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Silicon Times Report Issue 1121
SILICON TIMES REPORT
====================
INTERNATIONAL ONLINE MAGAZINE
=============================
from
STR Electronic Publishing Inc.
A subsidiary of
STR Worldwide CompNews Inc.
May 26, 1995 No. 1121
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Silicon Times Report
International OnLine Magazine
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> 05/26/95 STR 1121 "The Original * Independent * OnLine Magazine!"
"""""""""""""""""
- CPU Industry Report - Frankie's Corner - Wizard Revealed
- Corel Office - TCP/IP & CIS - The WEB & HTML
- Creative Schoolhouse - QUAD DRIVE CD - PSINet & Creative
- E3 Reports - People Talking - Jaguar NewsBits
-* MICROSOFT NEARS WIN95 RELEASE! *-
-* MICROSOFT DROPS INTUIT DEAL! *-
-* NEW MAC TITLES FROM MS! *-
==========================================================================
STReport International OnLine Magazine
The Original * Independent * OnLine Magazine
-* FEATURING WEEKLY *-
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Hardware - Software - Corporate - R & D - Imports
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> From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""
Memorial Day Weekend... a time to remember, a time to pray and a time
to celebrate. We can thankfully remember the monumental victories the
members of our Armed Forced won to preserve the freedoms and liberties the
citizens of this country continue to enjoy. We can pray to the Lord
begging that these battles never need be fought again and at the same
time, offer thanks. We do celebrate the holiday in solemn remembrance of
those who bravely fought on the world's battlefields to preserve our way
of life while forever paying homage to those who gave their lives in the
fight for freedom and liberty for all.
Please, if your celebrations include libations, appoint a designated
driver. May all of us long remember the real significance and meaning of
the Memorial Day Weekend.
Of Special Note:
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STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU!
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Publisher -Editor
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Ralph F. Mariano
Lloyd E. Pulley, Editor, Current Affairs
Section Editors
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PC SECTION AMIGA SECTION MAC SECTION ATARI SECTION
---------- ------------- ----------- -------------
R.D. Stevens R. Niles J. Deegan D. P. Jacobson
STReport Staff Editors:
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Melanie Bell Jay Levy Jeff Kovach
Marty Mankins Carl Prehn Paul Charchian
Contributing Correspondents:
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Dominick J. Fontana Norman Boucher Clemens Chin
Eric Jerue Ron Deal Mike Barnwell
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> STR INDUSTRY REPORT LATE BREAKING INDUSTRY-WIDE NEWS
"""""""""""""""""""
Computer Products Update - CPU Report
------------------------ ----------
Weekly Happenings in the Computer World
Issue #21
Compiled by: Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
******* General Computer News *******
>> Microsoft Nears Final Win95 Disk <<
Microsoft Corp. apparently now is very near to having a "gold disk" -
- the final version of a program sent to manufacturing -- of its much-
anticipated Windows 95 operating system.
Completion is "very close," general manager Brad Chase of Microsoft's
personal systems group commented as executives gathered in New York to
preview the system. "It's just fixing compatibility bugs ... both soft-
ware and hardware."
Chase is quoted as predicting Windows 95 will break every industry
sales record after its launch, still scheduled for Aug. 24.
"It's all compatibility," group manager Russ Stockdale said, "to make
sure it works with the broadest base available. This is extremely close
to what we will ship."
As noted, Windows 95 has a new user interface replacing its current
Program Manager icon where most user applications reside. The Win95
startup screen has new options:
-:- My Computer.
-:- Network Neighborhood.
-:- Recycle Bin (where deleted documents are temporarily stored).
-:- An Inbox.
-:- A sign-up option for Microsoft's online service, The Microsoft
Network. The interface also can be customized to include, for
example, Shortcut files that are often used.
Another feature is multitasking ability, through a task bar at the
bottom of the screen that tells users how many programs are running.
Users can click from one program to the next "like switching television
channels," Microsoft said.
Noting earlier trade press reports of problems with this feature,
Chase said, "There were some bugs in multitasking and there was some
misreporting. The multitasking is much better than in Windows 3.1."
Microsoft also plans to offer a program called Microsoft Plus, to
take advantage of higher powered PCs, including browser software called
Internet Explorer for using Internet's hypertexted World Wide Web area.
Chase declined to specify Microsoft's advertising budget for the up-
coming launch, saying only, "Windows 95 will be the largest product ever
launched in this industry."
>> Ziff Offers New Internet Magazine <<
To go up against CMP Publications' NetGuide monthly and the new
Virtual City magazine Newsweek has announced, Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.
says it is launching a new quarterly to be called ZD Internet Life.
Bill Machrone, ZD's vice president of technology and a columnist for
its PC Week weekly newspaper, will be editor-in-chief of the magazine.
Machrone commented in a statement that other Ziff-Davis publications,
which include PC Magazine and Computer Life, experience a jump in sales
whenever the Internet is a cover story and, "while our existing
publications can't feature the net in every issue, that is Internet
Life's mission."
>> Time Warner Sets SD Operation <<
Time Warner's Warner Music Group and Warner Home Video say they have
formed Advanced Media Operations, a manufacturing and marketing unit
that will pioneer the production of Super Density (SD) Optical Discs.
The emerging format carries 270 minutes of video in the MPEG II
standard, as well as music, interactive games and other applications.
The new unit will manufacture a line of discs for the consortium of
17 consumer electronics and entertainment firms known as the SD-
Alliance. These firms have agreed to support the digital video disc
format originally developed by Toshiba and Time Warner.
>> Hyundai to Build Oregon Plant <<
South Korea's Hyundai Electronics Industries Co. Ltd. says it will
build a new semiconductor fabrication plan in Eugene, Oregon, to be in
operation by the end of 1998.
Officials with Hyundai, which bought NCR Microelectronics from AT&T
earlier this year, say the plant will have the capacity to process
30,000 eight-inch wafers a month and will initially make 16MB and 64MB
memory chips.
The U.S. was chosen for the company's first major overseas plant
because the market is the largest in the world and also has the most
advanced chip-making technology.
Hyundai currently operates two chip fabrication plants in South
Korea, with another due for completion by the end of the year, when they
will have a combined capacity to process 55,000 eight-inch wafers a
month.
>> HP Offers Medical Handheld Unit <<
The handheld Palmvue wireless mobile unit has been unveiled by
Hewlett-Packard Co. to allow doctors to see the vital signs of a patient
in an emergency so they could make a diagnosis without having to be at
the patient's side.
Reports from HP's headquarters say PalmVue includes patient monitors,
its HP 200LX palmtop computer and existing paging technology to link
physicians outside the hospital to critical-care patients.
The company said the system is available immediately and is priced at
less than $25,000. "The standard configuration includes one dispatch
station with modem, five HP palmtop computers pre-loaded with PalmVue
OmniCare critical-care application software, an HP LaserJet 4L printer,
training and installation."
Also, HP said it will unveil PalmVue ECGstat this fall, an applic-
ation which will allow cardiologists to receive and review a standard
12-lead ECG, a record of electrical activity of the heart, taken by an
HP cardiograph.
>> Microsoft Unveils Mac Titles <<
Microsoft Corp. has unveiled several new multimedia titles for
Macintosh computers.
The products include the Microsoft Encarta '95 multimedia encyclope-
dia; the Microsoft Bookshelf '95 CD-ROM reference library; and
Scholastic's The Magic School Bus Explores, an interactive science
adventure series. Also in the line-up are The Ultimate Frank Lloyd
Wright, an investigation of the noted architect's life and work; 500
Nations, an exploration of Native American culture; Microsoft Wine
Guide; and Microsoft Ancient Lands, an examination of lost
civilizations.
The titles are scheduled to become generally available between June
and this Fall at prices ranging from $39.95 to $99.95.
>> HP Cuts Notebook Prices 20% <<
Hewlett-Packard has cut prices on its notebook computers by up to
20%. This brings the suggested retail price of its basic OmniBook 4000
model down to $2,418. The move aims to match price cuts by several
competitors.
Reports say that HP launched its first notebook last fall, joining a
marketplace dominated by Apple, AST, Toshiba, Compaq and IBM. At the
time, HP said it wanted to innovate in areas where there was growth
potential, and that its research showed the small notebook market was
emerging as a major category.
Hewlett-Packard's notebooks contain several innovations including an
instant-on, instant-off function that allows the user to turn the
computer off in the middle of a document and then turn it back on
without losing one's place.
Company officials also said:
-:- Has broadened its family of OmniBook 4000 notebook PCs to match
products offered by Toshiba and Compaq.
-:- Is planning a major move into the field of easy-to-use digital
devices such as handheld communicators to marry the capabilities
of printers and notebook computers. (The firm says it wants to
introduce a $300 handheld organizer with telephone, fax and
printer features later this year.)
>> Brother Raises Printer Costs <<
Prices on Brother International Corp.'s entire printer line and
accessories are being raised, an action the firm says is necessary
because of the weakening dollar against the Japanese yen.
Reports from headquarters of Brother's Printer Products Division,
which offers laser, inkjet and dot matrix printers, say the price hikes
come eight months after the company announced its HL-600 printer series.
That has taken the Number Two market share position behind Hewlett-
Packard Co.
>> New LCD Technology Makes Debut <<
Polaroid Corp. and Motorola Inc. say they have developed a
holographic reflective material that can greatly improves the image
quality of liquid crystal displays (LCD) used in portable computers and
communications devices.
The companies note that their Imagix holographic reflector material
improves image brightness and contrast by a factor of two or three and
eliminates image degradation due to glare. They add that Imagix has the
extra advantage of giving LCDs the appearance of having an internal
source of illumination.
"We believe that this is a revolutionary technology for devices that
use liquid crystal displays and is an affordable feature in products
from watches to laptop computers," says Jeremy Jones, director of
Polaroid's industrial products group. "Several leading LCD
manufacturers, including Optrex, Seiko Epson, and Seiko Instruments,
have been qualified to incorporate this material into their displays."
>> Apple, AT&T Team on Video <<
Desktop video conferencing reportedly will be offered this summer by
a joint project of AT&T and Apple Computer.
Reports say that AT&T will offer the service using Apple's QuickTime
Conferencing, which lets users of Macintosh computers share information,
video and sound with other Macs.
Being able hold a video conference (or share documents) on a desktop
PC rather than a larger unit should make the much-hyped business grow
more rapidly -- and generate more income.
Dataquest multimedia analyst Kathy Klotz says desktop video
conferencing is expected to generate $276 million in revenue worldwide
this year, and will grow to $1.04 billion by 1998.
But watch out, Apple. Company is coming. Intel Corp. already has its
own desktop conferencing product, Proshare, which connects Windows-based
machines. MCI also offers desktop video conferencing.
>> Kasparov Beats the Computer <<
In a rematch in Germany, world chess champion Garry Kasparov regained
some respect in cyberspace this week by defeating the computer that beat
him in September.
The event, heavily promoted by Intel Corp., was held in the Cologne
studios of Westdeutsche Rundfunk, the regional radio and television
network.
Intel says its processor can analyze more than 100,000 positions per
second. Kasparov was under pressure in the first game but came back
after the computer, playing black, sacrificed a solid position to gain a
three-pawn advantage. The second game was a draw, giving Kasparov the
match victory.
Last September in London, Kasparov lost his first clash against the
program, called the Premium Chess Genius 2, then could do no better than
a draw in a second game. The loss eliminated him from the Intel World
Chess Grand Prix, which had a $160,000 grand prize.
In that match, humans held on to the bragging rights. The computer
later was defeated twice by India's Viswanathan Anand, who then lost in
a sudden-death playoff to Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk, another human.
_________________________________________
> Frankie's Corner STR Feature
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
The Kids' Computing Corner
--------------------------
Thinkin' Things Collection 2
Dual-format CD-ROM for IBM and Mac
ages six to twelve
estimated retail $42
Edmark
P.O. Box 3218
Redmond, WA 98073-3218
phone: 206-556-8484
IBM Requirements Mac Requirements
CPU: 386DX-25 CPU: Color Mac or higher
Graphics: 256-color VGA Graphics: 256 colors
Hard disk: 3 megs Hard disk: n/a
RAM: 4 megs Ram: 4 megs, 5 for SYS 7.5
OS: DOS OS: System 6.0.7
CD-rom: Double-speed CD-rom: Double-speed
Sound: MPC compatible sound card
Misc.: a microphone is recommended
By Frank Sereno
In volume 10, issue 51 of Silicon Times, I reviewed the floppy diskette
version of "Thinkin' Things Collection 2." I still consider it one of the
finer and more exciting educational programs that I have reviewed.
"Thinkin' Things 2" doesn't teach children by forcing them to memorize
facts. It instead teaches them how to learn and think by allowing the
children to explore fascinating musical and spatial environments.
TT2 has five activities. The Oranga Banga Band is an exploration of
three-part rhythm. The child can play a game in which he identifies the
band member doing a part in a song by the Oranga Band. The difficulty
level gradually grows with the child's abilities or can be set manually.
