the desktop.
Upon loading, Loid's asteroid world will be shown. Clicking on the
asteroid will start the main program, in the upper left is the word "quit"
(which is self-explanatory) and in the upper right is a numeric keypad
which is the icon for the parent's screen of the program.
Upon clicking on the asteroid, the screen shows Loid and five game
pieces. The child should choose one game piece and use it each time he
plays Early Math. In the parent's screen, you may type the name of the
child on the nameplate under his game piece. Upon selecting a game piece,
the program proceeds to show Loid standing in front of his home. To the
left is a car with two front ends (much like Pushme-pullyou of Dr.
Doolittle) and to the right is a bucket. Clicking on the house will cause
Loid to enter her home.
Loid's home consists of two stories beneath the ground. On the upper
level, a black box and a fish bowl can be found. On the lower level is
Loid's bed and a stool by an incomplete picture. The easiest exercise is
the Counting Sheep game which is accessed by clicking on the bed. At
first, the child will only have to count up to three sheep and Loid will
count them as they appear on screen. At the bottom of the screen are the
numbers along with their word names. In this first level, as Loid says
each number it will be highlighted. Once all the sheep are on the screen,
Loid asks the child to click on the correct answer. If the child picks
the wrong answer, Loid does not help the child by limiting the number of
possible answers as was done in Alphabet Blocks. Once the child provides
the correct answer, Loid asks him to click on the sheep to make them
disappear. The child will learn about subtraction as the number of sheep
on the screen is highlighted as each one is removed, counting down to
zero. When the child has progressed far enough, Loid will place up to ten
sheep on the screen but she will no longer count them for the child. I
feel this exercise is an excellent and entertaining method to teach
children to count to ten. To go back to the house to choose another
exercise, simply click on the picture of the house in the upper right of
the screen.
The second easiest of the six exercises is Complete the Picture.
Simply click on the picture or stool to begin the exercise. The concepts
the child is intended to learn in this exercise are the names and
definitions of geometric shapes, estimating size and matching shapes to
empty spaces. This is accomplished by having the child complete a picture
by filling in a blank space with a geometric figure by clicking and
dragging one of three offered shapes. The child learns the name and
definition of the shape by simply clicking on the shape and listening to
Loid describe it. After the picture is completed, the child will be
rewarded with a funny animation. This exercise is fun and effective.
The next exercise in level of difficulty is the Magic Box. Click on
the black box on the left side of the upper level of Loid's home. This
exercise teaches children the place value of numbers, the proper
pronunciation of three-digit numbers, how to carry digits when adding and
the basics of addition and subtraction. Gameplay is simple. Loid will
show a number on the left side of the screen and pronounce it. The child
then matches this number by stacking counters. On the right side of the
screen is counter holder with 3 counters representing one's, ten's and
hundred's. Clicking on these counters will cause one counter to fall to
holding stacks. The value of the stacked coins is shown below and the
child can hear the value pronounced by clicking on the number. If the
child places too many counters in a stack, clicking on the stack will
cause one counter to rise back to the holder. If the child places ten
counters in a stack, the counters will change into one counter of the next
denomination and be moved over to the proper stack. This teaches the
child how to carry digits. When the child feels he has the correct value,
he pulls a lever on the right side of the stacks. If the value is less
than Loid's number, Loid will tell the child the number the child has and
how many more counters are needed to match Loid's number. If the value is
more, Loid simply tells the child to try again. It would be more
instructive if Loid told the child the value of counters he needed to
subtract. If the answer is correct, the counters are dropped individually
into the black box below. As the counters are dropped, the value of that
counter is subtracted from the number below the counters, thus teaching
subtraction.
The last and the most difficult exercise available inside Loid's
house is accessed by clicking on the fish bowl. The child will learn
addition and subtraction as well as one-to-one correspondence. The object
of the game is to remove one food pellet from Loid's pouch for each fish
that comes on the screen. If the child gets out too much food, he can
drag the excess back to Loid's pouch. When the correct number of pellets
is out, the fish will open their mouths and they can be fed by clicking
and dragging the pellets to each fish. Once the fish are fed, they will
swim away to be replaced by a new group of fish. In higher levels of the
game, two groups of fish will appear on the screen simultaneously. The
groups' numbers are represented in a math addition problem on the left
side of the screen so the child may solve the problem by adding the
numbers or counting the fish. I think that basic multiplication could
have been taught in this exercise also by asking the child to feed each
fish more than one pellet, but perhaps that concept is too advanced for
the age group for which this program is intended.
To exit Loid's house and play the last two exercises, simply click on
the red triangle above Loid's living quarters. Once outside the child can
select the Tangram Bridge exercise by clicking on Loid's car. This
exercise teaches basic geometry skills and spatial relationships. Loid
will enter her car and drive to the next screen which features a huge
pothole. The child will be presented with several geometric shapes to
fill the pothole. If necessary, the shapes may be rotated by clicking on
them and then the child may drag the shape and place it in the pothole.
If he later decides that the piece is out of place, clicking on it will
cause it to move back to the top of the screen. Once he has completed the
bridge, Loid will motor on across and go to an apple tree where the child
will select an apple for Loid. While this animation is intended as a
reward for the child, I believe it will also encourage children to eat at
the computer. That is a practice that I frown upon. Loid will then motor
back to the pothole and the child will have to fill it again. Upon making
this bridge, Loid will proceed back home. As the child progresses in this
exercise, the shapes become more complex and more shapes are needed to
fill the pothole. In the beginning levels, the child may be presented
with 3 large squares to fill the gap but in higher levels he will have to
use complex polygons. If the child becomes stuck or does not wish to
continue playing the exercise, he can click on the picture of Loid's house
in the upper right of the screen. This exercise is very difficult and
Loid offers no assistance, but I believe this will teach the child very
well.
The final exercise is the Pattern Bridge which is accessed by
clicking on the wooden bucket. The concept learned is pattern recognition
by using logic to finish an incomplete pattern. Loid hops in the bucket
and bounces to another hole in the road. There will be five objects in
the hole in series of two's with one object needed to complete the
pattern. For example, the child may see CCBBC_. Loid will announce the
objects that are in the pothole and then the child chooses from a set of
objects above the bridge to complete the pattern. Upon completion of the
bridge, Loid will bounce to a well where she gets a drink of milk, root
beer or soda pop. I believe this will encourage children to get a drink
which they may wish to have at the computer. I speak from experience that
liquids and keyboards do not mix well. This exercise seems very good at
teaching patterns as my 5 year-old caught the principles quite quickly.
Now for an overview of the parent's screen. It can only be accessed
from the title screen of the program by clicking on the numeric keypad.
On the left of the screen are the game pieces. A child's name may be
typed for each game piece. Below the game pieces is a button for clearing
the statistics for the game piece button that is depressed. To the right
of the game pieces are game buttons representing each activity. Clicking
on the game buttons will show a screen describing the activities and
purposes of that game. To the right of the game pieces will be a series
of stars representing the correct answers the child has made. There are
25 problems in each game and once these are completed they will be
repeated randomly. A parent or teacher can learn which games the child
prefers or is doing well in by checking the number of stars after each
game. The screen indicates solved problems but not incorrect answers so
adult supervision is still needed to learn if the child has grasped the
concepts of various games or if the child is simply trying all the answers
until the correct one is found.
In the upper right corner of the screen, there are 4 buttons. One is
marked "Show Quit" and can be changed to "Quit Off" to prevent the child
from leaving Early Math's title screen on his own IF you have used the
yellow Security button to institute a numeric code to prevent unauthorized
access to the parent's screen. The code is a four-digit number of your
choosing. Write your code down in a safe place because if you forget the
code, you cannot access the parent's screen. There are two final buttons.
One is marked "Quit" and allows you to exit the Early Math program. The
other is an image of the title screen and it will return you to the title
screen. Using either button will save any changes you may have made while
in the parent's screen.
I found a few minor flaws in this program. In Windows, you cannot
use the Alt-Tab method of switching programs once you have started Early
Math. Early Math must be exited to interact with any other programs you
may have running under Windows. This can be inconvenient, especially to
this reporter because I like to switch back and forth between my text
editor and the software being reviewed for research and reference reasons.
Several of Loid's expressions of encouragement use old slang expressions
such as "hip" and "right on" with which the child may not be familiar.
The program will run from KidDesk except that you cannot type in a child's
name for the game pieces. Most likely this is a problem with KidDesk as
the keyboard works fine when the program is run directly from Windows.
The scenes where Loid eats and drinks in the game should have been
excluded or changed so that she told children to never eat or drink at the
computer or only with an adult's permission. I would have liked for there
to be more problems for the child to solve so it would have even more
value for the price. Finally, Loid's gender is indeterminate. This is
not a major issue but it does make writing or talking about Loid difficult
since Loid sounds the same as Lloyd, definitely a male name, but the voice
was provided by a woman.
On the plus side, the animation and audio in this program are top-
rate. The activities are well-designed. If my children's progress is any
indication, the lessons can be learned quickly with much fun and
entertainment. This program has high goals and it appears to reach them.
I recommend this program highly. Its flaws are few and of a minor nature
as long as adult supervision is provided. I bought this program at a
national electronics and hardware store last week for only $15. I also
saw it for sale at a national software store for only $20. At the price
of $15 it is tremendous value.
Early Math is available on CD-rom for both the PC and Macintosh. I
have no information to indicate whether the software is enhanced on CD-rom
or not so I cannot advise someone whether to purchase it or not. Sierra
recently mailed out a flyer offering discounts of 50% or more off their
suggested retail prices. In addition, any person purchasing 3 titles can
choose a fourth title of equal or lesser value for free. In the flyer,
the CD-rom version of Early Math is listed at $29.95. Some companies,
such as Knowledge Adventure, offer discounted upgrades from diskette
versions to the CD-rom product. To the best of my knowledge, Sierra does
not offer a program of this nature, or at least they do not advertise or
promote it. For more information about the current CD-rom offer, call;
1-800-757-7707 or call Customer Support at 1-800-743-7725.
As always, thanks for reading!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
:HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT:
_________________________________
Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local Echo)
Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369.
Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that).
Wait for the U#= prompt.
Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN.