The child can also compose original music. These exercises will teach
children rhythm, to read and write rhythm patterns and also enhancing
auditory discrimination.
Toony's Tunes allows children to compose and save original songs on unique
xylophones. Toony also offers a memory game in which the child must
repeat the notes that Toony plays. Difficulty will again increase as the
child gains more skill. Toony's Tunes will aid the development of
auditory memory, listening skills and recognition of musical pitch.
Frippletration is concentration with a twist. Players can choose to play
with audio or visual clues to build auditory or visual memory and
discrimination. The game is for one or two players. The game will
progress from sixteen cards to thirty-six to sixty-four.
2-3D BLOX encourages three-dimensional visualization by having
children work with a variety of rotating 3-D objects. The child can use
the rudimentary painting tools to create artwork which will be instantly
mapped to the rotating shapes, create his own backdrops or he can use the
stock items. Children can make customized shapes by using a lathe tool.
Background music and text can be added to the 3-D masterpiece, which can
be saved for later viewing. The program even provides suggestions to aid
creative thought.
The final activity is Snake BLOX. This activity allows children to layer
background and foreground layers. This creates a perception of depth when
snakes are run under and over the various features. Many tools are
available to create background art. Numerous background music tracks can
be used to create a music video. The Ideas section includes many designs
that will fascinate and inspire the creativity in anyone. Masterpieces
can be saved for later viewing and editing. This activity will enhance
visual analysis and synthesis skills.
TT2 features wonderful graphics and excellent sound. The interface has
full audible help and verbal encouragement in the first three activities.
In the BLOX activities, the child will use the intuitive point-and-click
interface to the explore the many possibilities of creativity. TT2 will
entertain children (and adults) for many hours. The educational value is
excellent. Priced at approximately $40, TT2 offers an outstanding
combination of fun learning activities at a moderate price.
Thinkin' Things 2 CD-ROM has one enhancement over the diskette version of
the program. Edmark Vice President Donna Stanger, an award-winning
software designer, gives a video presentation to parents. The
presentation includes information on learning theories, the learning
objectives of each Thinkin' Things activity, and offers suggestions for
proper parental involvement in computer learning. The information is very
interesting and is beneficial to parent and child.
The diskette and CD-ROM versions have the same retail price. If your
system has a CD-ROM drive, I recommend getting the CD-ROM version. If you
already have the diskette version, contact Edmark for details on costs to
upgrade to the CD-ROM version.
Ratings
Graphics ........... 9.0
Sound .............. 9.5
Interface .......... 9.0
Play Value ......... 9.5
Educational Value ..10.0
Bang for the Buck .. 9.5
Average ............ 9.41
###
I would like to express my condolences to the victims of the Oklahoma City
terrorist attack.
To a small extent, all Americans are victims. The image of the United
States as a free, friendly and safe country has again been tarnished.
Over the past few years we have lost the freedom to walk the streets of
many neighborhoods after dark. In some cities, it is unsafe to sit on a
front stoop or to frolic in a playground in broad daylight. Children can
longer trust a stranger to be friendly. This attack makes it clear that
no one is totally safe anywhere.
An attack of this sort shows the evil and capriciousness of man. But let
us not give in to the fear and the evil. Keep in mind that most likely
only a handful of cowardly individuals were involved in this act of
terror. Instead, remember the hundreds of individuals who risked their
safety to rescue the injured at the site. That bravery and self-sacrifice
is much more typical of the nature of man. The good deeds of many do
outweigh the evil deeds of a few.
I would like remind everyone that there is one small sacrifice that most
of us can make that can be of great importance to others. If you are a
healthy adult, please consider becoming a blood donor. Donating blood
takes about one-half hour, but that contribution can aid several lives.
Most hospitals and trauma units constantly face blood shortages. Your
donation can mean the difference between life and death.
Thank you for reading.
______________________________________________________
> Office Companion STR InfoFile
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
COREL CORPORATION SHIPS COREL CD OFFICE COMPANION
=================================================
Includes extensive libraries, business utilities, plus Internet and fax
software
Ottawa, Canada--May 24, 1995-- Corel Corporation has begun shipping Corel
CD Office Companion for Windows 3.1 and 3.11. Featuring business
graphics, an Internet browser, fax communications, a Personal Information
Manager (PIM), multimedia utilities and system diagnostic software, plus
extensive font, clipart and reference libraries, Corel CD Office Companion
is positioned as the perfect complement to any office suite.
"Corel CD Office Companion is full of value-packed libraries and utilities
and will serve as an indispensable partner for everyone with an office
suite and a CD-ROM drive," said Dr. Michael Cowpland, president and chief
executive officer of Corel Corporation.
Available now, Corel CD Office Companion carries a suggested retail price
of $149 US/$199 CDN. Corporate license pricing is also available. For
further details, please contact Mark Abdelnour at TEL: 613-728-0826 x1668.
Corel CD Office Companion will also have a new technical support plan. For
additional information, see the support plan details that follow.
Corel CD Office Companion includes the following components:
------------------------------------------------------------
CorelFLOW 2.0
-------------
"Drag and Drop" business diagramming and flowcharting software that
features 2000 predefined symbols, more than 30 connector styles, direct
text and line editing, a customizable workspace and a built-in spell
checker.
Corel GALLERY 2
---------------
A powerful multimedia file manager, featuring 15,000 clipart images,
500 TrueType( fonts, 200 photos and 75 sound clips. Also included are
Corel CAPTURE, a flexible screen capture utility, and a TrueType( font
manager that allows for the manipulation of custom font groups.
Corel PLANNER
-------------
A Personal Information Manager that allows users to effortlessly
organize and track their contacts, appointments, to-do's, activities,
notes and more. It features daily, weekly, monthly and yearly planning
calendars, an integrated address book and contact manager, a dedicated
notes section, plus goal and expense tracking capabilities. Corel's PIM is
based on technology licensed from Time Systems Inc., of Phoenix, Arizona.
Time Systems, Inc. has 17 years of paper-based time management and two
years of electronic time management experience.
Corel BOOKCASE
--------------
Features electronic references including the Concise Columbia
Electronic Encyclopedia, Webster's II New Riverside Dictionary, The
Information Please( Almanac, The Information Please( Business Almanac, The
Information Please( Sports Almanac and Simpson's Contemporary Quotations.
Corel BOOKCASE is based on technology licensed from Inso Corporation of
Boston, Massachusetts. Inso is the leading provider of multilingual
software products that help people enhance the quality of their written
communications, provide them with access to information from authoritative
sources and make it easier for them to locate, retrieve and view
information, regardless of format or structure.
CorelFAX
--------
Fax communications software licensed from Mississauga-based 01
Communique Laboratory, Inc. It includes an integrated phone book and
allows users to fax directly from within any Windows application.
Highlights include delayed fax scheduling, the ability to send and receive
faxes in the background, normal and broadcast faxing, and more.
Corel Web Mosaic
----------------
A Genuine Mosaic World Wide Web browser based on technology licensed
from Spyglass, Inc. Features include built-in JPEG and GIF viewers,
direct support for AIFF and AU audio formats, and a hot list/history box
to keep track of users' favorite Web sites. Also includes the Internet
e-mail capabilities of Eudora licensed from QUALCOMM, Inc.
Additional utilities include:
-----------------------------
CD Audio: plays audio CDs on a standard CD-ROM drive.
CD Office Screen Saver: create your personal screen saver using your
favorite photos.
Wallpaper Flipper: changes your wallpaper automatically every time
you start Windows.
Wintune tm 2.0: System diagnostic software from the editors of
WINDOWS( Magazine.
WinDAT WAV File Editor: allows users to record and edit sound clips.
Corel CD Office Companion also features extensive libraries that include
the following:
15,000 clipart images from the Corel GALLERY 2 collection in CMX format.
500 TrueType( fonts from the Corel GALLERY 2 collection.
2000 symbols from the CorelFLOW 2 collection.
75 sound clips from the Corel GALLERY 2 collection.
200 BMP images for use as screen savers or in documents.
700 standard business form letters for a variety of business
correspondence needs.
New Technical Support Plan for Corel CD Office Companion:
---------------------------------------------------------
Corel will offer a free period of technical support on a toll line. This
warranty period is valid for 30 days after the customer places the first
technical support call. The toll line for Corel CD Office Companion
support is 1-407-333-1967. When the initial 30 days of free support have
expired, Corel offers the following options:
a new annual plan on a toll-free line for $99 US.
individual calls at $25 US/$30 CDN.
U.S. customers may call 1-900 896-8880 to access technical support
personnel at a charge of $2.00 per minute.
Corel Corporation
-----------------
Incorporated in 1985, Corel Corporation is recognized internationally as
an award-winning developer and marketer of PC graphics and SCSI software.
CorelDRAW, Corel's industry-leading graphics software, is available in
over 17 languages and has won over 200 international awards from major
trade publications. Corel ships its products through a network of more
than 160 distributors in 60 countries worldwide. Corel is traded on the
Toronto Stock Exchange (symbol: COS) and the NASDAQ--National Market
System (symbol: COSFF).
*CorelFLOW 2 module in Corel CD Office Companion includes all the
functionality of the standalone version of CorelFLOW, but has modified
clipart and photo libraries.
**Corel GALLERY 2 libraries included in Corel CD Office Companion have
been altered in comparison to the standalone version. Photos have been
changed and reduced and video clips have been removed.
All products mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective companies. Corel is a registered trademark of Corel
Corporation. CorelDRAW, CorelFLOW and Corel GALLERY are trademarks of
Corel Corporation.
_____________________________________________
> Internet & CIS STR InfoFile TCP/IP & FTP Information
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
CONNECTING TO COMPUSERVE
USING A CIM PRODUCT
THROUGH THE INTERNET
So, you want to know how to login to CompuServe using a CIM product
through the Internet? Well, this is the file for you. It describes how
to login through a shell account and a TCP/IP connection. Some quick
definitions would probably be a good idea:
Shell Account:
A text-based account. This type of account is typically
accessed using a terminal emulation software package.
They login to an Internet host by providing a User ID
and password like they do when accessing CompuServe and
are usually presented with a command prompt that looks
like ">" or "$".
TCP/IP Connection:
A binary connection to the Internet. Those accessing
this type of account actually ARE an Internet Host - at
least for a short time. This type of connection is
established by using PPP, SLIP, or sometimes a direct
Ethernet connection. CompuServe's Internet Dialer and
WinSOCK are examples of this type of connection.
See the notes at the end of this document for some of the common
problems.
Shell Account
=============
Logging in through a shell account is the same in all versions of CIM
(WinCIM, DOSCIM, MacCIM, and OS2-CIM). The main requirements for
logging in through a shell account is an Internet Network script, and a
Dial Type of Manual. You can get the Internet Network script by
downloading the current scripts from the CSSCRIPTS area. The Manual
dial type is available in WinCIM 1.2, DOSCIM 2.2, MacCIM 2.4, and all
versions of OS2-CIM. It is possible to connect with earlier versions,
but it is much more difficult. Please upgrade to these
minimum versions before attempting this type of connection. It does not
appear to be possible to connect in this manner with CSNav.
1. Set the baud rate in the Connection settings to the baud rate that
you wish to receive information from CompuServe (300, 1200,
2400, 9600, or 14,400 - do NOT set it to any other baud rate - it
will confuse the Internet script).
2. Set the Network setting to "Internet"
3. Set the Dial Type to Manual and select OK to save these settings.
4. Select a GO command or other command that will connect you to
CompuServe - a Manual Connect window will open up.
5. Type any commands into the manual connect window that are necessary
to connect you to your Internet provider. (i.e.: "ATDT" followed by
the phone number to dial, type in your User ID, password, etc.).
6. Connect to CompuServe using the telnet protocol. Telnet must be
setup to disable the escape sequence, and establish a binary (8-bit)
connection. A binary connection is also sometimes called "character
mode"
In many cases, this is done by using the command
telnet -e "" compuserve.com
however, not all versions of telnet support these command line
parameters. You will need to check your local telnet documentation,
(on most systems this can be done by typing "man telnet" at a command
prompt) or contact the Administrator of your Internet provider for
details.
7. When you receive the CompuServe "HOST NAME:" prompt, select the
"Continue" button. The Internet script should take over and finish
the connection.
8. You should now be connected to CompuServe through the Internet.
TCP/IP Connection
=================
Establishing a connection to CompuServe using CIM using a TCP/IP
connection is a bit more complicated, and because every operating
system has a different way to communicate with this of connection, each
of the CIM versions has a different procedure. It is possible to
connect to CompuServe through the Internet with WinCIM, CSNav, OS2-CIM
and MacCIM, however, I know of no way to connect using a TCP/IP
connection using DOSCIM (if you find a way to do this, please let me
know).