GEnie Information copyright (C) 1991 by General Electric
Information Services/GEnie, reprinted by permission
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
___ ___ _____ _______
/___| /___| /_____| /_______/ The Macintosh RoundTable
/____|/____| /__/|__| /__/ ________________________
/_____|_____|/__/_|__|/__/
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An Official Forum of the International Computer Users Group
*** STReport available in MAC RT ***
ASCII TEXT
for ALL GEnie users!
MAC/APPLE SECTION (II)
======================
Randy Noak, Editor
Time marches on. Motorola releases the PowerPC chip that runs rings
around Intel's Pentium. Intel responds by announcing a chip that will run
rings around the PowerPC chip. Motorola announces a new PowerPC chip that
runs rings around the Pentium and then... Well, I'm sure you get the
idea. Technology is moving forward at a dizzying pace.
Not for some computer users though. They stubbornly cling to the
past with their out-moded systems, casting aspersions at those who have
chosen to move forward. This wouldn't be so bad, except, after making the
choice to remain using an out-dated platform, users of those fossils
expect everyone else to also cease moving forward. It's as if they are
saying, "I have chosen to use this wonderful system, now everyone else
can't inconvenience me by using any technology beyond what I am able to
access with my system."
An example of this is the recent decision by STReport to remain
using ASCII format for it's issues. After announcing that STR was going
to start using RTF (Rich Text Format) , STR Publisher Ralph Mariano
received howls of protest from users of one of those fossil platforms and
canceled plans to change. "Why should we have to buy a new word
processing program just to read STR?", they complained. (Ignoring the
fact that any word processor updated in the last three years readily
accepts RTF format) "There are only two word processors on my platform
that accept RTF format and they are expensive." (Meaning I don't own one
of those word processors and, in my heart, I realize that I am using a
dead platform, so I don't want to dump any more money into a sinkhole)
I'm sure that there were other arguments, but all of them, in my opinion,
are equally specious. Bob Dylan wrote, "Get out of the new road if you
can't lend a hand, 'cause the times they are a-changing." It applied in
the laid-back '60's , and it applies even more now in the fast-paced
'90's.
There. I've gotten that off my chest. If any of you feel compelled
to send a nasty letter refuting this column, please note my email
addresses at the end of the column. Don't bother carping to anyone else
on this magazine, they are not responsible for this column, I am, so SEND
THEM TO ME. That said. let's move on to other things.
Time marches on indeed. Just as I settle in with my Supra FaxModem
14.4LC, along comes Supra with a 28.8 baud modem. <sigh> Supra is,
however offering a _super_ deal on these new modems, so be sure and read
the press release. Apple also announces it's PowerMac developers kit
which enables the writing of native PowerPC applications.
_______________________________________________
> Apple NEWS & INFO STR InfoFile
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Supra Offers Low-Cost, High-Speed Options for both Today and Tomorrow
ALBANY, OR, MARCH 1994- Supra makes it easy for you to get 28,800 bps
data speeds today without a worry about tomorrow. Supra's V.Fast Class
modems, which are shipping now, will be fully upgradable to V.34 for as
little as $49. "We know that many users have a real need for speed now,
but they are concerned about how today's V.Fast Class modems will
communicate with the promised V.34 modems due out later this year," said
John Wiley, President of Supra. "Supra's upgrade policy eliminates those
concerns."
Assuming that the ITU-TSS standards committee stays on schedule for a
June 1994 release of the V.34 standard, Supra will have V.34 upgrades
available by September. Because of anticipated short supplies, the
initial upgrade price will be $69 through the end of November. Starting
December 1, 1994 the upgrade price will drop to $49 where it will stay
until the expiration of the upgrade offer on February 28, 1995.
"Due to patent claims and other issues surrounding the release of V.34,
we are certain that V.34 modems will come in at a price point
significantly higher than our current V.FC modems which sell for as
little as $349," Wiley said. "Users who buy today are likely to be
getting one of the best deals for the long term as well as getting the
opportunity to start experiencing 28,800 bps data speeds today."
The V.FC upgrade will require a factory replacement of the data pump.
Users will have two options for updating their modems. For $15 shipping
and handling fee, Supra will update the modem and ship it back to the
customer within 10 working days. Or, customers may select the Express
Exchange option for $30. With a credit card guarantee, Supra will ship a
new modem to the customer via overnight carrier and the customer will
then return the old modem in the package provided by Supra.
Supra's V.FC modem line includes the external SupraFAXModem 288(tm) which
is available bundled with software for the Mac and for the PC. Supra
also has two internal V.FC products, the SupraFAXModem(tm) 288i for the
PC and the SupraFAXModem(tm) 288PB for PowerBooks(tm). All products have
an estimated selling price (ESP) of $399 except for the SupraFAXModem
288i which has an ESP of $349.
For a limited time, Supra also offers an opportunity for owners of any
Supra modem product to upgrade to V.FC. With a serial number or other
proof of ownership, Supra customers can purchase any V.FC modem directly
from Supra for $100 off ESP. This offer is good through June 30, 1994.
No trade in required.
For additional information, please contact Supra Customer Service at
1-800-727-8772 or 503-967-2410.
------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS RELEASE MOVED OVER PR NEWSWIRE ON MONDAY, MARCH 28, 1994 AT 8:31,
AM, EST
Apple Announces Beta Macintosh on RISC SDK Now Available to
Developers
13 Third Party Tool Vendors Support Power Macintosh Application
Development Efforts
Cupertino, California--March 28, 1994--As part of its overall Power
Macintosh product strategy, Apple Computer Inc., today announced
that the beta release of the Macintosh on RISC Software Developer's
Kit (SDK) is now shipping and that a full suite of third party
development tools for the newly released Power Macintosh is
available. The Macintosh on RISC Software Developer's Kit includes
all the tools and documentation necessary to create new applications
or port existing Macintosh applications--using C or C++--to run
native on Apple PowerPC processor-based systems.
"The beta release of the Macintosh on RISC SDK is an important
milestone in the delivery of the Power Macintosh since it marks the
wide availability of tools that can be used to build shipping
versions of Power Macintosh applications," said Ike Nassi, vice-
president of the Development Products Group for AppleSoft, a division
of Apple Computer. "Now we will see even more native applications
that take full advantage of the performance of the Power Macintosh."
On March 14, Apple unveiled Power Macintosh--a new line of Apple
Macintosh personal computers that offer the power of workstation
computers, the affordability of mainstream personal computers, and
the capability to run applications for Macintosh, MS-DOS, and
Microsoft Windows. The Power Macintosh systems are based on the new
PowerPC 601 RISC microprocessor, jointly developed by Apple, IBM and
Motorola. At launch, there were 20 Power Macintosh optimized
applications from Third Parties shipping, with an additional 50
slated for delivery within 30 days.
Third Party Tools Support Power Macintosh Application Development
Apple along with a number of third party developers also announced
today the availability of a wide-range of Power Macintosh development
tools, including native C and C++ development environments and a
Power Macintosh implementation of Smalltalk. These products provide
a breadth of tools to meet the needs of a diverse Macintosh
development community. In addition, they provide the tools that will
allow developers not currently developing for the Macintosh to easily
transition from other operating system environments and hardware
platforms to the Power Macintosh.
"The Developer Products Group (DPG) has been working with a wide
range of developers to ensure that their needs for tools for
transitioning to Power Macintosh from the 680x0 based Macintosh and
other platforms were met," said Jordan Mattson, product marketing
manager and evangelist for Power Macintosh Tools, "Our partners in
the third-party tools community have risen to the challenge and are
delivering a full range of Power Macintosh developer tools."
Among the companies announcing Power Macintosh tools are:
- Absoft Corporation announced the availability within thirty days
of the Absoft FORTRAN 77SDK for Power Macintosh and the Absoft
C/C++SDK for Power Macintosh, complete packages for developing for
the Power Macintosh using FORTRAN or C/C++. For more information,
contact Absoft Corporation at 2781 Bond Street, Rochester Hills, MI
48309. (313) 853-0050.
- ACI US, Inc. announced the immediate availability of Object Master
for Power Macintosh, an integrated programming environment for
Pascal, C, and C++. For more information, contact ACI US, Inc. at 20883
Stevens Creek Boulevard, Cupertino, California. (408) 252-4444.
- Bowers Development announced the immediate availability of
AppMaker, Your Assistant Programmer for Power Macintosh. AppMaker, an
interface builder, allows you to easily create the interface for a
Macintosh application. For more information, contact Bowers Development
at 97 Lowell Road, Concord, MA 01742. (408) 369-8175.
- Bare-Bones Software announced the availability within sixty days
of BBEdit for Power Macintosh. BBEdit,is a high-performance
programmer's editor. For more information, contact Bare-Bones Software
at 1 Larkspur Way, #4, Natick, MA 01760. (508) 651-3561.
- AT&T Bell Laboratories announced the immediate availability of
FlashPort Translation services for Power Macintosh. Using
binary-to-binary translation technology, FlashPort translates existing
680x0 Macintosh applications to Power Macintosh applications.
For more information, contact AT&T Bell Laboratories at Cruz Plaza,
943 Holmdel Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733. (908) 946-1140.
- Jasik Designs announced the immediate availability of The Debugger
V2 & MacNosy. The Debugger V2 & MacNosy is a high-level and low-
level debugger for 680x0 and Power Macintosh applications. It
provides tools for code coverage analysis, incremental linking, and
global disassembly. For more information, contact Jasik Designs at 343
Trenton Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025. (415) 322-1386.
- Language Systems Corporation announced the availability within
sixty days of Language Systems FORTRAN/PPC and Language Systems
Pascal. Language Systems FORTRAN/PPC is a FORTRAN compiler for Power
Macintosh. Language Systems Pascal is an Object Pascal compiler for
the Power Macintosh. For more information, contact Language Systems
Corporation at 100 Carpenter Drive, Sterling, VA 20164. (800) 2-LANGSYS
- Metrowerks announced the immediate availability of CodeWarrior, a
native Power Macintosh development environment for C, C++, an
d
Pascal. In addition, CodeWarrior provides PowerPlant, an object-
oriented application framework. For more information, contact
Metrowerks at 1500 Du College, Suite 300, St. Laurent, Quebec H4L5G6,
Canada. (514) 747-5999.
- MicroAPL Ltd., announced the immediate availability of PortAsm a
680x0 to PowerPC assembly language translator. For more information,
contact MicroAPL Ltd., at West Bank Techno Park, London SE16LN, United
Kingdom. 447-1922-8866.
- Prograph International announced the availability in the third
quarter of 1994 of Prograph CPX for Power Macintosh. Prograph CPX is an
application development environment featuring a comprehensive,
extensible application framework and application editors implemented in
a completely visual, object-oriented language.
- Quasar Knowledge Systems announced the availability in the second
quarter of 1994 of Smalltalk Agents for Power Macintosh a dynamic
tool for authoring applications and agents using Smalltalk.
For more information, contact Quasar Knowledge Systems, Inc. at 9818
Parkwood Drive, Bethesda, MD 20814. (301) 530-4853.
- Sierra Software Innovations announced the availability within
sixty days of Inside Out II, a multi-user relational database engine
for use with Pascal and C/C++. For more information, contact Sierra
Software Innovations at 923 Tahoe Blvd., Suite 102, Incline Village, NV
89451. (702) 832-0300.
- Symantec, as part of its announcement of Symantec C++ 7.0,
announced the immediate availability of the Power Macintosh cross
development kit. The Power Macintosh cross development kit allows
developers to port their Symantec C++ applications to Power Macintosh.
For more information contact Symantec Corporation, 10201 Torre
Avenue, Cupertino, CA 95014 (408) 253-9600
Developers of Power Macintosh tools expressed excitement at the
potential of the Power Macintosh.
"The new Power Macintosh represents a quantum leap in processing
power and our new compiler architecture was designed specifically for
RISC processors and advanced architectures such as this incredible
machine," said Greg Galanos, president and CEO of Metrowerks.
According to David Simmons, president of Quasar Knowledge Systems:
"SmalltalkAgents supports the creation of sophisticated applications
and agents that are capable of supporting multiple processes and
threads simultaneously. Power Macintosh will enable SmalltalkAgents
developers to take advantage of these features to create new classes
of products that work intelligently to enable ubiquitous
collaborative and agent applications and services."
Over time, Apple expects the range of Power Macintosh developer
tools to expand, as additional vendors deliver products that will allow
software developers to use the enormous processing power of the Power
Macintosh for new, creative applications and breakthrough solutions.
Macintosh on RISC SDK Pricing, Availability
-------------------------------------------
The Macintosh on RISC SDK is available from Apple Programmers and
Developers' Association (APDA). In the US the SDK is priced at
US$399.00.
Pricing will vary overseas. Apple also announced that the
Macintosh on RISC SDK will be available as part of Apple'
E-T-O--Essentials, Tools, Objects product starting with the next issue.
International customers should contact their local Apple or APDA office
for details of local pricing and availability. Apple plans that
customers purchasing the SDK will receive the current beta release
and any interim releases up to and including the final release. In
addition to the Macintosh on RISC SDK, APDA carries a number of the
third-party Power Macintosh tools listed above. For more
information, contact APDA.
APDA offers convenient worldwide access to hundreds of Apple and
third-party development tools, resources, and information for anyone
interested in developing applications on Apple computer platforms.
For a free copy of the APDA Tools Catalog, call 1-800-282-2732 (US.),
1-800-637 0029 (Canada), or (716) 871-6555 (International).
That's it for this week. As always, please feel free to send your
comments or questions to me at:
America Online: STReportRN
CompuServe: 70323,1031
GEnie: R.NOAK
**********************************************************************
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=================
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baud rate. The $5.95 monthly fee includes your first hour online. For
more information, call: DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-544-4005 DELPHI
is a service of General Videotex Corporation of Cambridge, MA.
Try DELPHI for $1 an hour!
For a limited time, you can become a trial member of DELPHI, and
receive 5 hours of evening and weekend access during this month for only
$5. If you're not satisfied, simply cancel your account before the end
of the calendar month with no further obligation. If you keep your
account active, you will automatically be enrolled in DELPHI's 10/4 Basic
Plan, where you can use up to 4 weekend and evening hours a month for a
minimum $10 monthly charge, with additional hours available at $3.96.
But hurry, this special trial offer will expire soon! To take advantage
of this limited offer, use your modem to dial 1-800-365-4636. Press
<RET> once or twice. When you get the Password: prompt, type IP26 and
press <RET> again. Then, just answer the questions and within a day or
two, you'll officially be a member of DELPHI!
DELPHI-It's the BEST Value and getting better all the time!
**********************************************************************
ATARI/JAG SECTION (III)
=======================
Dana Jacobson, Editor
> From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Okay, it's not the 13th, but I'm carrying any good luck charm that
I can find. Today is worse than any Friday the 13th - it's April Fools
Day and I've already fallen for a real lulu of a joke last weekend! If
all goes well, I will have enacted my April Fools "_revenge_" and
made the score even! That will teach me to NEVER accept something that
appears innocent at face value (sort of, anyway!) I must admit,
however, that even though I considered the [now known April Fools] press
release to be odd; I never considered the possibility that it was an
April Fools prank! Anyway, I'll be sharing that joke with you a little
later on just in case you haven't seen it posted by myself, ye olde
gullible one! It's the press release dealing with, ahem, Avid Software.
I must admit that my mind has not been on the computing side of
"things Atari" this past week or so. This week marks the debut of the
Atari section's expanded coverage of Atari's hot new game machine, the
Jaguar. Our new Jaguar staff and I have been working diligently over
the past few weeks to get things rolling and start to provide you with
some very informative material. The group that has joined us here at
STReport for this coverage is a good one. This is the most _active_
enthusiasm and effort that I've seen regarding an Atari product in a
long time! I'm really happy to be working with a great bunch of
people who are willing to expend the time and effort to help put this
together. A half dozen of us even _met_ last week online on CIS for
what turned out to be a 2 hour conference, hashing out some details for
what we'd hope to accomplish, and how to do it.
In this week's issue, you'll find some interesting articles and
reviews related to the Jaguar and its current game offerings. As we go
along, the types of articles that you'll see will eventually become
regular features. As a new Jaguar owner (I should have my very own by
the time this issue hits the streets!), I know that I'm going to get a
lot out of this information; we all hope that you do also. Since this
expanded coverage will be breaking new ground for us here at STReport,
your feedback is important to us. Please, feel free to let us know
what we can do to provide you with the things that _you're_ looking for
with regard to the Jaguar. If you see something we can add or change,
let us know. We're here to make your "playing Atari" more enjoyable.
Delphi's Atari Advantage!
TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (3/30/94)
(1) ST TOOLS 1.93 (6) MOUSE-KA-MANIA II VERSION 2.1
(2) CLEVELAND FREENET NEWSLETTER *(7) AVID SOFTWARE FORMS!
(3) AU! USER GROUP DIRECTORY *(8) TRIPLE YAHOO
(4) ST-ZIP 2.4 FIX *(9) GCC VERSION 2.5.0
(5) STIS *(10) BACKWARD 2.52
* = New on list
HONORARY TOP 10
The following on-line magazines are always top downloads, frequently
out-performing every other file in the databases.
STREPORT (Current issue: STREPORT #10.13)
ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE (Current issue: AEO - VOLUME 3, ISSUE 5)
Look for the above files in the RECENT ARRIVALS database.
______________________________________________
> The Old Fishin' Hole STR Feature
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
THE OLD FISHIN' HOLE
====================
-A Guide to the Online PD/Shareware Waters.
by John R. Duckworth
Since the dawn of time has there ever been a computer with such
amazing sound, speed of graphics, and ease of use as the Atari line
of personal computers? Until now, we as users have been waiting for
the software, namely applications and games, to take advantage of the
marvelous technology inside our compact computers...to take us to that
next level, the nirvana of our technological lives. Up to today,
this would all be but a dream. With the release of the two programs
I'll preview this week, our dreams will finally come true.
"QT View v.1.1" by Damien M. Minter is a GEM application that will
allow Atari users to play 'quick time' movie files popular on other
platforms. Operation of the program couldn't be easier...simply run
the program and select the 'quick time' file to view via the load
menu, or better yet just drag the file to the program to
automatically load and run. Once loaded, the movie may be played at
varying speeds, in reverse, or frame by frame. A horizontal scroll
bar at the bottom of the movie window may be used to access any
section of the video quickly and easily. Any number of movies may be
loaded in their own windows at one time (memory permitting), but only
the topmost window may be played.
"QT View" will run on any Atari TOS computer in 16 color graphics
modes. On the ST, this means the program may only be used in low
resolution. The application will automatically display the movies in
grey scale unless a graphics mode with 256 color or more is used.
This is a definite 'must have' program for any Atari computer
user, unless of course they aren't interested in viewing 'quick time'
movies with virtually no effort. The "QT View v.1.1" package _is_
shareware and a registration fee of $40 is required to help offset
the 'quick time' licensing fees.
The second ground-breaking program I received is an entertainment
package called "Arcade Frenzy" by Ludwig Ostendorf, an obviously
brilliant programmer from Sweden. The program will run on any Atari
TOS computer with at least one megabyte of memory installed.
"Arcade Frenzy" is not just one game, but _8_ different arcade
'clones'. The games included are: Defendo - a Defender clone, Whacko!-
a Berzerk copy, Super Cap Man - a Super PacMan look-alike, Hamlet- a
Tempest clone, Monkey Kong - a Donkey Kong replica, Kix-a Qix
duplicate, Nutso Climber-a Crazy Climber copy, and finally Big
Dug!-an almost exact copy of Dig Dug. Whew! What a collection!!
It would take me hours to give a detailed description for each
game, if you have ever played the games they are patterned after in
the arcade...then you'll know exactly what these versions are like.
The entire program is written in super-fast machine language and all
of the separate games are accessed via an innovative "Arcade Frenzy"
main menu screen. Joystick response (on a Falcon the Jaguar joypad may
be used) is excellent. After taking a look at this entire package, I'm
not sure why Ludwig hasn't been asked to write professionally yet.
If you have extra time on your hands to be able to get involved
with a few arcade classics...then "Arcade Frenzy" is the program for
you. The author is only asking the equivalent of $20 and it is worth
every cent.
That's all for this visit...and in my opinion is enough to keep
the average user busy for weeks. Remember, direct any comments,
questions, and programs to review to JDUCKWORTH@delphi.com. By the
way, in case you haven't figured it out already...April Fools!!