WinCIM TCP/IP Connection
------------------------
Requirements:
* Version 1.4 or above of WinCIM. Earlier versions did not support
this type of connection directly. Those using earlier versions
can connect using a tool called ComT which is available in the
Internet Resources forum (GO INETRES). A description of how to
setup WinCIM for use with ComT is included in the ComT
documentation.
* An established Winsock compliant TCP/IP connection.
1. Install the Winsock software as described in the documentation and
establish a connection.
2. Set the baud rate in the Session settings to the baud rate that
you wish to receive information from CompuServe (300, 1200,
2400, 9600, or 14,400 - do NOT set it to any other baud rate - it
will confuse the Internet script).
3. Set the Network setting to "Internet"
4. For the Dial Type, select the "Direct" radio button.
5. For the Connector setting select "WINSOCK"
6. From the Connection Settings dialog select the "LAN..." button.
7. On the WinSock Setting dialog, place "compuserve.com" in the box
labeled "Host Name". Except for extraordinary situations, you
should not provide the Host IP Address. They may optionally set a
Connection Timeout.
8. Select the "OK" button on the WinSock Settings screen.
9. Select the "OK" button on the Session Settings screen.
10.WinCIM is now setup to access CompuServe through the Internet. Simply
select a GO command as if you were using a normal Modem connection.
CSNav TCP/IP Connection
------------------------
Requirements:
* Version 1.1 or above of CSNav. (Earlier versions MAY work by using
the same procedure for WinCIM listed above)
* An established Winsock compliant TCP/IP connection.
1. Install the Winsock software as described in the documentation and
establish a connection.
2. Set the baud rate in the Session settings to the baud rate that
you wish to receive information from CompuServe (300, 1200,
2400, 9600, or 14,400 - do NOT set it to any other baud rate - it
will confuse the Internet script).
3. Set the Network setting to "Internet"
4. For the Dial Type, select the "Direct" radio button.
5. For the Connector setting select "WINSOCK"
6. From the Connection Settings dialog select the "LAN..." button.
7. On the WinSock Setting dialog, place "compuserve.com" in the box
labled "Host Name". Except for extrordinary situations, the you
should not provide the Host IP Address. They may optionally set a
Connection Timeout.
8. Select the "OK" button on the WinSock Settings screen.
9. Select the "OK" button on the Session Settings screen.
10.CSNav is now setup to access CompuServe through the Internet. Simply
run a script as if you were using a normal Modem connection
MacCIM TCP/IP Connection
-------------------------
Requirements:
* Version 2.3.1 or above of MacCIM.
* A Macintosh Communications Toolbox tool installed for Telnet
connections.
* An established TCP/IP connection (usually using MacTCP).
NOTE: The only tool that I am currently aware of and have tested
with MacCIM is the TCPack Demo which is available in the
MacCIM Support Forum.
1. Install the Telnet tool in your Extensions folder by dragging it to
the System Folder.
2. Set the baud rate in the Connection settings to the baud rate that
you wish to receive information from CompuServe (300, 1200,
2400, 9600, or 14,400 - do NOT set it to any other baud rate - it
will confuse the Internet script).
3. Set the Network setting to "Internet"
4. From the "Port" pulldown, select a telnet tool from the list.
5. Select the "Configure" button in the lower right-hand corner of the
Connection Settings dialog. This will bring up the telnet tool's
settings.
6. Configure the telnet tool for a connection to "compuserve.com", and
establish a binary (8-bit) connection, and disable escape sequences.
Then select "OK" to save the telnet settings.
7. Select "OK" on the Connection Settings screen to save these settings.
8. Select a GO command or other command that will connect you to
CompuServe.
9. The telnet tool should connect you to CompuServe, and the Internet
script will log you into CompuServe.
CIM for OS/2 TCP/IP Connection
------------------------------
Requirements:
* Version 2.0 or above of CIM for OS/2.
* Ray Gwinn's comm drivers for OS/2 with Vmodem. Current versions
of this driver are available in the SIO Support section of the
OS/2 B Vendor Forum (GO OS2BVEN).
* IBM's TCP/IP (for OS/2) version 2.0 with August 1994 CSD applied,
or the IBM Internet Access Kit (IAK) supplied with OS/2 Warp.
1. Install the SIO drivers as specified in the included SIO User's Guide
(SIOUSER.TXT). When setup for use with the Internet, this will create
a virtual modem on one or more commport. Questions about
installation should be referred to the SIO Support section of the
OS/2 B Vendor Forum.
2. Set the baud rate in the Session settings to the baud rate that
you wish to receive information from CompuServe (300, 1200,
2400, 9600, or 14,400 - do NOT set it to any other baud rate - it
will confuse the Internet script).
3. Set the Network setting to "Internet"
4. For the Connector setting, select one of the virtual modem ports
that were setup during the installation of the SIO driver. This
will usually be COM3 or COM4.
5. For the Phone number, enter " compuserve.com" (without the quotes).
The space before "compuserve.com" IS important.
6. Select the "Modem..." button.
7. On the Modem Control Strings screen place
ATZ^M
in the Initialize string box.
8. Select the "OK" button on the Modem Settings screen.
9. Select the "OK" button on the Session Settings screen.
10.Establish the TCP/IP connection using the Dialer included with the
Internet Access Kit, or IBM's TCP/IP package. Questions on how to do
this should be referred to the OS/2 Support Forum (GO OS2SUP) or
the Internet Resources forum (GO INETRES).
11.From an OS/2 Command Prompt, startup the VMODEM program. This is a
background program that controls the redirection to the Internet, and
displays status information.
12.WinCIM is now setup to access CompuServe through the Internet. To
Simply
select a GO command as if you were using a normal Modem connection
NOTES
=====
If you receive the error "Unable to Establish Protocol", chances are
that a binary (8-bit) connection is not being established, or escape
sequences are not being disabled.
The default telnet connection is 7-bit, and some versions of telnet do
not have an option to create an 8-bit connection. You will need to
check your documentation and make sure that you can establish an 8-bit
(also known as "character mode") connection to CompuServe.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a tool for transferring files
on the Internet.
FTP uses a standard protocol for file transfer so that you can
exchange files between two computers, no matter their make and type. You
can use FTP to receive files from a remote system or to send files to
remote computers from your desktop.
When using the Internet, you are using a completely different
physical network than the CompuServe network. The CompuServe network is
centralized and uniformly managed. The Internet is maintained
independently at thousands of sites around the world. The reliability,
availability and performance of resources accessed via the Internet are
beyond CompuServe's control and are not warranted or supported by
CompuServe in any way. If many people access a site at the same time,
performance will deteriorate. Be prepared to wait for the remote system
to respond to your requests if you are using it during periods of peak
demand.
While you may use any version of the CompuServe Information Manager
interface to access FTP you will need WinCIM V1.3 or higher, or MacCIM
V2.4 or higher to see the iconic buttons. WinCIM 1.4 and MacCIM 3.0 (when
available) are recommended. Be sure that the "show graphic menus" option
is enabled in the SPECIAL PREFERENCES menu of your CIM software.
This option is enabled by default.
To use this service GO FTP and enter the name of the site you wish to
access or choose from one of the sites on the menu. Once you discover
files you want to download, just mark the box next to the file name. When
you have marked all the files you want to download in one specific
directory, select the download button. You will be prompted for the
location on your own computer where the files will be stored.
_______________________________________
> BLIND FANATICS?? STR Spotlight Destroying Your Constitutional Rights
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
THE DEATH OF THE FOURTH AMENDMENT
=================================
EXCLUSIONARY REFORM ACT OF 1995
HOUSE BILL # 666
"LAWMAKING AT ITS VERY WORST!"
by Ralph F. Mariano
Friends, how deeply horrified were you when you watched the
historical motion picture accounts; "The Holocaust" and "Schindler's
List"?? Did you find it particularly upsetting to see those Gestapo
(German Police) THUGS crashing and busting their way into people's homes
with little or no respect for the rights of the inhabitants and owners of
those homes? How about the way in which the possessions of those folks
was blatantly stolen and liquidated by either the authorities or the
individual officers with impunity?
Well now, then you might agree that the founders of this country had
a good deal more "on the ball" than the simple times they lived in. You
see, they too, were experiencing the very same type of treatment at the
hands of the King of England's Men. Throughout the Colonies the British
Troops would do the same thing in "handling the tax evading colonists".
While they didn't have the concentration camps with their ever present
ovens or gas chambers the Nazi's will long be remembered for, the British
Soldiers wantonly killed any colonist as a rebel for objecting to any type
of unlawful search and/or seizure. Another outrage of the time was
"forced billeting". The Brits would actually force a colonist to take a
number of troops into his/her home to live without compensation to the
colonist.
I swore to myself some time ago that I would not get all fired up
over wacky politics. But I gotta tell you this one is one very dangerous
and sinister package that's being rammed through the House and Senate by
the "Egomaniacal, Ultra Conservative" action group within our respected
law-making bodies of government. Its the name OF THIS BILL.. It is so
innocent sounding its almost impossible to believe just how dangerous it
really is.
Its called "EXCLUSIONARY REFORM ACT OF 1995" - HOUSE BILL # 666
Imagine that! The House Bill number is ironically the same as the
"Mark of the BEAST"! Yes sir, this bill is at the heart of a very serious
effort on the part of the "fanatics left in office" following the recent
elections. Could it be they are paying the nation back for having voted
OUT all their "good buddies" thus effectively neutralizing the democratic
grip on the country and its affairs? Folks, if you treasure your family
home and its security, make certain you ring the alarm bells in your
Congress Critter's and Senate Thumper's offices. Let them know loudly and
clearly that this HR 666 belongs in the trash! While at the same time
reminding them that you are a registered voter.
This Bill gives law enforcement officials of every level unilaterally
unbridled Search and Seizure Powers. No more having to answer to a court
judge, no more having to justify a search warrant before its issued, no
more search warrants and no more curtailment of illegally obtained
"evidence" that can be ruled inadmissable to possibly protect the
innocent. Can you see it now?? We have seen the horror stories many
times before but now.. if this bill passes, the horror stories are going
to become far more plentiful and serious. Just this past week the train
cops in NYC had to "apologize" for wrongfully detaining and searching a
passenger, because the passenger fit a "predesigned profile". Can you
imagine the abuse when there are no laws to slow down these abuses? One
can almost hear it now... "Vere iz you paperz?? Paperz pleaze!! Being
spoken loudly across America because of this crazed HR Bill # 666 and
Exon's misguided campaign. Save and preserve the power of the Fourth
Amendment. While its not perfect now, the direction Exon wants to take
this country in is straight to hell in a hand basket. Please don't let it
happen. Not so much for us.. but for our successors in generations yet to
come. They do not deserve this fetid can of Exon worms.
This so-called, self righteous, "Clean up the Internet" campaign
being led by Jim Exon Dem. Nebraska, is an absolute outrage that's easily
comparable to almost every injustice perpetrated upon entire populations
from The Inquisitions to The Nazi Pillages and Slaughter of Europe. If
this bill, HR #666, along with Exon's that literally GUTS the Fourth
Amendment Passes... Sen Exon's name along with his "pack" will long be
remembered along with many other infamous names in the history of the
persecuted and downtrodden members of mankind. If I'm not mistaken, part
of the oath of office these "elected officials mutter and stutter" is to
uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Why
are these same officials trying so hard to destroy the very foundations of
our Great Nation? The Bill of Rights and The Constitution! Exon and his
crew may not be aware of this, but the Internet is, without a doubt, the
most powerful form of super fast communications the world has ever known.
We need each and every citizen of this country that's truly concerned
about protecting the Bill of Rights, The Constitution and the Spirit of
the Law the way our Founding Fathers intended it to be to make themselves
loudly heard. This business of giving the Government, Federal, State, and
Local complete and unmitigated police powers of search and seizure is
rediculous. There is no National Emergency! If there were, the President
could easily declare Marshal Law and bring in the Military.
These self-appointed "patriots" seemingly want to tear down not only
the Internet and its communicative freedoms, but the basic foundations of
our country through overbearing, Human Rights clobbering legislation. In
so doing, they will simultaneously cripple the US Constitution and your
rights as citizen of this country. No longer will our citizenship be
something to be proud of. Sen. Exon's name will be very easy to remember
at the ballot box. His name reminds one of another recent disaster of
monstrous proportions. Valdez, Alaska.. Where another "Exxon" was
directly involved in an equally grotesque exercise in horror.
The good Senator Exon ought to put as much, if not more of his
zealot-like energy into CLEANING THEIR OWN HOUSE & SENATE! Exon should be
busy trying to nail PACKWOOD for abusing and molesting the women who have
to work there for a living. Exon ought to remember that those women
violated by Packwood were all housewives and/or mothers. He should be
busy persuing the creeps that siphoned off millions from the Congressional
Post Office. Why is it that Old, "Danny Boy" Rostenkowsie <sp> is
seemingly OFF the HOOK??? If John Q. Public were to pull some of the
stunts Dan and his buddies are/were accused of they'd put the poor slob
UNDER the JAIL. Yet Rostenkowskie and his gang WALK and they all do so
with a BIG FAT GOVERNMENT PENSION that we are all paying for.
This being Memorial Day Weekend... a time when the Nation is
remembering, praying for and paying homage to the millions of GI's who
valiantly gave their lives in defense of this Nation's lofty Principles
and Its Constitution. A Constitution that, at one time or another, has
been the envy of every other nation on Earth... It is most fitting on
this holiday to point out a few of the less than responsible actions
undertaken by elected officials in our government who are trying to ruin
this country and its freedoms by destroying its constitution. Instead,
they should be defending it as they swore to in their oath. Stop them
from trying to steal away your freedom in the name of "Justice". Certainly
its not "Justice for All". More like; "Injustice for All"! God help us
if they should succeed!
___________________________________
> THE WEB & CIS STR Spotlight
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""
H O M E P A G E S
F O R
C O M P U S U R F E R S
April 28, 1995
by Benoit Marchal [100345,354]
Keywords: homepage html page publishing url web www
Now that CompuServe offers full Internet access, including the World Wide
Web (WWW), more subscribers want to setup their own homepage and publish
information to the ever growing Internet community.
It is not really difficult to have your own page on the Web if you know
the rules of the game. With surprisingly little investment you can achieve
a real nice looking result.
There are plenty of good reasons to publish on the Internet. Whether to
promote your business, your local association, or just for fun.
It takes a book to cover Web publishing completely. In this introduction
paper I'll show you where to start and point you to more information.
Think of this paper as a road-map, I don't intend to cover every aspect of
Web publishing but to provide enough guidance to get you on the right
track.
This paper was written for CompuServe users and covers Internet access
from CompuServe.
Currently all the Internet services available from CompuServe are clients,
i.e. you access the Internet from CompuServe but you cannot publish.
Theoretically you could install a server on your own computer and make it
accessible through the PPP connection but it requires being on-line a 24
hours/day and believe me, at $1.95/hour, you don't want to do that. Beside
CIS assigns you a different address each time you log in.
Probably one day CompuServe will rent Web space but in the meantime you'll
have to go with another presence provider. CIS has all the tools you need
to install and maintain your homepage on a third party system though.
Here are the five steps to successfully setup a page:
1. practice Internet access;
2. surf the Web;
3. write your page;
4. sign with a presence provider on Internet;
5. advertise your page.
1. Practice Internet Access
CIS offers two forms of access to the Internet. Its Internet Made
Easy(sm) program wraps selected Internet applications under the familiar
CIM interface while All the Internet, All the Time(sm) offers direct
connection to the Internet.
With the exception of email, all the services available as part of
Internet Made Easy are also available through the direct connection with
appropriate software. At the time of writing, Web browsing is available
through the direct connection only.
All Internet services on CIS are available by GOing INTERNET.
To setup and maintain your homepage you will use at least a Web browser,
FTP and email. I suggest you become familiar with at least those services
before going any further. It is not a bad idea to try other Internet
applications like Telnet, Usenet, Gopher, IRC, etc.
You can receive guidance on all aspects of Internet in the Internet New
Users forum (GO INETFORUM).
1.1. Web Browser
Currently the WWW is available only through the direct connection.
It does not really matter which Web browser you use but it is one of the
primary tool of a Web author. So I encourage you to spend enough time
learning how it works. You will use it to surf the Internet and to test
your homepage.
Apart from normal Web surfing try the following options:
- load a page from disk (all Web browsers support this);
- display source code and/or
save it to disk. Some older
browsers may not support this. Although not required, it is
a nice feature to have. By the way to save source code with
SPRY Mosaic (part of the free Internet Launcher toolkit),
select File|Document Source... and then File|Save As from
the source code window.
In general, it will save you money if you learn how to view documents
off-line.
1.2. FTP
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is Internet standard application to exchange
files between computers. You will use it to upload your page to your
presence provider. From CIM, GO FTP.
1.3. Email
CompuServe mail has a gateway to the Internet.
Use this format to send mail to Internet users:
internet:user@domain
For example, my address on another system is
<benoit.marchal@ping.be>, from CIS it translates into:
internet:benoit.marchal@ping.be
Your CompuServe address for Internet users is:
userid@compuserve.com
where you replace the coma with a dot.
E.g. my CompuServe address [100345,354] becomes
<100345.354@compuserve.com> on the Internet. Mind the dot!
Internet mail is surcharged (i.e. you pay to read it), make sure
you accept surcharged mail.
It is a good idea to leave your email address on your homepage
for visitors to comment.
Also some presence providers accept pages sent by email.
2. Surf the Web
The best place to learn about the Web is the Web itself. Visit as many
pages as possible to find ideas on how to present your information,
practice with indexes and meta-indexes like Aliweb (Archie-like Indexing
for the Web) available at:
http://web.nexor.co.uk/aliweb/doc/aliweb.html, EINet Galaxy
(http://www.einet.net/galaxy.html) and Yahoo
(http://akebono.stanford.edu/yahoo/welcome.html).
Try to find pages with interests similar to yours, you will link to them
from your page. Also some sites maintain lists of related resources. Most
will be happy to link to your page once it is available.
It is also a good time to start learning HMTL and URLs (Cf. section 3).
Don't be shy and whenever you see a nice looking page, view the code (if
your browser supports it) or even better save it to disk for later
examination. Try to understand how a particular effect is achieved.
It is best to record your discoveries in a notebook. Write down
interesting addresses, source code, etc. Record as much information as
possible, you will need these notes later.
If you are a regular user of Internet services on CIS, you may want to
join the Internet Club for reduced access rates. If you surf more than 9
hours/month, the Internet Club will save you money.
To join The Internet Club GO INTERNET and choose Special Pricing - The
Internet Club.
3. Write your Page
Now it is time to write your own page.
Web pages are written in HTML (HyperText Markup Language) which is an
application of SGML. HTML files are text files so you can create them with
any word processor which saves as ASCII. Windows Notepad suffices.
Familiarize yourself with URL, a scheme to write addresses on the Web.
Some knowledge of graphics file format (at least GIF) also helps.
HTML is really easy to use. You simply mark elements in your text as being
of a given type. As an illustration here is a very small page.
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>Simple page</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY>
This <EM>minimal</EM> example takes you to <A
HREF="my">http://www.ping.be/~ping0049">my homepage</A>.
</BODY>
</HTML>
<EM> and </EM> which surround the word 'minimal' mark it as emphasized.
Typically, 'minimal' will be italicized by Web browsers.
<A ...> and </A> mark 'my homepage' as an hyperlink, i.e. a link to
another document. HREF specify its address in the form of an URL.
Similarly, the whole document is surrounded with <HTML> and </HTML> to
mark it as an HTML document. Easy isn't it? All you do is recognize
elements in your text and mark them accordingly. HTML specifies valid tags
and their relationships.
You can copy this simple page into another file and open it with your
browser. Note: some browser determines the type of a file based on their
extension, they will only recognize an HTML file if it has the .htm or
.html extension.
For a comprehensive introduction to HTML refer to
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/Internet/WWW/HTMLPrimer.html.
A guide of good practice is also available from
http://www.willamette.edu/html-composition/strict-html.html.
A guide to URLs is available from
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/demoweb/url-primer.html.
Also check
http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/Provider/Overview.html for
general information on Web documents.
For more on SGML, refer to my article at
http://www.ping.be/~ping0049/sgml.html.
You can preview your page as you write it with the Open Local File feature
of your browser. It is a good idea to download at least another Web
browser to further test your page.
Remember you can start writing your page even before you have an account
with an Internet provider but it is not a good idea to wait too long
before putting it on-line. You'll learn a lot from early visitor comments
so it is best to put your page on-line as soon as possible and later
improve it.
Try to organize your page for easy and convenient access to information
but don't worry if your first attempt doesn't look great, things will
improve with time and practice. Don't wait until you have something
perfect! Unlike traditional publishing, Web publishing is real fast. It
takes only a few minutes to replace an obsolete document so don't be shy
and publish as soon as possible.
It is a good practice to state clearly when your page is still under
development and to date it as an help to potential visitors.
If you write many pages download a specialized editor like HoTMetaL, Web
Assistant or Microsoft Internet Assistant. Browse the Internet Resources
forum libraries (GO INETRES).
Although it is fun to write your page yourself, you can also request help
from a specialized writer. I (and others) can help you writing Web pages.
4. Sign with a Presence Provider on Internet
You first homepage is now ready. It's time to put it on the
Internet.
Basically you have three solutions to obtain Web space:
- you can sign with an access provider which include Web space
in its package;
- you can sign with a presence provider. Unlike access
providers, presence providers only rent Web space (sometimes
FTP and gopher too). You use CompuServe Internet access to
maintain your page. Since they focus solely on Web publishing
these sites are usually cheaper and/or deliver better
services. There's a list of presence providers at
http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/get/www/leasing.html;
- you can upload your page to the HomePage Provider which is
free. HPP is at http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu//HomePage.
As you can expect from a free service, the site is overcrowded
but it is perfect for early testing.
When selecting a presence provider test it: try to connect at various time
of the day and night (this is global networking, daytime for you is night
for another user). Try to contact current users and find how active is the
site. Remember a page nobody access is useless.
The best choice depends on your page, the level of service you expect and
how much you are willing to pay for it. E.g. some systems offer additional
services like FTP server, mailing list server, etc. Others are cheap but
sells limited space. Be careful with some real cheap offers: with some
provider you pay to update your page or you pay per access! This can be
really costly in the long run.
5. Advertise your Page
Once your page is ready and running, advertise it. You want others to find
it. Here are some techniques:
- add your homepage URL to your signature;
- add your page to indexes and meta-indexes;
- visit those places in your notebook which relate to your page
and see if you can't have a link added;
- always remember to be polite when people comment your page. I
know it has been hard work but others have the right to
criticize. Listen to them, they may have a point.
You will find more at:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/gdr11/publish.html.
Above everything experiment and have fun!
As always I welcome comments and suggestions on this paper.
---------
(C)opyright 1995, Benoit Marchal. You may freely redistribute this
document in any form for educational and non-profit purposes provided you
retain this copyright.
Benoit Marchal is a computer scientist and freelance writer specialized in
technology-related matters. Ben can be contacted on CompuServe at
100345,354. His homepage is at http://www.ping.be/~ping0049.
_______________________________
> SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT! STR Spotlight
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PURPOSE AND OPERATION
OF THE
REGISTRATION WIZARD
A recent trade publication article contained inaccuracies regarding
the purpose and operation of the Registration Wizard, the on-line
registration application in Windows 95. The purpose of the Registration
Wizard is to offer an electronic version of the paper-based Registration
Card that traditionally comes with all Microsoft products.
The Registration Wizard asks for similar information to that listed
in the paper-based registration card, such as your hardware configuration
and applications usage. Just like with a traditional registration card,
providing this information is optional.
A customer using the Registration Wizard receives dialog prompts
asking them whether they would like to send this information. They must
actively click 'send' for any information to be sent.
There are lots of benefits to customers that provide this information -
such as product update mailings and improved product support because the
product support engineer can refer to your exact system configuration
information on-line. In the end, though, sending this information is
optional and a conscious decision by the user.
Microsoft traditionally does not make information gathered during the
registration process available to third-parties. If the customer chooses
to send system and software information to Microsoft with the Registration
Wizard, it is a one-way, one-time occurrence and takes place at the time
the customer selects 'send.'
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N
FARGO PRIMERA PRO COLOR PRINTERS - 600DPI
For a limited time only; If you wish to have a FREE sample printout sent
to you that demonstrates FARGO Primera & Primera Pro SUPERIOR QUALITY
600dpi 24 bit Photo Realistic Color Output, please send a Self Addressed
Stamped Envelope [SASE] (business sized envelope please) to:
STReport's Fargo Printout Offer
P.O. Box 6672
Jacksonville, Florida 32205-6155
Folks, the FARGO Primera Pro has GOT to be the best yet. Its far superior
to the newest of Color Laser Printers selling for more than three times as
much. Its said that ONE Picture is worth a thousand words. Send for this
sample now. Guaranteed you will be amazed at the superb quality. (please,
allow at least a one week turn-around)
A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N -- A T T E N T I O N
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
___ ___ _____ _______
/___| /___| /_____| /_______/
/____|/____| /__/|__| /__/
/_____|_____|/__/_|__|/__/
/__/|____/|__|________|__/
/__/ |___/ |__|_/ |__|_/_____
/__/ |__/ |__|/ |__|______/
________________________________________
/_______________________________________/
MAC/APPLE SECTION (II)
======================
John Deegan, Editor (Temp)
> Creative Technology NEWS STR InfoFile
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Creative Announces Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x
Best Selling Educational Kit is Upgraded to Include
Quad-Speed CD-ROM Technology
SINGAPORE -- May 23, 1995 -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF)
today announced Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x, the most recent
addition to its expanding line of best-selling quad-speed multimedia kits.
Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x takes the highly successful Digital
Schoolhouse multimedia kit and combines it with leading edge quad-speed
CD-ROM technology. The consumer can now find industry standard Sound
Blaster audio, plus quad-speed access to information and the strongest
collection of educational titles available in the upgrade kit marketplace.
Creative has included targeted educational software titles with
value-added technology to offer the most to the home multimedia market.
Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x will be available at retail outlets
in June for a projected price of $349.
"Creative is committed to the introduction of new multimedia products that
incorporate the most recent advancements in technology and address the
needs of the family multimedia market segment," said Arnold Waldstein,
vice president of U.S. software and product marketing for Creative Labs,
Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Creative Technology. "Sound Blaster Digital
Schoolhouse offers families an ideal multimedia solution, combining the
most trusted brand name in multimedia, the latest in CD-ROM technology and
a Sound Blaster compatible library of educational titles. This product
represents a great value for the home computer user."
Features of Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x
------------------------------------------------
Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x includes Creative's quad-speed IDE
CD-ROM drive, a wave table upgradeable Sound Blaster 16 audio card and
stereo speakers, along with software titles from leading publishers. The
quad-speed drive provides a 600KB per second transfer rate, a better-than
250ms access rate and compatibility with the Kodak Photo CD. Its IDE
interface is best suited to handle the high-speed transfer rates of
quad-speed drives and allows users to obtain optimum performance of
software titles. In addition, the kit's Sound Blaster 16 card provides CD
quality stereo sampling and playback and is upgradeable to wave table
synthesis for real instrument sounds and digital sound effects.
Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x's high-value software bundle features
six audio utility programs from Creative and the following educational
titles:
T/Maker's Four Footed Friends
T/Maker's Stradiwackius
Davidson and Associates' Spell It 3
Davidson and Associates' The Cruncher
Davidson and Associates' Kid Works 2
Electronic Arts' Peter Pan: A Story Painting Adventure
Electronic Arts' Scooter's Magic Castle
Electronic Arts' Eagle Eye Mysteries: The Original
Electronic Arts' Eagle Eye Mysteries In London
Grolier Electronic Publishing's Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia
Knowledge Adventure's Speed
Opcode Systems' Allie's Playhouse
"Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x is perfect for parents who want to
turn their computer into a multimedia school room to enhance their child's
learning experience," said Kim Federico, product marketing manager,
multimedia kits for Creative Labs, Inc. "With this entertaining
interactive environment, children of various ages can develop early
computer skills while mastering subjects such as spelling, math, reading,
history and science."
Creative's growing quad-speed multimedia kit line now includes Sound
Blaster Multimedia Home 4x, Sound Blaster Discovery CD 4x, Digital
Schoolhouse 4x and Blaster CD 4x. From the full-featured Multimedia Home
4x edutainment and productivity kit to the entry level Blaster CD 4x
CD-ROM upgrade kit, Creative's quad-speed line serves a broad spectrum of
consumer needs and interests.
ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300 Expand
Creative's Communications Family of Products
New Macintosh-Based Products Are Only To Offer Mac to PC
Video Conferencing Over Regular Phone Lines
SINGAPORE -- May 2, 1995 -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq:CREAF) today
introduced ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300, the only desktop
video conferencing products to support cross-platform connectivity between
Macintosh and PC computers over a regular telephone line. ShareVision
Mac3000 is a complete desktop video conferencing solution for AV Macintosh
model users, providing simultaneous video, voice, application sharing,
file transfers and interactive Whiteboards. ShareVision Mac300 is a cost-
effective alternative for AV users who already own a video camera. In
June, ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300 will be available from
retailers and value added resellers (VARs) for an approximate price of
$1,149 and $749 respectively.
"Creative continues its role as an industry leader by offering the only
POTS-based (Plain Old Telephone System) cross-platform product on the
market," said Rich Sorkin, vice president, communications and business
products for Creative Labs, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Creative
Technology, Ltd. "With ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300,
Creative has extended its communications family to meet increasing
consumer demand for a cross-platform solution. These products demonstrate
Creative's ongoing commitment to providing productivity tools that fit the
needs of both SOHO (small office/home office) and corporate users."
ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300 provide simultaneous voice,
video and data communications over one regular telephone line, when used
with the Power Macintosh 7100 AV or 8100 AV or the Macintosh Quadra 840
AV. ShareVision Mac300 can also provide simultaneous voice and data
functions when installed in any 68030 (or faster) Macintosh computer.
ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300 include the NuBus ShareVision
Mac Communication Card, an external V.34 28.8K bits per second data/fax
modem, ShareVision software, a hands-free audio headset and all the
necessary cables. In addition, ShareVision Mac3000 also includes a color
video camera with stand. ShareVision Mac3000 and ShareVision Mac300 allow
users to share applications and collaborate on documents, even if the
application software is installed on only one user's system. For example,
both users can edit documents in word processing, data management,
spreadsheet, presentation or graphics programs in real time through an
analog telephone connection. Users can also concurrently annotate
documents or full-color snapshots using the built-in Whiteboard.
ShareVision products are programmable and upgradeable, enabling users to
take advantage of emerging standards.
"We're looking forward to selling the ShareVision Mac3000 and Mac300
products," said Jay Cohn, president of Vision Technology, a Northern
California reseller specializing in desktop video conferencing. "We've
been successful with both the ShareVision products for the PC, and the
previous generation of ShareVision products for the Mac, ShareView. Our
clients are anxious to upgrade to the cross-platform video, voice and
whiteboard capabilities of the Mac3000."
Creative introduced the first desktop video conferencing products for the
Macintosh computer, ShareView 3000 and ShareView 300, in 1993. In 1994,
Creative unveiled its two PC-based products, ShareVision PC3000 and
ShareVision PC300. Since this introduction, these Macintosh and PC-based
products have been adopted by a wide range of users, including those in
federal agencies, universities, multinational corporations, product and
packaging design firms, creative services agencies and law firms. In
addition, ShareVision PC3000 has received numerous awards for excellence,
including the Winter Consumer Electronics Show's Innovations '95 Award,
Germany's CeBit Innovation '95 Award and France Telecom's Innovation '95
"Best Multimedia Product" Award, among others.
Creative Labs Launches Wave Blaster II-GamePak
and Blaster CD 4x At E3
New Products Expand Family of Wave Table Synthesis
and Quad-Speed CD-ROM Offerings
LOS ANGELES -- May 11, 1995 -- Creative Labs, Inc., the U.S. sales and
marketing subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd., today unveiled Wave
Blaster II-GamePak and Blaster CD 4x at E3 (Electronic Entertainment
Expo). Wave Blaster II-GamePak extends Creative's family of wave table
products, providing Sound Blaster 16 upgradeable audio card users with the
next generation of Sound Blaster audio technology. The product also
includes four wave table ready games on a single CD-ROM. Blaster CD 4x is
an entry level addition to Creative's growing quad-speed line of
multimedia kits, offering consumers an opportunity to upgrade to the
latest CD-ROM technology for an attractive price. It also features
Grolier Electronic Publishing's award-winning encyclopedia. Consumers
will be able to find Wave Blaster II-GamePak in June, and Blaster CD 4x in
May, at retail outlets for projected prices of $129.99 and $219.99,
respectively.
"Creative's Sound Blaster standard has played a key role in the
electronic entertainment industry and we will further extend that standard
to continually enhance consumers' multimedia experience with innovative
products," said W.H. Sim, chairman and CEO of Creative Technology. "With
Wave Blaster II-GamePak's high performance wave table synthesis
capabilities, users who already own an upgradeable Sound Blaster 16 card
can incorporate the next generation of Sound Blaster audio technology into
their PC. Blaster CD 4x, our entry level quad-speed CD-ROM kit, is
another example of Creative's dedication to offering a full range of
multimedia solutions."
Features of Wave Blaster II-GamePak
-----------------------------------
Wave Blaster II-GamePak is a solution for PC gamers and multimedia
enthusiasts who want to upgrade their 16-bit sound card for real
instrument sounds and digital sound effects. In addition, it includes
GamePak, a single CD-ROM with four interactive wave-table titles,
featuring:
id Software Inc.'s Doom, Episode 1
Interplay( Productions, Inc.'s Descent Destination Saturn
id Software Inc.'s Heretic, Episode 1
Blizzard Entertainment's WarCraft, Special Edition.
Wave Blaster II is a General MIDI, wave-table synthesis daughterboard for
Creative's upgradeable line of Sound Blaster 16 audio cards. It uses E-mu
Systems' patented digital sample playback synthesis to provide 128 real
instrument sounds, 10 drum kits and 46 sound effects in 2MB of ROM. Wave
Blaster II incorporates 32-note, 16 channel polyphony; supports General
MIDI, Sound Canvas and MT-32 standards; and offers chorus, reverb and
Q-Sound. For serious musicians, Wave Blaster II can also be connected to
Creative's award-winning Sound Blaster AWE32 for 64 note polyphony,
allowing users to create rich orchestration with 64 simultaneous voices.
Features of Blaster CD 4x
-------------------------
Blaster CD 4x is a cost-effective way for consumers to upgrade to
quad-speed CD-ROM technology for enhanced software performance. Blaster
CD 4x's quad-speed CD-ROM drive includes an IDE interface card, enabling
it to run on systems with or without audio boards. The drive has a 600KB
per second transfer rate and a better than 250ms access time; and it is
multi-session, Kodak Photo CD-compatible. In addition, Blaster CD 4x also
features The Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia from Grolier Electronic
Publishing.
"Both Wave Blaster II-GamePak and Blaster CD 4x demonstrate Creative's
responsiveness to consumers and our commitment to providing leading-edge
technology," said Arnold Waldstein, vice president of U.S. software and
product marketing for Creative Labs, Inc. "Wave Blaster II-GamePak brings
consumers an upgrade option with all the advantages of Sound Blaster and
advanced wave effects, while Blaster CD 4x provides PC users with a way to
add high performance quad-speed CD-ROM technology to their systems for an
entry-level price."
Creative Announces Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x
Best Selling Educational Kit is Upgraded to Include
Quad-Speed CD-ROM Technology
SINGAPORE -- May 23, 1995 -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF)
today announced Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x, the most recent
addition to its expanding line of best-selling quad-speed multimedia kits.
Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x takes the highly successful Digital
Schoolhouse multimedia kit and combines it with leading edge quad-speed
CD-ROM technology. The consumer can now find industry standard Sound
Blaster audio, plus quad-speed access to information and the strongest
collection of educational titles available in the upgrade kit marketplace.
Creative has included targeted educational software titles with
value-added technology to offer the most to the home multimedia market.
Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x will be available at retail outlets
in June for a projected price of $349.
"Creative is committed to the introduction of new multimedia products that
incorporate the most recent advancements in technology and address the
needs of the family multimedia market segment," said Arnold Waldstein,
vice president of U.S. software and product marketing for Creative Labs,
Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Creative Technology. "Sound Blaster Digital
Schoolhouse offers families an ideal multimedia solution, combining the
most trusted brand name in multimedia, the latest in CD-ROM technology and
a Sound Blaster compatible library of educational titles. This product
represents a great value for the home computer user."
Features of Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x
------------------------------------------------
Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x includes Creative's quad-speed IDE
CD-ROM drive, a wave table upgradeable Sound Blaster 16 audio card and
stereo speakers, along with software titles from leading publishers. The
quad-speed drive provides a 600KB per second transfer rate, a better-than
250ms access rate and compatibility with the Kodak Photo CD. Its IDE
interface is best suited to handle the high-speed transfer rates of
quad-speed drives and allows users to obtain optimum performance of
software titles. In addition, the kit's Sound Blaster 16 card provides CD
quality stereo sampling and playback and is upgradeable to wave table
synthesis for real instrument sounds and digital sound effects.
Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x's high-value software bundle features
six audio utility programs from Creative and the following educational
titles:
T/Maker's Four Footed Friends
T/Maker's Stradiwackius
Davidson and Associates' Spell It 3
Davidson and Associates' The Cruncher
Davidson and Associates' Kid Works 2
Electronic Arts' Peter Pan: A Story Painting Adventure
Electronic Arts' Scooter's Magic Castle
Electronic Arts' Eagle Eye Mysteries: The Original
Electronic Arts' Eagle Eye Mysteries In London
Grolier Electronic Publishing's Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia
Knowledge Adventure's Speed
Opcode Systems' Allie's Playhouse
"Sound Blaster Digital Schoolhouse 4x is perfect for parents who want to
turn their computer into a multimedia school room to enhance their child's
learning experience," said Kim Federico, product marketing manager,
multimedia kits for Creative Labs, Inc. "With this entertaining
interactive environment, children of various ages can develop early
computer skills while mastering subjects such as spelling, math, reading,
history and science."