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Old Fishin Hole Tackle Box * |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| QT View |
| Arcade Frenzy |
| -both available online soon.......................maybe. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
* The Tackle Box is meant to provide assistance in finding files
mentioned in the column. It should not be considered a COMPLETE
listing and is provided for convenience only. Delphi Atari Advantage
files should be found in the Recent Arrivals section of the database
until moved to their appropriate sections.
> In This Week's Jaguar Section
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Reviews of "Raiden" and "Evolution: Dino Dudes"!! Gaming Industry
news. Jaguar online activity. Atari makes important announcements!
> From the Editor's Controller "Playin' it like it is"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Since I've essentially mentioned this section's arrival a bit
earlier, I'll be brief this week! This section is still young, but the
efforts so far have been excellent. We're still compiling lists,
updating others, and making new contacts in an effort to provide you as
much Jaguar info as you have time for, in-between those "controller-
aches" rubdowns! Let us know what you'd like to see in the future!
For now, it's time to get practicing on my Lynx version of "Dino Dudes"
in anticipation of my Jaguar and its version of the game, any day now!
Until next time...
> Jaguar Editor Guest Editorial - Past, Present, & Future...
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The Future of Jaguar
and
Why It's Important To The Consumer
by Marty Mankins
Ever wonder what it was like back in the early days of video games?
Well, I was there and it was great to be a part of all the blips and
blocks of Pong to the munching activities of PacMan and the spinning
rings of Star Castle. There was also flying rocks in Asteroids and
flying space ships fighting the enemy in Star Wars. Although some of
these games were not made by Atari, they are now a piece of history.
It's this piece of history that some of us look back on and wonder
how we ever made it through a school day without having PacMan fits
or the urge to grab a quarter and hand onto it until we reached the
arcade. But now we have a new generation of video game expectations.
While some of us long for a good game of Asteroids, the newer generation
needs blood and detailed graphics that make you feel part of the game
with a sort of realism.
The current market is flooded with Nintendo and a slew of games that
leave even the biggest game player longing for something even better.
Then there are people like myself who would love a good remake of a
favorite game. Sometimes our silent or verbal requests are known and
we are given a treat to Missile Command or PacMan, but that still
doesn't cut it. We want a good remake, not a simple rewrite.
This is where the Jaguar comes in. Over 60% of the great games that
we played as a kid were made by Atari. So we stick with what we
trust. While Atari Games still produces arcade upright games today,
Atari Computer Corporation fell out of the market for a few years,
not participating in any home video market. But they surprised us
with the Jaguar, which was released last November to a limited market
and is now shipping to a nationwide market with thousands of units
sold and 5 games out with more on the way in the coming year.
So what is the Jaguar and why is it so important to the video game
consumer? Jaguar is a 64-bit video game system that is
cartridge-based, with a CD-ROM drive shipping sometime this year.
It's capable of 16.7 million colors on the screen at once and is very
fast with rendering graphics and images. The Cybermorph game that
ships with Jaguar is incredible and blows any of the games that
resemble it out of the water. The play action is a very good for a
pack-in game and something that no Mario Bros. can touch. But yet it
provides hours of entertainment for all ages.
And with the number of developers working on Jaguar games (it's up to
86 now), it's incredible that this system has been out less than 6
months. But, the video game consumer that is looking for a better
system, but doesn't have a lot of money to spend is not going to want
other systems. Sure, there will be people that will buy the 3DO and
it is a good system, but even at $499, it's still a bit too high.
And it's not flexible enough to most video game users, not having a
cartridge slot. Some may balk at Atari not having their CD-ROM drive
ready by now, but they are rewarded with the fast access and the
speed of a cartridge-based system.
And software titles, which are full-featured games, retail at less
than the cost of most Super Nintendo games that have been on the
market for 6 months. So what's my point? If you have already have a
Super Nintendo system and are happy, do you need a Jaguar or a newer
video game system? Maybe not at this time, but in the future (6-8
months), you are going to want to look at the Jaguar and really see
what kind of a system that it is. The idea of being comfortable with
a video game system has a lot of pull and some may not want to buy a
system until there are many games to choose from and possibly a lower
price.
The average consumer is pretty fickle about what they buy these days.
They can have all sorts of options put in front of them. These
options are in the form of store displays, TV advertising and
informative magazine like STReport. They need to understand how to
filter out what they want and what they need. And it's the job of
others to keep the consumer informed about the latest technologies.
Based on past research and experience, I've found that if a product
is presented properly and if a need or heavy want is produced, then
the consumer will be interested and will do what it takes to get that
product. This is how the Nintendo system sells. Consumers see the
games on TV and in the stores. Often kids will push their parents to
get what they see. Then the parents make a decision and get what
they feel would be good. And there are quite a few parents that buy
video games for themselves, too. And that is a key point to note. If
a parent can be interested in something that the kids play, then
there's a strong chance that item will soon become part of their
household items.
So now that we have a faint idea of how things are sold to consumers,
how do you replace a current video game system with a newer, more
powerful one? The answer is simple, but the process may not be that
easy. The answer is to find a need or want. Then the process is to
provide a good price and enough software to sell a complete system.
Talking with salespeople that sell video game systems, they note that
consumers will buy the video game system AFTER looking at the number
of games it has with it. So for Nintendo, they have a good market.
But, the consumer also looks at the quality of the games. Up until
now, the Sega Genesis has had that claim to fame. Then they look at
price and how much entertainment value they get per dollar. And
finally, they like to see a lot of support. Reading articles, game
reviews and other information about the game system are all ways that
the consumer gets educated.
The Jaguar is the best choice for all of these categories. While the
number of software titles available is few now, in 6-8 months, there
will be a good number of solid titles out that will appeal to all
ages and tastes. The incredible graphics capabilities of the Jaguar
are hard to ignore. Currently, the few titles out now are much more
professional looking than some of the games that have been enhanced
for Super Nintendo or Genesis. As for the entertainment value for
their money, the consumer will see that a lower price does not cut
features and performance. Also, the game play value of such games as
Tempest 2000 and Checkered Flag II, offer hours of fun that can
change every minute of play. And finally, the user wants some sort
of support. Usually this is in the form of their dealer telling them
about new games, offering tips and answering some basic questions.
Some consumers need the support of other game players. This is
normally in the form of a user group or through the help on the many
online services (CompuServe, America Online, GEnie) and BBS systems
across the nation and the world. Magazines also have a major part of
offering advice, help, tips and reviews for the consumer to be
informed about the latest stuff.
Consumers are known to upgrade their equipment or to be interested in
new technologies, but they may do a lot of investigating and
information gathering before they actually go through with the
purchase. So it's the job of Jaguar owners to proclaim the system as
being the best choice. Its money value, the quality of games and
the upgradability of the system for the future makes it the best
video game on the market. This is not to say that other system are
not good. I happen to see a lot of good games out on the other video
game systems and get some good play out of them. But, the overall
choice is Jaguar for the consumer. The education of the video games
players must start so they will know we have the best system here.
It's only fair to show the consumer electronic industry what the best
video game system is. Others may sound better or they may currently
have more games available. But that won't last for long. Soon the
world will know Jaguar as the leader in play value and as an
excellent quality gaming machine.
[Marty is an editor for STReport on the Jaguar. He has been playing
video games for over 17 years and is known to go ape for a good game
of Tempest or Star Castle. He is married with one daughter who is 2
going on 14.]
____________________________________________
> Jaguar Catalog STR InfoFile - What's currently available, what's
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" coming out.
Current Available Titles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
J9000 Cybermorph $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9010 Tempest 2000 $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9006 Evolution:Dino Dudes $49.99 Atari Corp.
J9005 Raiden $49.99 Atari Corp.
J9001 Trevor McFur/
Crescent Galaxy $49.99 Atari Corp.
Available Soon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
TBA
Hardware and Peripherals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP MANUFACTURER
J8001 Jaguar (complete) $249.99 Atari Corp.
J8904 Composite Cable $19.95
J8901 Controller/Joypad $24.95
J8905 S-Video Cable $19.95
> Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Compiled by Carl Prehn
Atari:
Looks as if the Jaguar is going to make or break Atari. UPI
reported on Friday, March 25th that Atari had a $22.6 million dollar
loss for the 4th quarter compared to a $21.9 million dollar loss a
year ago, same quarter. The unexpected loss pushed Atari's total loss
for the year to $48.9 million. This was due in part by poor sales of
$8.5 million compared to 25.5 million the year before, but mainly from
the cost of releasing and marketing the Jaguar.
Sam Tramiel doesn't seem too worried though.
"While we are disappointed in the magnitude of our losses in
the fourth quarter and 1993 as a whole, we believe that we have
substantially completed our transition from our older technology
products and the consolidation of our worldwide operations."
He said Jaguar is now available in Los Angeles and is in the
process of broader distribution throughout the United States as more
devices become available. But, he warned, that Atari will remain in the
red for some time.
"As a result of increased spending for marketing activities and
until such time as shipments of Jaguar products are made in
substantial volume, we do not expect to achieve profitability,"
Tramiel said.
Investors don't seem to daunted by the news though. Time/Warner
increased its share to 27%. Up from 25%. And the stock rose 87.5 cents
to $7.375 a share in active trading on the American Stock Exchange.
Atari and Nintendo have finally settled their litigation
concerning Atari's patent on horizontal scrolling in video games.
For an undisclosed amount Atari has granted Nintendo a license to
certain patents. "The license does not include Atari Corp.'s patents
related to Lynx or patents pending related to the Jaguar technology,"
an Atari statement said. Atari hopes this "will ... lead to
resolution of other patent infringement claims," such as the one
Against Sega.
Nintendo:
Nintendo loses an appeal against Galoob, maker of the "Game
Genie". A federal court let stand a $15 million damage award to
Galoob.
Nintendo originally took Galoob to court over the "Game Genie".
Stating that it was an infringement on Nintendo's copyright and
trademark. The ruling was later overturned. And Nintendo had to
pay losses in sales to Galoob.
Project Reality is becoming more of a reality these days.
Nintendo has finally announced a developer and a title.
Rare Ltd., a UK-based entertainment software producer and
Rare Coin-It Toys & Games, Inc., a Miami, Florida game developer are
in the process of developing "Killer Instinct," a 3-D fighting game.
It will be introduced in video game arcades in late 1994 and will be
available for play on the Project Reality home system in the fall of
1995.
Sega:
Sega has announced the "Genesis Super 32x", a cartridge for
the Sega Genesis that will offer comparable performance to that of a
3DO and Jaguar.
It is powered by the same 32 bit RISC chip that is to be used
in the Sega Saturn, as well as a newly designed video display
processor. No word yet on compatibility with future Saturn software.
But, it will enhance any Cart or CD designed for the Super 32x on the
Genesis and boasting better video and thousands of colors.
3DO:
More Hardware vendors. 3DO has announced hardware system
licenses to Goldstar and Samsung of Korea to develop 3DO base units.
They have also announced a PC card developed by Creative Technology of
Singapore.
______________________________________
> Raiden STR Review Jaguar Game
"""""""""""""""""
-= Available Now =-
Developed by: Imagitec Design Inc.
Published by: Atari Corp.
Sugg. Retail Price: $49.95
Ease of Play: Average/Difficult
by John R. Duckworth
I was raised on Pop Rocks and Pac Man. One of my favorite
pastimes was sneaking down to the corner arcade to get a quick fix for
my video game fever. Sure, I had an Atari 2600 like every other
middle-class home in America, but it just couldn't compare to the
power that those arcade machines had. I still remember the day my
mother waited in line for an hour to buy a copy of the highly
anticipated port of Pac Man for the 2600. What a disappointment when
I plugged it into the machine to find chunky graphics (heck, Pac Man
himself didn't even turn his mouth up and down), a maze not like the
arcade's, and sound effects so wrong I thought the programmers in
California must have had a different version of Pac Man than we had
in Florida. This settled it, I thought, we would never have an exact
home version of an arcade game...it just wasn't possible. Well, with
the purchase of "Raiden" for the Jaguar, my skepticism has been
lifted forever.
"Raiden" is a vertically scrolling shoot-em-up wherein you
control the Raiden Supersonic Attack Fighter solo or with a friend
flying a second aircraft. The introductory story to "Raiden" states
that the Earth has been attacked and taken over by militant aliens.
You must counterattack and reclaim our cities armed with only your
fighter plane, and a few special weapons. You control your plane
(which is represented on-screen from an overhead view) by pressing the
joypad in the direction you wish to move. Buttons A and B both fire
forward shots, and the C button drops bombs which are limited in
number. Like all of the games released by Atari thus far, pressing 0
on the 12 button keypad toggles the music on and off. This cartridge
also stores the high scores (up to 100,000 times) internally, so
there is always a reason to try and make it 'just one level better'.
There are 8 levels of increasing difficulty to try and conquer
which consist of many types of terrain including cities, water, and
space. The first level starts out by pitting the player against fast
flying helicopters and small, but smart, tanks which never seem to tire
of tracking you with their cannons. When first starting out, the
player has a rather inefficient machine gun just crying out to be
upgraded. Weapons may be increased in power by collecting 'power-ups'
that fly out of certain air and ground targets. There are a few
different types of power-ups such as; lasers- change your
machine gun into an intensive laser shots, automatic machine guns-
upgrades your gun to one which has more powerful shots and a wider
spread, bombs- adds a bomb to your arsenal, direct fire missiles-
adds missile which fire in tandem with your other weapon, and homing
missiles- like the direct missile but instead of simply moving
forward they home in on the enemies. Each time one of these power-ups
is collected, your weapon power is increased. there is a limit to the
power of your weapon, and once reached you simply collect a bonus for
additional power-ups. Always collect the same type of power-up...such
as lasers and homing missiles or machine guns and direct missiles. If
you change and start collecting another type of weapon, it will
replace your more powerful weapon with the standard one of its type.
There is also a super weapon power-up which will take you to the
maximum power of the weapon you are currently using. Bonus characters
also pop up once in a while and collecting them, either dragons,
fairies, will give you bonus score immediately and medals may be
collected for bonus score at the end of the levels.
At the end of each level is a boss enemy (or sometimes enemies)
which will try to hamper your progress to the next level. Defeating
these will usually be easier by dropping bombs on them so it's best
to save up your bombs until the end of the level. Once conquered, the
game will then display a bonus recap screen where you can see how
many bombs and medals you managed to collect (you must not have been
killed since you picked up the medals) and how much bonus score you
accumulated. The graphics in "Raiden" are top-notch and if you
didn't know better you'd think that someone had switched your TV with
the actual arcade game. Action on the screen is furious, and it is not
unusual to see 30 or more objects moving on-screen at once without any
noticeable slowdown in gameplay. The enemies and background graphics
are all bitmapped, there is no fancy shading or texture mapping to be
seen...but is isn't needed since this is not an original game but
simply an arcade clone.
The sound effects in "Raiden" are mostly explosions and gun/laser
shots, but they are not overly annoying as in some games (if they do
become annoying simply lower their volume). The background music in
the game is a pop soundtrack with a driving beat with each level
getting it's own track. While the music sounds good through the TV
speaker, it explodes to a higher level when connected through a
stereo. I have finally become tired of most of the music tracks after
playing the game for a month (I sometimes hear the songs in my
sleep), so I usually opt to turn the music off.
Your fighter is easy to control and although some people have
complained of difficult diagonal maneuvring, I have no problem with
it. It would have been nice for the programmers to include an option
to allow for the reassigning of weapon buttons, but it hasn't really
taken much time to get used to playing the game where they are
assigned.
The manual for "Raiden" is small and only in black and white, but
it gets the job done. Not much background information is needed to set
the game up, and the manual does explain the controller functions and
screen display thoroughly. The only thing I miss is a preview of each
level, but I suppose that would have ruined the surprises.
I enjoy playing "Raiden" more than any game yet for the Jaguar
(ok...I don't have Tempest 2000 yet). It requires basically no thought,
and after a day full of work and college that's what I need. I have
yet to make it through the last level (after which I'm told it simply
restarts with harder enemies), but I also haven't grown bored of trying.
My thumb has been sore for weeks, and that to me is a sign of a great
game. If you enjoy shoot-em-ups with great graphics, gameplay, and sound
then I can't recommend a better game for the Jaguar.
Graphics: 7.5
Sound FX/Music: 8.0
Control: 9.5
Manual: 9.0
Entertainment: 8.5
Reviewer's Overall: 8.0
With good graphics (although far from cutting edge), nice sound,
and gameplay which I find myself returning to more than any other
game yet for the Jaguar, I give it a fairly good score. It doesn't
though show the full power and capabilities of this state-of-the-art
machine which hopefully future releases will start to utilize.
_________________________________________________
> Evolution: Dino Dudes STR Review Jaguar Game
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
-= Available Now =-
Evolution: Dino Dudes
Imagitec Design, Inc for Atari
$49.95
Ease of Play: Difficult
By Jay Levy
Evolution: Dino Dudes is not a 64-bit game. There is no way to put
it any simpler. That's not to say that Dino Dudes isn't a good game,
it is. But the game just doesn't justify a 64-bit system. Dino Dudes
is basically a puzzle game with some arcade skills thrown in. It's
your job to maneuver your Dino Dudes around and have them work together
to accomplish tasks, ranging from reaching the goal to discovering fire
to rescuing their pet. You reach objectives by pole-vaulting with
spears, stacking your "Dudes," and other inventive measures. Overall,
the graphics are adequate. The backgrounds are gorgeous, using a large
color palette, but the levels and the animations could be achieved on a
Super NES. The animations are cute and very funny, however. For
example, if you're run over by your Dino Dudes using the wheel, they act
like you've run over their feet (try torching one of your own guys; it
surprised me and was pretty funny).
They first thing I noticed, though, was how small the characters
were, as compared to the PC version called "Humans." The sound is one of
the most impressive features of the game. The music is crisp and clean,
and most importantly, it doesn't get annoying after you've been trying
to get off a level for an hour. If it does bother you, you have the
ability to turn it off in the middle of the game, without stopping, a
nice feature. Another good feature is the independent volume control
for both sound effects and music. You'll want to turn the sound effects
up, though. There aren't that many, but they're good. A personal
favorite is the cracking and crunching of bones when the Tyrannosaur
munches your Dino Dude. Your control over the Dino Dudes is relatively
easy. The mixture of both thinking and arcade skills makes the game
less of a routine. But, those of you out there scared of an action
game, don't be. It's relatively simple stuff, like powering up the spear
to jump or throw. The puzzles take the lead here. You quickly get used
to choosing an action and performing it, however it may be frustrating
trying to get everything done in your time limit when you first start;
allow yourself some time to get used to the controls. The only major
difficulty in controlling that I've come across is using the wheel to
jump. I've had to restart levels over and over and over, just to
make one jump. It gets very annoying. Another thing, make sure you
read the manual. It's simple and it'll get you going, but if you're
like me, someone who likes to jump into a game, you may be stuck on a
board for an awful long time. The manual tells you about all sorts of
good things, from witch doctors to using the rope (hint: read about
"stone blocks" or you will be stuck). The game is fun, period.
I enjoy the different puzzles, the humorous animations, and the
graphic sound effects (ok, sometimes they're gross). The game works
well, because you can work 10 minutes on a level, finish it, and come
back and play later. One of my favorite features is that the cartridge
saves your last password. All you do is boot up the game and choose
the feature and you're back where you started. The game can get
repetitive. If you want to punish yourself, sit down and play it for 4
hours straight. You'll feel like you're at the end of 20 cups of coffee.
For some reason, though, after a break, I'll come back and try another
level. It's addicting. If you don't like strategy games, pass on this
one. The graphics aren't enough to show off your system, and I'm not
positive that the game will convert you.
If you're mildly interested, or do like it. It's worth it. Over
50 levels will keep you entertained for days. The Jaguar needs this
kind of game; most of the future releases seem to be action oriented,
so this makes a nice break, and I consider it a nice addition to my
library. However, it would be nice to see a sequel that will really
use the power of the Jaguar. Fully animated backgrounds, larger
characters, better animations. Dino Dudes is a game that reaches its
expectations of itself, but never exceeds them. A good first effort
for the Jaguar.
Graphics: 7.0
Sound FX/Music: 8.5
Control: 7.5
Manual: 7.5
Entertainment: 7.5
Reviewer's Overall: 7.5
Summary: Here's my justification for scores -- the graphics were good,
but nowhere near the quality expected from the Jaguar. The sound was
great, does just what it's supposed to without getting in the way.