Creative's growing quad-speed multimedia kit line now includes Sound
Blaster Multimedia Home 4x, Sound Blaster Discovery CD 4x, Digital
Schoolhouse 4x and Blaster CD 4x. From the full-featured Multimedia Home
4x edutainment and productivity kit to the entry level Blaster CD 4x
CD-ROM upgrade kit, Creative's quad-speed line serves a broad spectrum of
consumer needs and interests.
PSINet Provides Instant Internet Access to Creative
Labs, Inc.'s Modem Blaster Products
Partnership to Provide Customers with a Fast, Affordable
High Performance Communications Solution
HERNDON, VA & MILPITAS -- May 16, 1995 -- Creative Labs, Inc., the U.S.
subsidiary of Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF) and Performance
Systems International, Inc. (Nasdaq: PSIX) today announced the bundling of
PSINet's InterRamp service with Creative's Modem Blaster( family of
communications products. This partnership furthers Creative's commitment
to serving the diverse communications needs of consumers. With Modem
Blaster 28.8 and Modem Blaster 14.4, users can gain instant affordable
access to the Internet via "Instant InterRamp," PSINet's personal
Internet access service.The agreement also enables PC users to browse the
World Wide Web, send and receive files, participate in interactive forums
and utilize a variety of information and resources found on the Internet.
"This multimedia communications bundle signifies a dramatic change in
providing Internet access to the mass market, making it easier for home
users and telecommuters to get connected to the worldwide web of
networks," said Martin Schoffstall, senior vice president and chief
technical officer at PSINet. "Never before has it been easier for the PC
user to get connected directly to the Internet and enjoy the power of
running any open systems TCP/IP software."
Creative's Modem Blaster 28.8 and Modem Blaster 14.4 are the only high
performance modem products -- in one complete package -- to enable PC
users to browse the World Wide Web, utilize a variety of information and
resources found on the Internet, play games modem-to-modem, send and
receive e-mail, participate in interactive on-line forums and take
advantage of on-line services. Creative's Modem Blaster products
therefore offer the most affordable all-in-one modem solutions currently
available.
InterRamp is PSINet's personal connection to the Internet for the single
user needing full power Internet access to run any, commercial or public
domain, TCP/IP applications. InterRamp users can connect directly to the
world of networks at up to 28.8K bits per second for the fastest World
Wide Web access available today. InterRamp service is projected to be
available in 120 cities in the U.S. by the end of 1995.
"With the introduction of its new communications family of products,
Creative is redefining the way users interact on-line. We are providing
our customers with an affordable, all-in-one communications solution that
provides everything users need to get on-line quickly and easily," said
Richard Sorkin, vice president of communications products at Creative
Labs, Inc. "Creative's communications products are well positioned to
serve the ever-growing universe of Internet-savvy PC users in both the
SOHO and entertainment marketplaces."
Modem Blaster 28.8 and Modem Blaster 14.4 are the first products to
combine this broad range of functionality with the fast and affordable
Internet access of InterRamp. Priced at $219.99 and $99.99 respectively,
Modem Blaster 28.8 and 14.4 bundles are currently available from Creative
Labs, Inc. The bundle price includes a 7-day free trial period for the
InterRamp service. Following the trial period, InterRamp will offer users
a rate of $1 an hour for Internet access.
PSINet is a leading provider of Internet access and integration services.
Internet access options range from modem dialup and ISDN for telecommuters
and small office LANs to dedicated high-speed circuits for corporate
connectivity. PSINet defines industry standards and leads in
technological innovation and new service development. The company has its
headquarters in Herndon, Virginia, with sales and field service offices
across the US and in Tokyo, Japan.
CREATIVE TECHNOLOGY REPORTS THIRD QUARTER RESULTS
=================================================
SINGAPORE --May 5, 1995 -- Creative Technology Ltd. (Nasdaq: CREAF), the
leading provider of multimedia products for personal computers, today
announced financial results for the third quarter ended March 31, 1995.
Sales for the third quarter of fiscal 1995 were $280.5 million compared
with $181.2 million for the same quarter last year. Sales for the nine
months ended March 31, 1995, were $931.7 million compared to $477.5
million for the comparable period last year.
Net income for the quarter was $11.2 million compared to $28.0 million for
the third quarter 1994. Net income for the nine months ended March 31,
1995, was $50.5 million compared to $82.2 million for the corresponding
period of the prior year.
Earnings per share were $0.13 compared to $0.31 for the third quarter last
year. Earnings per share for the nine months ended March 31, 1995 were
$0.56 compared to $0.93 for the corresponding period last year.
Results for the nine months ended March 31, 1995, included a one-time
charge of $7.0 million for the write off of in-process technology due to
the acquisition of Digicom Systems, Inc. Excluding this one-time charge,
net income and earnings per share for the nine months ended March 31, 1995
would have been $57.5 million or $0.64 per share, respectively.
In commenting about Creative's third quarter results, W.H. Sim, chairman
and CEO of Creative Technology, made the following statement:
"The multimedia market is expanding and making major headway in the OEM PC
market. And multimedia technology is further growing to embrace
communications technology. We believe Creative is the only company to
provide a full spectrum of multimedia communications products that covers
modems, audio-telephony and video conferencing products. As a key player
in the multimedia marketplace, we plan to expand our line of quad-speed
upgrade kits and aggressively move forward into business communications,
telephonic computing, interactive gaming and the OEM chipset market."
CONTACT INFORMATION
-------------------
Theresa Pulido Lisa Kimura
Creative Labs, Inc. Copithorne & Bellows
(408) 428-6600, ext. 6416 (415) 284-5200, ext. 209
Greg Peverill-Conti Karen Gordon
GCI Jennings Copithorne & Bellows
(415) 974-6200 (415) 975-2215
Christopher Callendar Theresa Pulido
PSINet Creative Labs, Inc.
(703) 904-4100 (408) 428-2329
Patrick Verderico, CFO Susan Breshears
Creative Labs, Inc. Copithorne & Bellows
(408) 428-6600, ext. 6102 (415) 975-2216
Creative Technology Ltd. develops, manufactures and markets a family of
sound, video, software and telephony multimedia products for PCs under the
B l a ster family name, and the ShareVision line of desktop video
conferencing products for Macintoshes and PCs. The company's Sound
Blaster sound platform enables PCs to produce high-quality audio for
entertainment, educational, music and productivity applications, and has
been accepted as the industry standard sound platform for PC-based
software.
Creative Technology Ltd. was incorporated in 1983 and is based in
Singapore. Creative Technology's U.S. subsidiaries include Creative Labs,
I n c ., E-mu Systems, Inc., Digicom Systems, Inc. and ShareVision
Technology, Inc. Creative also has other subsidiaries in Australia,
China, Europe, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. The
company's stock is traded on Nasdaq under the symbol CREAF and on the
Stock Exchange of Singapore.
Sound Blaster is a registered trademark and Sound Blaster Digital
Schoolhouse, Sound Blaster Discovery CD, Sound Blaster Multimedia Home,
Blaster CD and Blaster are trademarks of Creative Technology Ltd. E-mu is
a registered trademark of E-mu Systems, Inc. and ShareVision is a
registered trademark of ShareVision Technology, Inc. All other products
mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby
recognized as such.
_____________________________________
> Gallup POLL STR FOCUS! TRENDS OF HOME COMPUTER USERS
""""""""""""""""""""""
FIRST EPSON HOME TECHNOLOGY POLL BY GALLUP DETAILS
TRENDS OF HOME COMPUTER USERS
Key Findings: Computing technology recognized as a magnet to
family-wide home-based activities; Kids turning to equipment for
school projects and entertainment; Home-based users want more
power, color printers, CD-ROMs, scanners
TORRANCE, Calif., April 17, 1995 -- A new computing poll,
commissioned by EPSON from the Gallup Organization, provides
valuable insight into the burgeoning home marketplace. The
saturation of computer products in the business sector has
manufacturers, like EPSON, looking for additional market share
from home computer users.
Research from the poll reflects home users' computer technology
fears and usage patterns. Key findings of the EPSON Home
Technology Poll by Gallup indicate that computing technology is
recognized as a magnet to family-wide home-based activities, kids
are turning to computer equipment for their school projects and
entertainment, and home-based users want more powerful computers,
color printers, CD-ROMs and scanners.
BATTLING OBSOLESCENCE
---------------------
According to the poll, personal computing has penetrated over a
third of U.S. homes (37 percent). The PC has infiltrated the
family's work, play and learning habits.
As households allow the PC to become an important tool in their
lives, they fear most its becoming obsolete (31 percent). No other
issue is as important, although cost runs a close second
(27 percent).
Those surveyed have owned their equipment for an average of 3.5
years. During ownership, respondents reported they must try to
counter obsolescence. Hence, 22 percent of the home users
interviewed plan to upgrade their current PC this year, buy
another PC for the home (16 percent), or purchase a CD-ROM
(12 percent).
The most interesting news for printer manufacturers is that 29
percent of homes now operate a dot matrix printer, a machine that
represents an opportunity for upgrade. In fact, one-fifth of home
users plan to upgrade to a new printer in the next five years.
Currently, 30 percent of homes have an ink jet or laser printer.
One out of five users have a color-capable printer.
HOW IS THE PC BEING USED IN THE HOME?
-------------------------------------
The PC in the home serves more than one master; the primary PC
user is driven to the keyboard by professional necessity.
One-quarter of a primary user's time at the home PC is spent on
work brought home from the office. Those aged 35-54 are most
likely to work at home. Education and entertainment are also
frequent primary applications for the home PC (22.6 percent and
18 percent, respectively). However, these activities are most
likely among younger age groups, under 24 years old. Home
finance receives less activity, about 13 percent of the PC's
primary function.
A few characteristics of the primary home PC user emerged from the
poll. Males are more frequently the primary user (46 percent), and
college graduates perform 50 percent of all home computing. While
PC ownership is not exclusive at any income level, homes with an
income of $45,000 or more own 60 percent of PCs.
The home computer is a shared tool. A third of the time the PC is
in use, secondary users are determining its purpose. Of this time,
the type of user is equally divided among spouse, children and
others in the home. The two most frequent uses by adults are work
brought home from the job and entertainment. As expected, children
are equally likely to use the PC for education and entertainment.
When asked to describe the most creative output, newsletters/
bulletins/flyers/pamphlets and greeting cards are cited most
frequently (16 percent). However, specific projects mentioned are
quite interesting. These include: Writing novels and other books,
creating maps, producing a program for a daughter's wedding,
preparing a home automation program, designing a boat, chronicling
local history for a nonprofit organization, writing a magazine
with color photos, creating artwork, regression analysis on
greyhound racing, generating scientific graphics, creating
invitations for baby brother's fifth birthday party and preparing
an arrangement for an 18-piece jazz band.
HOW DOES THE HOME USER GET STARTED AND STAY CURRENT?
----------------------------------------------------
Professional necessity is again a key driver for getting started
on a PC. A third of the poll participants started using PCs on the
job. Slightly fewer started in school (28 percent), and 26 percent
are self-taught or use books or manuals to start. The quality of
documentation will continue to be important as users learn
independently. Users are relying on the ease of the software or
the manuals to reduce complexity for them.
One interesting gender difference revealed by the survey was in
the way people first learn PC skills. The survey showed the three
most common ways to learn are on the job, in school or through
self-teaching. Men are most likely to learn through self-teaching,
while women are most likely to pick up their first PC skills on
the job. Surprisingly, friends and family teach the user only 13
percent of the time.
Staying current in this quickly changing software and hardware
market is most frequently accomplished by reading books and manuals
(26 percent). One-quarter prefer to be self-taught (21 percent)
while only 15 percent of education comes via word-of-mouth or other
people.
HOW DOES THE PC FIT IN THE HOME?
--------------------------------
As the PC becomes more integrated into the operation of the
household, its size becomes a key buying feature. Sixty-nine
percent of owners surveyed say this was important/very important
to their purchase decision. Moreover, half of the owners acquired
furniture especially designed to accommodate PC equipment.
More households have a separate office in which the PC is placed
(39 percent). However, 10 percent use it in the master bedroom,
10 percent in the living room and 10 percent in the family room.
WHAT DO PEOPLE LIKE ABOUT THEIR PC?
-----------------------------------
Overwhelmingly, people like their PC because it saves time (21
percent) and is easy to use (17 percent). These two benefits rate
consistently as satisfying all types of users. Those surveyed
cited the two most frustrating aspects of using a PC are their
own lack of knowledge and their perception that PCs can be hard
to use.
PC users appear loyal to specific programs. When asked to identify
a favorite feature or program, one-fourth easily replied with the
name of a their preferred word processing software. This trend
confirms the primary user's current goal of job-related work as the
basic task of the home PC, with entertainment as a secondary task.
WHERE DO PEOPLE GET THEIR PCS
-----------------------------
Three-quarters of PCs are new. Ten percent are second-hand,
usually from friends or co-workers. Eleven percent are gifts,
most frequently given by parents.