However, no one will be selling CD's of Dino Dudes music. Control, a
little hard to get used to, but understandable considering all the
things you have to do in the game. The jumping of that wheel still
sucks. The manual covers all the info, but it's not that exciting; I
have to admit, I like some flashy manuals with a story or something in
them. A fun game, worth the purchase if you like puzzles. It gets
repetitive, though, and could have been improved. Overall, a good game,
fun, but not incredible.
_________________________________________
> Jaguar Online STR InfoFile Online Users Growl & Purr!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
>>Tempest 2000 - Slight Delay
The Tempest 2000 carts I hoped to ship this week will ship next week.
Due to Holiday commitments, shipments are a day or two behind BUT the
factory is working through the weekend to catch up.
If you just can't wait and pick one up at the store, just let me know
and I'll cancel your order with us.
Sorry for the couple days delay.
-- Don Thomas
Atari Corporation
>>Checkered Flag II - New Title
According to Atari's Juli Wade, "Checkered Flag II will from now on be
known as 'Redline Racing'."
("No, this isn't an April Fools joke. Just thought you'd all like to
know!")
juli wade
______________________________________
> '94 National Gaming Tour! STR Focus! Jaguars Spotted!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
From CompuServe's Atari Gaming Forums:
Here's some news for fellow JAGgers out there...
This week-end in the metro Detroit area, we had our bi-annual Motor
City ComicCon. It was held for the 1st time in the HUGE Novi Expo
Center (located between Detroit and Ann Arbor), which is used for
conventions and travelling shows. As an added attraction, here was to
be the 1st appearance of ELECTRONIC GAMING MAGAZINE/HERO Illustrated
Magazine's '94 National Gaming Tour! In addition to meeting some of
the comics industries most well known creators, the public had the
chance to TRY OUT the hottest NEW video game releases from this
winters CES show. Real hands-on opportunity...
The gaming public was out in full force this week-end! EGM had set up
about 20 circular, 3-station kiosks to spotlight a richly varied
field of new SNES, Sega, 3D0 and yes...ATARI Jaguar, too!
When you paid admission and entered, you are given a comic trading
card with a bar-code imprinted on the back. Con-goers were given the
opportunity to pass the cards thru a bar-code reader, with the
'hopes' of winning one of a variety of prizes. No luck for me, today.
Set up under EGM's impressive hi-tech display were three 32" stereo
monitors to display promo material from the various gaming companies
contributing to the event, including the hilarious (if somewhat
'infamous', I've read here...) BLOWING CHUNKS Jaguar commercial! What
a riot. That commercial got the biggest response from the crowd,
every time it was run (usually once every half-hour). Guess who
laughed the hardest...the PARENTS of the rabid gamers, that's who! In
addition, I saw the wonderful LYNX commercial ('talking LYNX
screen"), and the '64th floor' ad, too. But the 'chunks' got 'em
every time!
All display kiosks had three 13" TV's running RF pictures and a
controller and game description with basic game instruction. The SNES
and Sega displays sometimes had 3rd party controllers to use. Kiosks
were set up by gaming category (sports, action/adv., RPG,
pre-teen...) and the 'big boys' 3D0 and Atari right next to each
other! Potential fireworks ahead, I could see...!
Armed with my JAG CES pin, I carefully hid in the shadows of the
16-bit kiosks, to see reactions to the JAG and 3D0. The 3D0 display
was showing Crash & Burn, Total Eclipse, and their golfing game. The
JAG had CyberMorph, Crescent Galaxy and lo, and behold TEMPEST 2000!
Screw the 'scientific observation' and "..hey, kid...you're Mom's
calling ya...and get outta my way! I wanna play T2K!!" I'm tellin'
ya, T2K blew EVERYONE away! Most of the parents and older gamers knew
what it was right away. Younger gamers were just plain stunned or
dazed and confused ("...hey man, how do you do the 'finishing move',
huh?") by the game.
Although CM got lots of playtime by everyone (after I had the
security people tighten up the loose controller cable...), you
couldn't believe who wouldn't BUDGE from watching and playing
Crescent Galaxy. All the dear ol' Dads, that's who. After waltzing
around waiting for 'Jr.' to hurry up and finish, they would usually
gravitate back to Crescent Galaxy and "ooh" and "ahh", then jump in at
the next opening. Even my 12 yr. old nephew and his 'Mortal Kombat'
veteran pals jockeyed for position to cop a play.
I have to hand it to EGM. They did a very nice job of packaging,
display and were very fair of their treatment of both 3D0 and ATARI.
Too bad there wasn't any literature or hand-outs to be had. A dozen
or so people wondered where I got my 'cool' Jaguar pin (by the way,
THANKS again, Don...); it's lucky I didn't wear my T-shirt. Our few
local ATARI dealers could have had a field day in sales and promo.
If this tour comes to your area, check it out. It was a real treat
and worth admission just to play T2K!!
Oh yeah, Total Eclipse was fun, too...
___________________________________________
> Atari PR STR AFD InfoFile Avid or ... RABID Software?
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
March 25, 1994
For Immediate Release
TIME WARNER AND ATARI CORPORATION FORM NEW SOFTWARE PUBLISHING FIRM
Sunnyvale Ca.--Atari Corporation today announces a new software firm in
collaboration with Time Warner, Inc.. Avid Software, Incorporated will
commence operations within the next thirty (30) days. Space will be
provided initially within the executive suites of Atari Corporation in
Sunnyvale, California. A development lab will also be established at the
Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The two facilities will be
linked by high technology satellite WATTS services for real time software
development. Warner Bros. will focus on story lines and intense animated
graphics. The operation in Sunnyvale will assemble the hardware-based and
software-based graphics engines as well as game play models and
prototypes.
The new operation is announced just months following Atari Corporation's
successful launch of a new 64-bit gaming system dubbed the Jaguar. Avid
Software will dedicate 100% of development time for the first year
exclusively to the Atari Jaguar platform. Although core development teams
have been assembled for the Avid Software project, executive decisions
will be made by Mr. Sam Tramiel, President of Atari Corporation, until a
permanent executive staff has been selected. A panel assembled by Time
Warner will review all long range goals every ninety (90) days.
The first four software titles to be developed by Avid Software and
scheduled to be released within the fourth quarter of 1994 have also been
announced. They promise a unique blend of realistic digitized graphics,
powerful high-definition animations, unique gaming plots and topical
story lines.
HARDING FALLS(tm)--- Just outside of Portland, Oregon a small
unincorporated town adopts a new name; Harding Falls. Made popular by a
local young girl who fought her way to the '94 Winter Games, the town
unites to launch a new young starlet on to a promising athletic career.
Harding Falls is where it all begins. Local challengers test all of
their physical savvy against each other for overall performance virtues.
Players pre-select their character from an arsenal of determined
challengers. Each stage consists of a practice session in which a
complete skating routine must be rehearsed. Obstacles such as untied
skates, boos from the crowd and irate family members distract your
performance. With each small win, a weapon toward victory is awarded for
use during the performance levels. Sometimes it might be deadly capped
teeth. Other times it may be a stick or a steel club. Play against
64-bits of automated power or one-on-one with an aggressive challenger by
your side; either way you either win
gold or cry your way back to Harding Falls to try all over again.
Cartridge-based game features hidden secrets, multi-player action, high
resolution graphics and a five dollar coupon toward the purchase of "The
Club".
WARNER'S STUNT SPECTACLES(tm)--- With so many action games designed to
fight and kill opponents, Warner Bros. calls upon their army of stunt
professionals to reveal their best kept secrets of staying alive. Take a
125-level backstage studio tour through Warner Bros. hottest action films
such as Superman, FreeJack, Batman Returns, The Last Boy Scout and The
Fugitive. Race through high definition scenes of your favorite films and
pick up props such as breakaway chairs and candy glass bottles. Battle
friendly adversaries, but don't hurt them... after all, they are really
your friends. Pick up the wrong prop as a weapon and you may kill your
supporting actor and lose your part in the greatest film ever made. Don't
lose your union card! This fast paced, action game includes the thrills
of thrillers and the secrets of a great mystery. The ultimate object is
to win without hurting anyone, but don't think for a moment there is no
blood! One player action. Cartridge-based game includes a $5 off coupon
for select Warner Bros. videos.
BOBBY BOBBIT AND FRIENDS(tm)--- Here's an animated interactive cartoon
for adults only! At first glance, it looks harmless enough... Bobby
Bobbit is a bouncy bunny that likes to make friends. Collect points by
finding carrots and hidden treasures. Unlike most treasures, though,
Bobby doesn't want to collect coins and tokens. He collects shears, razor
blades and carving knives. Usually Bobby's friends help find treasures,
but sometimes his friends get too rough and Bobby must take corrective
action! Game includes vivid cartoon violence unlike any other you have
ever seen. Let's just say it's a Saturday morning cartoon that will
increase attendance at Sunday Mass.
FOOL'S REVENGE(tm)--- A new concept in virtual world gaming, Fool's
Revenge is a hardware and software based interactive entertainment
package. Included is a unique, direct connect mini printer which installs
to the second joypad port of the Atari Jaguar 64-bit gaming system. The
cartridge-based program includes over 200 megabytes of compressed text
and 2 megabytes of graphic icons. World headlines and events are changing
everyday. You and your opponents review your options. At risk is your
dignity and pride and the prize is a lot of laughs. For one player to an
entire family. Look another bogus press release on the mini printer! Did
you fall for that one too?
Products named are properties of their owning companies. Text and concept
(c)1994, Artisan Software. (209) 239-1552.
### END ###
________________________________
> Atari PR STR AFD InfoFile
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
March 32, 1994
For Immediate Release
JAGUAR OWNERS "EXPOSED" TO BOGUS PRESS RELEASE
Members dismember each other (overstated) over ethics debate -
alleged tainted press release blamed (not true, bogus subhead)
Allover, US-- An unnamed source (unsubstantiated) today reported that
users of the popular 64-bit Atari Jaguar gaming system have banned
together (typed online messages) in an effort to discredit the
infamous "bogus" press release just days before the dreaded April
Fools holiday is to be celebrated throughout the world (run on
sentence-hate 'em!).