Computer superstores were the preferred sales source, receiving
23 percent of the new sales. These stores were followed closely
by computer electronic stores (17 percent of sales). All others
held 8 percent or less market share.
METHODOLOGY
-----------
The Gallup Organization conducted these telephone interviews during
the month of November 1994. This survey is based on 750 respondents
who were randomly contacted throughout the United States. The
standard error is plus or minus 3.7 percent.
EPSON offers an extensive array of high-quality technology products
including ink jet, laser and dot matrix printers; scanners;
portable and desktop computers; PCMCIA products; and for the OEM
market, a variety of component and electronic devices. Founded in
1975, Epson America, Inc. is an affiliate of Seiko Epson
Corporation, a global manufacturer and supplier of technology
products that meet customer demands for increased functionality,
compactness, systems integration and energy efficiency.
EPSON AMERICA INC.
20770 Madrona Avenue
Torrance, California 90503
310-782-0770
_________________________________
> GOOD NEWS for HAYES! STR FOCUS!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
HAYES TO EXIT CHAPTER 11 BY FALL
100 PERCENT PLAN PAYS CREDITORS IN FULL
ATLANTA, GA, 16 May 1995 -- Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc. on
Monday, 15 May 1995, filed in Federal Bankruptcy Court its Chapter 11
Plan of Reorganization which will lead to its exit from Chapter 11 in
less than one year from the company's original bankruptcy filing.
The plan provides for 100 percent payment of claims to creditors.
When the plan is confirmed by the bankruptcy court, Hayes will pay
creditors with valid claims the entire amount due within 40 to 60 days.
In execution of the plan, Hayes will obtain approximately $60 million in
new capital funding to be comprised of a combination of equity
investments and new credit facilities.
"We are working closely with our financial advisory team at
Robinson-Humphrey to procure the funding to complete our plan," said
Dennis C. Hayes, Chairman and CEO, Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.
"This is great news for our creditors, our customers and our employees
who have been a constant source of support."
Creditors can contact Hayes by calling the Claims Processing
Department at (404)840-9200.
Best known as the leader in microcomputer modems, Hayes develops,
supplies and supports computer communications equipment and software for
personal computers and computer communications networks. The company
distributes its products through a global network of authorized
distributors, dealers, mass merchants, VARs, systems integrators and
original equipment manufacturers.
For further information please contact:
---------------------------------------
Angela Hooper/Susan Merkel
Hayes Microcomputer Products, Inc.
Phone: 404/840-9200
Facsimile: 404/441-1238
______________________________________________
> MORTIMER STR InfoFile
"""""""""""""""""""""
LUCASARTS TAKES CHILDREN ON THE FLIGHT OF THEIR LIVES
IN MORTIMER AND THE RIDDLES OF THE MEDALLION,
THE COMPANY'S FIRST GAME JUST FOR KIDS
San Rafael, CA -- The day begins normally enough. Sid and Sally are
outside playing with the dog when the pooch chases a calico through a
nearby hedge. When neither Scout nor Waffles emerges from the foliage, the
kids crawl into the bushes in pursuit. What they find is definitely not
the neighbors' backyard. Before them stand Scout and Waffles -- frozen in
their tracks! And towering high into the clouds stands a great mushroom
-- with a door and windows!
So begins the modern day fairy tale of Mortimer and the Riddles of
the Medallion, LucasArts Entertainment Company's first game created
especially for the early entertainment market. Targeted to the 4-9 age
group and appealing to both boys and girls, Mortimer combines action and
discovery with a delightful story, marvelous characters and dazzling
locales. The game is planned for release in the first quarter of 1996 for
the Windows and Macintosh CD-ROM platforms.
Once Upon a Time ...
--------------------
The evil Lodius has stolen a magical medallion from his former
mentor, the kindly Professor Lazlow (proprietor of the giant mushroom).
Because its magic was intended only for good deeds, the medallion exploded
into pieces that scattered around the world -- but not before Lodius had
used the medallion to steal all the power from the animals and turn them
into statues.
According to Professor Lazlow, there's only one hope if the animals
are to be saved. It's up to Sid and Sally and a very special (and very
large) snail named Mortimer to unfreeze the animals and find all the
pieces of the medallion before Lodius can cause any more trouble. But
they have to act quickly, because if the animals aren't freed within 24
hours, they'll remain frozen forever.
In the race to save the animals, children choose to be either Sid or
Sally. With one piece of the medallion they've already found, they hop
into Mortimer's super-charged, deluxe shell of surprises. The first
surprise is that Mortimer's shell transforms into a cockpit and players
suddenly are able to fly.
Entertaining a New Market
-------------------------
Because LucasArts is best known for its adult-targeted action and
adventure games, on the surface Mortimer may seem like a bit of a
departure for the company. But a compelling story with memorable
characters and strong gameplay against a backdrop of stunning
high-resolution graphics and engaging sound and music makes Mortimer a
logical extension of the proven LucasArts' magic.
"Most people know LucasArts because of its award-winning games like
Rebel Assault and Sam & Max Hit the Road," said LucasArts President, Jack
Sorensen.
"Over the years, however, LucasArts has developed critically
acclaimed educational multimedia programs for schools with partners like
the National Geographic Society and the National Audubon Society.
Additionally, George Lucas is very committed to enhancing the lives of
children through technology. Based on this heritage, it's a natural that
LucasArts enter the early entertainment market."
A "Know"ble Deed
----------------
"I've always wanted to develop a game that lets children have lots of
fun and secretly teaches them something along the way," said Mortimer
Project Leader Collette Michaud. "In Mortimer, children discover all
sorts of facts about a variety of animals, while actually flying through
different environments."
Sid, Sally and Mortimer's task is to travel to different areas of the
world and free the animals that have been turned into statues. Players
fly through several locales, including the icy arctic, the wide savanna,
the harsh desert and the wooded Timberland, in search of frozen animals.
As players zip around clouds and over mountains and tree tops, they must
free the animals by zapping them back to life with the patented
"Revitascope." When an animal is saved, information about it is recorded
in Mortimer's cockpit computer.
After saving the animals in one area, Mortimer finds a gate that
guards the next locale. To pass, players must solve a riddle, the answer
to which is the name of an animal that has been freed. When players solve
the riddle they get a shiny new piece of the medallion, bringing them one
step closer to their goal.
To help players solve the riddle, they can use the cockpit computer
to see and "talk" to the animals they've saved. All the animals -- each
with its distinct and humorous personality -- will answer the questions,
"What are you?," "How are you special?" and "Why are you unusual?" The
answers will provide children with a variety of interesting facts about
the animals. Along the way, players encounter Lodius' minions -- salt
shaker hornets, whoppin' poppers that spray popcorn and beasty bags that
toss potato chips -- who try to slow Mortimer down with a snail's worst
enemy: salt. Acting quickly, Mortimer can slime these no-gooders. Once
players have freed all the animals, solved all the riddles and gathered
all the pieces of the medallion, they must face Lodius himself in the
final confrontation.
The Making of Mortimer
----------------------
Giving players the ability to fly is one of the features that makes
Mortimer so exciting. Based on LucasArts' celebrated Rebel Assault
engine, Mortimer's flight component lets children zoom through a virtual
world where not even the sky seems to be the limit.
All of the game's environments are rendered in 3-D. The stunning
results are fantastical worlds imbued with depth, light and shadows.
Mortimer, too, often is depicted in 3-D, allowing for just the right
roundness in his shell and perfect amount of twinkle in his antennaed
eyes. The 3-D graphics are complimented by feature film-quality,
high-resolution 2-D animation. During interviews, children interact with
anthropomorphic cartoon animals and get to view live-action video footage
of the animals in their natural habitats. Professional actors provide the
voices of all of the characters in Mortimer, and the game features an
all-digital, completely original soundtrack performed by children's
songsters, The Bungee Jumpin' Cows.
A Flying Snail?
---------------
"Ever since I was five years old, I've fantasized about flying," said
Collette. "I think it's an ability every child wishes for at one time or
another. We may not be able to supply the wings, but Mortimer is the next
best thing."
So, the big question is, why a giant snail as the main character?
"When I was younger, I was always fascinated with snails and their shells
and the endless mysteries the shell seemed to hold," said Collette. "With
all the possibilities a shell offered for weird stuff popping out, like
wings and propellers, Mortimer couldn't be anything but a snail."
About LucasArts
---------------
LucasArts Entertainment Company develops and publishes interactive
entertainment and educational software. LucasArts is one of three Lucas
companies. Lucas Digital Ltd., comprised of Industrial Light & Magic and
Skywalker Sound, is dedicated to serving the needs of the entertainment
industry for visual effects and audio post-production. Lucasfilm Ltd.
includes George Lucas' feature film and television activities, as well as
the business activities of the THX Group and Licensing.
Mortimer Development Team
-------------------------
Project Leader, Co-designer Collette Michaud
Production Manager, Co-designer Casey Donahue Ackley
Lead Programmer, Co-designer Gwen Musengwa
Character Designer, Co-designer Steve Purcell
Lead Technical Programmer Pat McCarthy
Lead Artist Peter Chan
Lead 3-D Artist Scott Baker
__________________________________
> For a "Chuckle or Two" STR Feature
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Suppose Edgar Allan Poe Had used a Computer:
--------------------------------------------
Author Unknown
Once upon a midnight dreary,
fingers cramped and vision bleary,
System manuals piled high and
wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bedsheets:
Still I sat there, doing spreadsheets:
Having reached the bottom line,
I took a floppy from the drawer.
Typing with a steady hand,
I then invoked the save command
But got instead a reprimand:
it read Abort, Retry, Ignore
Was this some occult illusion?
Some maniacal intrusion?
These were choices Solomon
himself had never faced before.
Carefully, I weighed the options.
These three ones seemed to be the top ones.
Clearly, I must now adopt one:
Choose Abort, Retry, Ignore..
With my fingers pale and trembling
Slowly toward the keyboard bending,
Longing for a happy ending,
hoping all would be restored,
Praying for some guarantee
Finally I pressed a key ---
But on the screen what did I see?
Again: Abort, Retry, Ignore.
I tried to catch the chips off-guard ----
I pressed again, but twice as hard
Luck was just not in the cards.
I saw what I had seen before.
Now I typed in desperation
Typing random combinations
Still there came the incarnation:
Choose: Abort, Retry, Ignore
There I sat, distraught, exhausted
by my own machine accosted
Getting up I turned away
and paced across the office floor,
And then I saw an awful sight:
A bold and blinding flash of light---
A lightning bolt had cut the night
and shook me to my core
I saw the screen collapse and die:
No! No!, my database I cried
I thought I heard a voice reply,
You'll see your data NEVERMORE!
To this day I do not know
The place which lost data goes
I bet it goes to heaven where
the angles have it stored.
But as far as productivity, well
I fear that it goes straight to hell
And that's the tale I have to tell
Your Choice: Abort, Retry, Ignore
_______________________________________
> TIE FIGHTER STR InfoFile
""""""""""""""""""""""""
TIE FIGHTER COLLECTOR'S CD-ROM
BRINGS THE DARK SIDE TO CD
LucasArts Title Features Dramatic New Campaign and
Enhanced Versions of TIE Fighterª and Defender of the Empire
San Rafael, CA -- The dark side of the STAR WARS universe just became
much more powerful with the addition of TIE Fighter Collector's CD-ROM,
scheduled to release from LucasArts Entertainment Company in the fall of
1995.
Originally available for floppy disk, TIE Fighter CD includes
significantly enhanced versions of the original disk-based games, TIE
Fighter, and its first add-on campaign, Defender of the Empire, as well as
a challenging new campaign. Improvements include upgraded graphics,
enhanced sound and more than 5,000 lines of studio-recorded dialogue. TIE
Fighter marked the first time in the history of the STAR WARS saga that
the conflict between the Rebel Alliance and the Imperial Navy is portrayed
from the perspective of the Empire.
TIE Fighter CD's new campaign, available exclusively in the CD-ROM
version, features 22 new missions, raising the total number of missions to
104. The new campaign includes three battles and four dramatic cut
scenes. As in the floppy disk version, TIE Fighter CD charges players to
restore and enforce Imperial rule and defeat the Rebel insurgence.
Players assume the role of a new Imperial Navy Academy recruit and
put their lives on the line to realize Emperor Palpatine's mandate:
Restore law and order to the galaxy. Similar in format to X-Wing, the
game challenges new pilots to refine their skills in training courses and
historical combat before engaging in a series of battles. The complex and
engaging plot serves as a backdrop for the battles, delivering a
simulation rich in story.
Enhanced Graphics and Sound
---------------------------
Created by the same team that was responsible for the development of
X-Wing, TIE Fighter
CD enhances the game's graphics by adding an upgraded
3-D opening and four new 3-D rendered cinematic cut scenes.