Unlike a bug that cripples a computer until the entire system can be
re-boot, the sinister press release causes unusual chemicals to form
in the brain (lions and tigers and bear a thought, oh my!). Dr. Ima
Knotheir (alias) of the Institute of Preventive Thinking (I.P.T.)
states that while "some (most everyone) finds some humor as the
feared press release propagates over the networks, clear laboratory
study (personal opinion) of those who are without brains indicate
there is no humor in anything classified as funny." Dr. Knotheir was
unable to indicate a direct association of his study to the specific
press release that launched this one, however.
In support of the doctor's findings, Jaguar owners have launched an
attack against any and all bogus press release that contain
misinformation. Within six weeks, a committee will be formed to
establish a panel that will elect a professional staff to advise a
supervisory board for a new team of advisors to appoint a cabinet to
determine whether a bogus press release may contain accurate
information (Government funding is anticipated). In the interim, all
bogus press releases must be labeled to contain artificial
ingredients which have been known to cause brain activity by the
I.P.T. (huh?)
In their first official action, the Jaguars Owners Bogus Press
Release Action Committee has classified this bogus press release to
be impounded and not read. In compliance with this declaration, the
following statement has been appended for your safety:
IMPORTANT: DO NOT READ THIS!
Products named are properties of their owning companies. Text and concept
(c)1994, Artisan Software. (209) 239-1552 DUH!
### END ###
________________________________________________________
> ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PEOPLE... ARE TALKING
=====================
On CompuServe
-------------
compiled by
Joe Mirando
Hidi ho friends and neighbors... well the countdown continues. Less
than a month till my wedding. Needless to say, things are getting
hectic. This is the main reason that I've put off getting married for
so long... I hate to be rushed.
At any rate, even though I'll be changing street addresses, my e-mail
addresses will be the same. Now, since time is getting short, let's get
on with all the great hints, tips, and news available every week on good
old CompuServe. Well, let's get busy.
From the Atari Productivity Forum
=================================
Woody Windischman posts:
"I just popped in for ol' time's sake, but wasn't it TOS 1.4 that
added "true" PC floppy formatting capability to the STs? Also, DR-DOS
3.4 could read ST format disks directly, (even single sided, if I
remember correctly), that *may* have carried over into the newer
editions.
Plus, if the PC is on an older version of DOS, the Format command will
need to use /N:9/T:80 instead of /F:720."
Sysop Bob Retelle replies to Woody:
"I didn't know about DR DOS being able to read TOS formatted
diskettes.. I looked into what the problems were with regular MS-DOS a
long time ago, and it looked like it would be easy to avoid the
troubles.. I guess DR DOS just ignored the problem bytes on an ST
disk...
Yes, you're right.. the format routines in TOS 1.4 and higher are
supposed to be DOS compatible now. Usually when PC folks are involved
though, it's just a lot easier to suggest they format on the PC,
instead of confusing them with trying to figure out what TOS version
the ST side of the equation is running.."
Woody tells Bob:
"...I once asked a DRI rep about that, and they said that it was
because DR-DOS used the FAT rather than boot record to determine how to
read the disk."
John Feagans adds:
"DR DOS and TOS came out of the same brain trust. The only
explanation why someone didn't notice the compatibility problems sooner
was that the ST was an early user of 3 1/2" and there weren't that many
PC's around with other than 5 1/4" drives. Besides, how could we
justify buying a PC for the TOS group?<grin>"
Paul Peeraerts posts:
"I own a Mega 4 which has only one serial port. As I have several
peripherals, I regularly have to plug in different cables. To avoid
damage to the serial port (and to make my life easier) I have bought a
Manhattan date transfer switch.
Now I see many strange things:
1) My fax program won't work anymore. When sending a fax, as soon as
normally the Off Hook light goes on, now I receive the message "line
occupied".
2) When someone tries to reach my computer in order to send some
files, my modem goed off hook but immediately afterwards there is a NO
CARRIAGE message.
When I remove the serial port switch, eveything works again.
First I thought that maybe in the switch not all 25 pins were
connected, but I have checked that out.
Does anyone have any suggestions?"
Sysop Bob Retelle asks Paul:
"Is the switch you're using one of the newer "automatic" switches, or
is it a manual switch where you have to turn a knob to change the
inputs..?
If the latter, and you've verified that all 25 lines are connected and
switched, I can't think of any reason it wouldn't work properly.. I
use an "A-B" switch to switch my modem between my ST and PC, and it
works OK."
Paul tells Bob:
"It is a simple manual A-B switch...
Until now I have only checked that the input side of line 1 is really
connected to its output side, line 2 to 2. etc. You only need to check
25 connections to find that out. But could it be that somewhere one
input line is connected to two output lines or vice versa? I don't know
how many different combinations are possible, but probably a few
thousand. Could this be the reason?..."
Bob tells Paul:
"There should only be one connection between any two pins at one time
on the switchbox..
That is, pin 2 on the input side, which ever one you have selected
with the switch, should go to pin 2 on the output side, and ONLY to
pin 2.
I had wondered if it might be possible that the switch is defective,
and isn't passing all the signals through, but if you've checked the
continuity on all 25 pins, that can't be the problem.
Did you have to make any changes in the types of cables you're using
(male/female ends, that is) when you added the switchbox, or does it
fit into the same cables you'd been using before..?
Sometimes I know it's necessary to use different cables or adapters,
depending on the actual connecors on the switchbox, and that adds
another possible point of failure...."
Arwel Parry asks:
"This is something you've probably all sorted out a long time ago, but
please bear with a new user :-)
I use FzDS to access Compuserve from my 1040 STE, but when I try to
download anything from Compuserve I keep getting NAK errors,regardless
of what I try to use to download (XMODEM or YMODEM). Normally I use
ZMODEM with BBS's, but CIS seems to be a bit behind the times!
I asked feedback for advice, and they came up with changing the parity
to 8N1 from 7E1, but when I do that the screen is garbled and I quickly
get lost! There must be a better way surely? I'm desperate to get an
OLR for CIS, 'cos it's costing me a fortune to do everything online!
:-("
Sysop Keith Joins tells Arwel:
"Look under the RS-232 Configurations and select terminal. Choose the
Strip the 7th Bit option and this should clear up the garbage you are
getting while logging on at 8n1."
The meek and mild Lloyd Pulley posts:
"Get out the smelling-salts, people are going to start fainting around
here! I'm actually going to ask an Atari computer question!! (I'm so
used to only posting in Hot Topics that it feels strange to post here
<g>).
My friend who bought a PC/clone got a Gemulator yesterday (so far he's
very pleased with it). He came over today to get a bunch of stuff that
he'd gotten rid of when he got rid of his system - ARCShell, ZIP, etc.,
etc. There were a lot of p/d PageStream fonts that he wanted (he still
had his original PS disk bu
t dumped all of the extra fonts).
We're talking about 10-12 megs (zipped) of stuff, so he brought me
over a box of his 1.44 floppies to use (TDK I believe). I'd always
thought that you could use 1.44 floppies on 720k drives, but not vice
versa. But I had nothing but trouble with them. My normal reliable
external drive I've never had anyone who couldn't read a disk
formatted/wrote-to on that drive) wouldn't write to them at all - but
it would format them and show no errors though. However, my internal
drive would format and write to them (normally I don't trust it as far
as I can spit it - I use it to speed up booting-up and that's it). I
used DCFormat to do all of my formatting - pc mode/80 track/9
sector/noral.
When my friend gt the disks home his system would recognize them okay
- but he couldn't unzip them. He kept getting 'read' errors. Sometimes
part of the file would unzip but not the rest, sometimes none of the
file would unzip. And in a few cases, all of the file would unzip. (I
still have the original files on my hard drive and all test out okay -
so they were okay up to the point they went on the disk). [Note: For
the first 3-4 disks, I tested them by copying everything back off of
them - just to make sure they were okay. All tested okay here.]
More background - I've given him tons of stuff on 720k disks
(formatted the same way, with the same drives) and he has NO problems
reading or unzipping those. So I have to assume it's something to do
with the 1.44 meg floppies. Is there a way for my system to
format/write to them that is dependable?
BTW, even though my internal drive would format/write to the disks, It
would not recognize a disk change (normally it does). I had to do a
reset after writing to each disk before I could write to another
one.Also, I noticed when doing the reset that my system was 'dirty' -
i.e., on my system if I get a bunch of colored lines/bars while
resetting, I know that it was really corrupted and I need to turn the
system off to reset it - a normal keyboard cold reset won't clean up
the system. <confused <g>> So something about writing to these disks
was corrupting my system. Any suggestions?"
Sysop Jim Ness tells Lloyd:
"The material used on HD floppies is different, and the heads used in
the HD drive are smaller and more sensitive. The combination sometimes
makes it an HD drive. use an HD floppy on a low density drive, nd have
it readable on
However, if your friend wants to spend the money on another box of
disks, using low density floppies in a high density drive always works,
especially if he formats them in his own drive.
I have a 486, about 8 inches from my Mega, and that's what I do to
transfer files back and forth."
Frank Hense jumps in and posts:
"If you are going to format 1.44 to 720 I think you have to cover the
left hole with a write protect tab or something. The least troublesome
way is to format on the PC. Tho windows files manager will read some
goofy Atari formats that DOS will not read. 80/10 etc...
Dumb question LLoyd but what Zipper aroo is he using on the PC???
maybe it won't handle the 2.4/2.3 stuff...."
Sysop Bob Retelle adds:
"Frank, actually that trick of covering the extra hole in a 1.44Mb
floppy disk is only necessary when trying to format a High Density disk
to 720K in *certain* 1.44 Meg drives...
If you're formatting on a 720K drive, the drive doesn't know about the
extra hole anyway...
You're right though, the simplest way is to just format on the PC..!"
Sysop Bob Retelle asks Lloyd:
"Had the high density disks ever been formatted as HD before you tried
to use them in your Atari drives...?
The problems of differng media types, different head sizes and
different track positoning generally is only a problem on 5 1/4 inch
floppies.. a HD 3.5 inch drive achieves its higher density by doubling
the clock speed and thus the data rate to the recording head, which
allows twice as many sectors of data to be put on a track. I've heard
a lot of different reports of whether or not there's any eal difference
in the media or recording process between HD and DD on a 3.5 inch
drive, but it's generally accepted that the HD mode uses a higher
recording current through the head to make the flux reversals on the
disk surface stronger, and thus more readable at the higher data rate.
What that MAY mean is that if the disks had been formatted as HD
before, an ST might not be able to correctly reformat them... if they'd
never been used before, then um.. I dunno..!"
Dan Danilowicz tells us about his (and our) worst nightmare:
"I've done it this time... I copied a DESKTOP.INF file to my hard
drive, thinking that it would give me the color and everything else I
liked when I booted using the disk. Wrong. It seems that now the
computer doesn't see the HD anymore, as in No More Drive C Icon! What
do I do now? Please don't tell me to re-format the HD, I haven't had it
long enough to back it up. Your pal, the ST Klutz."
Boris Molodyi tells Dan:
"If you have copied the DESKTOP.INF from the floppy, where it did not
have the harddrive icon, it will not show up, until you actually
install the C: drive.
Since you mention DESKTOP (rather than NEWDESK) INF file, you have an
older TOS. YOU need to install the drive C: (I think it's Install Drive
command in the desktop's menus; check the manual), and when the C: icon
appears, place it where you want it and re-save the DESKTOP.INF file."
Dan tells Boris:
"Well, I did what you said. It worked, sorta. I was very relieved to
see the HD files come up when I double-clicked on the re-installed C
drive, so I saved the configuration. NOW when I go through the HD
boot-up sequence, I get the dreaded Row of Bombs across the screen.
Another fine mess... any way out of this one? What did I do wrong?"
Boris replies:
"Hmm, that's weird... Do you get bombs before or after the hard disk
driver's notice? Both Atari's and ICD's (and I believe others as well)
drivers print some things on the screen when booting. If you have bombs
after this messages, than it might be a problem with your DESKTOP.INF
file (or any number of AUTO programs or accessories...). If you have
bombs before the messages (hmm, actually you would not get any
messages, then), then the hard disk driver might be suspected."
Our own Atari Section Editor, Dana (where the heck is that review)
Jacobson, tells Dan:
"If you've done what I think you've done (over-wrote your original
DESKTOP.INF file), just click on one of the floppy drive icons, and go
to the drop down menu at the top of the screen and select install.
Just type 'C' at the prompt and you should get your 'C' hard drive icon
back again. If you had other partitions, just repeat the process for
those as well."
Carl Barron tells Dan:
"Single click on either the A or B drive Icon. [Tos 1.x this is] Select
install from the options menu. Enter the drive C on the line and Click
on install. Defaults to cancel. Place the Icons where you want them
and save the desktop."
Mike Mortilla tells Dan:
"Others have made suggestions so here's my 2 cents...
Boot up with the HD connected. Run the HD driver (AHDI.PRG) and
install the C icon (upper case as lower case is for the cart only) and
then double click on the C icon. It should show you the HD C partition.
Now delete that damn INF file that got you into this mess. Configure
the desktop and save it. You should be back in business."
Dan tells Mike:
"If I start up the hard drive first and let it get to speed, as I'm
supposed to, and fire up the computer (I mean turn it on), I get the
bombs going across the screen. That happens no matter what disk is in
drive A when I flip the switch on. If the HD is off, the computer
operates just fine, with of course no drive C icon appearing anywhere.
If I try to Install Drive C after turning on the HD second, I get a
Doesn't Exist message. This looks like the old rock and a hard place
situation, doesn't it? This current nightmare is playing on a recently
acquired used 1040STe (stock, I believe) hooked-up to an unlabeled 20
meg Atari HD."
Boris Molodyi gives Dan another thing to try:
"Try booting the compuer first, with the HD turned off. Then turn on
the HD, and when it speeds up, run AHDI.PRG. After that, if you can
access the C: partition, configure your desktop the way you want to
and resave the DESKTOP.INF file to the C: drive. You may also try
reinstalling the driver (with HDX.PRG) if the crashes repeat.
You may also want to check that there is no conflict between different
AUTO programs and desk accessories."
Merrick Stemen posts:
"I have recently completed graphis viewers for PI?, T?, NEO, SPS, SPC,
PC1, and SEQ files for IBM computers with VGA! QBASIC source code is
available. If you have an IBM, and would like to have viewers for
these formats, feel free to download them from either the AtariArts
forum or the GraphSupport forum!"
Geez, this must be the STReport Editor Participation Week (actualy,
every week is STReport Editor Participation Week)! Our own dear, sweet,
teddy bear of an Editor-in-Chief, Ralph Mariano, tells Merrick:
"I did try your viewers they all work quite well. Now, if they would
only _convert_ the files being viewed to say, PCX, GIF etc.. I'd be
willing to bet there's a bunch of ex-Atarians who'd just love to
contribute to a shareware fee so they (we) could once again use and
enjoy some of the "old faithful" graphics and clipart we all held on to
in hopes of such a program. Please?"
Sysop Bob Retelle tells Ralph:
"One thing that's worked pretty well to convert ST format files to GIFs
for me has been to run a TSR "screen snapshot" program before loading
the ST file viewer, then "snapping" the screen to disk once the picture
is fully displayed.
A couple of ones I've tried that seemed to work pretty well from the
IBM and Graphics forums have been VGACAP and SCREEN THIEF
(This also works for balky .IFF format pictures from the Amiga world
that won't convert otherwise, and for MAC format pics that can
otherwise only be viewed...)"
Chief Sysop Ron Luks tells Merrick:
"We really appreciate the viewers you've uploaded. In fact, I've just
purchased my own PC (a laptop) and I plan on downloading and using
most of your viewers very shortly.
A number of PC users ahve asked for just such a program and I wanted to
thank you personally for uploading them."
Bruce Ross asks for help:
"I had an Atari 128 (8-bit) computer and made many disks-full of
sermons, lessons, information, etc. Now I have an IBM-compatible, 286
CPU computer. I am wondering if anyone knows of a piece of software
that will convert Atari ASCII into ASCII readable by a DOS-based
program (WordStar)."
Frank Hense tells Bruce:
"You don't mention still having an Atari computer--that's almost
mandatory to do what you want. Either an 8-bit or the ST. If you still
have an ST and can input the data some how through a 5 1/4" floppy
drive an old utility called DCOPY may do what you want. Also you can
load those old Atariwriter files into STwriter and print to disk or
save in ASCII.
However between the two computers, that would be through a null modem
cable."
Well folks, that's it for this time around. Be sure to tune in again
next week (same time, same station) and be ready to listen to what they
are saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
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STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON"
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> A "Quotable Quote" "BOING!!!!" WHAT'D HE SAY?? WHA??
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"IF WE DO NOT SUCCEED.....
....WE RUN THE RISK OF FAILURE."
....Dan "PotatoHead" Quayle
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> DEALER CLASSIFIED LIST STR InfoFile * Dealer Listings *
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ---------------
ABCO Incorporated
=================
P.O. Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida 32221-6155
Est. 1985
1-904-783-3319
1994 SPRING SPECIALS NOW IN EFFECT!
------------------------
ABCO manufactures custom storage devices!
INTEL 32 BIT 486/66, w/Math CoProcessor Tower
(HAS ZIF SOCKET) PLUG-IN UPGRADABLE (easy)
4MB ram upgradable to 32MB 1MB SVGA VESA VIDEO CARD
Sound Blaster Compatible Stereo Sound Card
DOS 6.2 - Windows for Workgroups 3.11 Included
128K CACHE - 1.44/1.2 FLOPPY Drives, Mouse & 101 deluxe Keyboard
250MB IDE hd - 2 SERIAL, 1 PARALLEL, 1 GAME PORTS
250W POWER SUPPLY TOWER SYSTEM
14" Non-Interlaced SVGA 1024x768, 28dpi Monitor
33Mhz ver. S&H Incl 1695.00
695.00 with order, balance COD
other higher powered packages available
or, design your own! Call for value added pricing!
Call: 904-783-3319 Anytime, Voice Mail
=====******=====
Syquest Removable 44-105-270mb SCSI Drives
All Size Platters Available
Diamond Speed Star 24x SVGA/VGA Video Card w/1mbVRAM
Diamond Stealth & Viper 1mb & 2mb - Call for prices
Enhances Windows SPEED and EFFICIENCY
Diamond High Performance Sound Cards Available
Soundblaster Cards and compatibles 8 & 16 bit
Pro Audio Spectrum STUDIO 16 - 16bit - Midi - Audio Recognition
Top of the Media Vision PAS Line - True Multi-Media
IDE Super IO cards & 16550 UART 2 & 4 Port Cards
Call: 904-783-3319 Anytime, Voice Mail
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
COMPUTER STUDIO
===============
WESTGATE SHOPPING CENTER
40 Westgate Parkway -Suite D
Asheville, NC 28806
1-800-253-0201
Orders Only
1-704-251-0201
Information
FULL LINE COMPUTER DEALER
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EAST HARTFORD COMPUTER
======================
202 Roberts St.
East Hartford CT. 06108
1-203-528-4448
FULL LINE COMPUTER DEALER
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
MEGABYTE COMPUTERS
==================
907 Mebourne
Hurst, TX 76053
1-817-589-2950
FULL LINE COMPUTER DEALER
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SAN JOSE COMPUTER
=================
1278 Alma Court
San Jose, CA. 95112
1-408-995-5080
FULL LINE COMPUTER DEALER
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CompuSeller West
================
220-1/2 W. Main St.
St. Charles, IL., 60174
Ph. (708) 513-5220
FULL LINE COMPUTER DEALER
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
(DEALERS; to be listed here FREE of Charge, please drop us a line.)
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STReport International Online Magazine
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STR Online! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" April 01, 1994
Since 1987 copyright (c) 1987-94 All Rights Reserved No.1014
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
All Items quoted, in whole or in part, are done so under the provisions
of The Fair Use Law of The Copyright Laws of the U.S.A. Views, Opinions
and Editorial Articles presented herein are not necessarily those of the
editors/staff of STReport International Online Magazine. Permission to
reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints
must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue
number and the author's name. STR, STReport and/or portions therein may
not be edited in any way without prior written permission. STR, STReport,
at the time of publication, is believed reasonably accurate. STR,
STReport, its staff and contributors are not and cannot be held
responsible in any way for the use or misuse of information contained
herein or the results obtained therefrom.
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