High-resolution graphics and animated special effects are featured in
each of the game's flight combat sections as well as in the new cockpit
art for the seven different crafts player's pilot.
"As with X-Wing Collector's CD, we felt there were many similar
things that we could do with TIE Fighter that would take advantage of the
CD-ROM format," said designer Lawrence Holland. "The CD technology gives
us an opportunity to greatly improve the game's original sound and
graphics and to add features that will enliven the overall experience for
fans of STAR WARS games."
In addition to the improved graphics, TIE Fighter CD features
digitally mastered studio-recorded voices and sound effects. Newly
recorded mission briefings and in-flight messages are included in the
title as well. As with the disk-based version of the game, TIE Fighter CD
features LucasArts' proprietary iMUSE sound system. iMUSE (Interactive
Music and Sound Effects) composes music "on the fly" in response to the
many choices available to players.
TIE Fighter CD requires a 386 cpu or higher and 1 meg EMS to run low-
resolution graphics. For high-resolution graphics, a 486 cpu with a local
bus video card or a Pentium with 8 megs of RAM is required. A
double-speed CD-ROM drive is recommended for optimum performance.
About LucasArts
---------------
L u casArts Entertainment Company develops and publishes interactive
entertainment and educational software. LucasArts is one of three Lucas
companies. Lucas Digital Ltd., comprised of Industrial Light & Magic and
Skywalker Sound, is dedicated to serving the needs of the entertainment
industry for visual effects and audio post-production. LucasFilm Ltd.
includes George Lucas' feature film and television activities, as well as
the business activities of the THX Group and Licensing.
**********************************************************************
ATARI/JAG SECTION (III)
=======================
Dana Jacobson, Editor
> From the Atari Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
It's been rumored for a few months that one of the last surviving
Atari magazines, Current Notes, was to cease publication after the
May/June issue (out this week). As of this writing, I haven't received
my copy yet, but there have been some online comments regarding this
prospect. The bottom line is that Current Notes will be continuing,
but not under the leadership of Joe Waters. Joe has decided, for a
number of personal reasons, to call it quits. Joe, reportedly, offers
an explanation in his final editorial. His successor will be Howard
Carson, probably best known for his leadership of the TAF Atari shows
held in Toronto.
I've been a reader of Current Notes as far back as I can remember.
I remember it as one of a couple Atari magazines that was not one of
those typical "glossies", but a magazine written by and for the typical
Atari user. It started out, like a number of Atari magazines, as a
user group newsletter which continued to grow and eventually became a
commercial venture. However, through the years, it maintained its
grassroots philosophy.
Current Notes was one of the few Atari magazines that I read cover
to cover, except for the 8-bit material which held no interest for me
since I had never owned one. People like J.D. Barnes, Frank Sommers,
Dave Troy, Dave Small, Andrej Wrotniak, and others made using an Atari
computer enjoyable. I still remember the first time that I met
J.D. Barnes at a WAACE show - this was the "Junkyard Pussycat"????
Hardly... But John was one of the nicest people that I had ever met at
WAACE and from Current Notes. So was Joe Waters and the rest of the
staff.
I think that the final WAACE show was truly the end of an era. I
also feel that, perhaps, that last show disheartened Joe a lot; and
perhaps the enthusiasm for Current Notes started to wane from that
point on. Regardless, Joe and his wife Joyce, along with the present
and past staff at Current Notes deserve only the best heartfelt praise
for the work that they've done over the past years. I am glad to have
known many of the staff, past and present. I'm also glad that I was
able to be a part of Current Notes, having had a few reviews and
articles appear in the magazine over the years. Many articles and news
bits from STReport have appeared in the magazine over the years; and I
can still remember being the impetus for one of JD's columns one month,
regarding a message that I had written on Delphi dealing with clip-art
sources from Dover Books. I also fondly remember a number of phone
conversations with JD over the years regarding the Atari market, WAACE,
Current Notes, STReport, and a host of other topics. I even got the
opportunity to visit the Pussycat's Junkyard one year while attending
the final WAACE show - it was appropriately named (and I mean that in a
nice way!).
We've lost a lot of great friends over the years from Current
Notes. We've also gained a lot of new ones. I wish all the best to
Howard for the future. I know that I'll continue to read Current Notes
until the day comes when it won't be available any longer. I hope that
that day doesn't arrive for many years to come!
To Joe Waters - thanks for all of your dedication over the years.
You will be missed. You've certainly earned a place in the Atari
community's hall of fame.
Until next time...
___________________________________________
Delphi's Atari Advantage!
TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (5/24/95)
(1) SPEED OF LIGHT 3.8 *(6) SEAWOLF ARCADE GAME
(2) NISHIRAN! *(7) COLD HARD CACHE V4
(3) SILKBOOT 3 *(8) DR. BOB'S ICON DRAW 1.42
(4) LITTLENET/MIDI PORT NETWORK *(9) PSST! 1.0
*(5) ATARI COMMUNITY E-MAIL LIST *(10) FLASH II 2.22 DEMO
* = New on list
HONORARY TOP 10
The following on-line magazines are always top downloads, frequently
out-performing every other file in the databases.
STREPORT (Current issue: STREPORT 11.20)
ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE (Current issue: AEO: VOLUME 4, ISSUE 4)
Look for the above files in the RECENT ARRIVALS database.
__________________________________
-/- Microsoft Drops Intuit Deal -/-
Blaming a protracted legal fight needed to overcome U.S. Justice
Department antitrust objections, Microsoft Corp has cancelled plans to
buy financial software publisher Intuit Inc. for $2 billion, an
all-stock deal announced last October.
Microsoft officials are quoted by Martin Wolk of the Reuter News
Service as saying a trial of the suit, followed by a possible appeal,
could have prevented the company from completing the acquisition of
Intuit until 1996.
In a statement from his Redmond, Washington, offices, Microsoft
Chairman Bill Gates said, "It's unfortunate that after such a broad
government review the merger faced additional months of uncertainty in
the courts. Progress towards realizing our goals could not wait until
the government's lawsuit was resolved. It's time for Microsoft to put
this matter behind us and move ahead."
Meanwhile, Intuit Chairman Scott Cook said he was disappointed
Microsoft had chosen not to continue fighting the suit, which he was
convinced the two companies could have won. But he said Intuit is
well-positioned to forge ahead as an independent company.
Said Cook, "We saw the Microsoft opportunity as a really unique
one. We don't see anything else out there like that. ... We have no
interest -- none, zero, zip -- in a merger."
At the Justice Department, antitrust chief Anne Bingaman told the
wire service the government had been prepared to move quickly on
evidence the merger would have been anti-competitive and harmful to
consumers.
As reported, the Justice Department sued to block the merger, saying
Microsoft's acquisition of Intuit, maker of the market-leading Quicken
program, would have given the software giant an unfair springboard into
the emerging market in electronic commerce.
In ending the deal, Microsoft says it has agreed to pay Intuit a
merger termination fee of $46.25 million. Cook said that will more than
offset the $4 million in legal and other expenses his Menlo Park,
California, company has incurred.
He declined comment on any potential future partnership between the
two companies, but emphasized they were likely to be vigorous
competitors. And he said he was happy that no confidential information
had changed hands between the two companies during the months that the
merger was pending.
Wolk comments, "The termination of the merger agreement will mean
renewed competition in the rapidly growing world of online banking and
electronic commerce, with Microsoft sure to reinvigorate its efforts to
turn its third-ranked Money personal-finance software package into a
meaningful rival for Quicken."
In a conference call with reporters and analysts, Gates said,
"You'll see us not only in the personal finance but also in many other
aspects pursuing the electronic commerce opportunity vigorously."
Reuters notes analysts have said Microsoft would not be badly hurt
if the merger fell through, but Intuit would have given the company a
valuable "front end" application for its forthcoming Microsoft Network
online service.
-/- Comedy Central to Join CompuServe -/-
You'll soon be able to get your comedy fix online when Comedy
Central launches a new online area and forum on CompuServe early this
summer, reports PRNewswire.
In addition to being able to create your own cheap-but-not-tawdry
laughs, the electronic version of Comedy Central will provide access to
the cable network's hilarious programming library, talent, and exclusive
comedy material. Skip the usual two drink minimum and use your PC to
enjoy both aspiring and famous comics' material, create and exchange
jokes with other viewers and comedian-wanabees, "interview" celebrities
via conferencing, participate in polls that appear in Comedy Central
programs, watch and/or download video clips of comedy acts, and preview
the network's programming and scheduling information.
In addition to the usual online features, Comedy Central will break
ground online by enabling CompuServe members to create content, giving
closet comedians a chance to strut their stuff. Also, by letting members
access local comedy entertainment or information on their favorite stars,
Comedy Central has created the very first cyber comedy club.
Comedy Central, currently seen in more than 35 million U.S. homes,
features more than 60 percent original programming, including the
British smash hit "Absolutely Fabulous," the Peabody Award-winning
"Mystery Science Theater 3000," and the CableACE Award-winning
"Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher." Comedy stars from the past,
present, and future form an eclectic mix of original programming,
stand-up comedy, sketch comedy, classic TV shows, and movies.
-/- Rolling Stone Launches News Service -/-
Rolling Stone magazine announced today it will launch a music news
service on CompuServe this summer.
The Associated Press reports that the publication will offer
entertainment and political news, along with photos and music reviews
with audio clips, although it does not plan to distribute the contents
of its magazine electronically.
"There are a multitude of things we will do that cannot be presented
on a magazine page," said Bob Love, a senior editor of the magazine who
will oversee the online service. "Our mission is to make the online
editorial as innovative and dynamic as the magazine's."
_____________________________________
JAGUAR SECTION
==============
More E3 Reports! CatNips!
VR Specs! And more!
> From the Editor's Controller - Playin' it like it is!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
I have to admit that I'm one of those Atari users who run hot and
cold regarding current events, specifically with the Jaguar and its
current "state of affairs." There are times when I feel that the company
has finally got its "schtick" together; and at other times, I can't help
but wonder what's going on in Sunnyvale.
One of the press releases from/during the recent E3 show put me
back into the "what's going on" mood. It was the one that pertained to
the "nearly 100 titles...by the end of the year." That statement,
apparently coming from Sam Tramiel, just struck a nerve with me,
reminiscent of his 30-50 games by Christmas that he made last year, and
was nowhere close to the mark.
Here's the relevant portion of the press release, just to refresh
your memories:
SUNNYVALE, CA (May 11, 1995) -- Atari Corporation announces that there
will be nearly 100 titles for its 64-bit Jaguar entertainment system by
the end of the year. "We will have every kind of game that players want,
from the best developers and publishers in the world," comments Atari
President Sam Tramiel.
I can rationalize a number of reasons for the above statements.
Firstly, it was done at/for the E3 community - a show to attract and
woo the dealers, developers, and game publishers. This statement
certainly sounds more attractive than one claiming 50 games by years
end. However, it's still only a figure. How realistic is it? Well,
after last year's 30-50 games prediction which fell like a lead
weight, I'm not too sure how realistic this nearly 100 games prediction
really is.
Just how well, or poorly, did the public react to this press
release? I haven't seen any reaction from those who participated at the
show. But, having heard many stories of how some dealers and stores
are currently reacting about the Jaguar in general, especially now that
the Saturn has arrived on the scene, I have to wonder how they might
feel. I do know that the online community is shocked to read such a
statement. Granted, the online community is only a small percentage of
past, present, and potential customers; but I feel that they are some
of the most knowledgeable. These are the people who are apt to spread
the word about the Jaguar and its potential. They are also the same
ones who could dissuade potential customers as a result of their
experiences.
Has Atari heard the story about the boy who cried wolf?, I read an
online user's message asking the other day? Atari has been making too
many firm predictions that have gone totally awry the past year and a
half. I don't fault Atari for making predictions like these. I want
them to continue to do so. However, I want them to make them and also
make sure that enough of them are fulfilled so the customer base
remains positive. I don't expect Atari, or any company for that
matter, to be able to manage every single prediction. There are so
many variables in the video games business that could go wrong; a
realistic person knows this and can accept the fact that something can
occur to delay a game and miss a release date. Atari has to come
through on a good many of its predictions, however. Otherwise, no one
is ever going to believe what's coming out of the home office.
So, where do we stand with regard to these 100 games? Well, as of
this writing, there are 24 games available. Looking over the brochure
from E3 which lists the existing game titles and the current schedule
of upcoming games, Atari is going to fall short of their 100.
According to this schedule, there are 54 titles names, starting with
Pinball Fantasies in June and ending with NBA Jam TE, in December.
Adding these two figures, I come up with 78 games by year's end. Will
there be any titles coming out that Atari isn't aware of at the moment?
Possibly, but certainly not more than a few.
Will Atari have 100 game titles on the shelf by year's end? I
seriously doubt it, but it's certainly not impossible. With their past
track record, I think that Atari is going to be hard-pressed to have 50
titles available by the end of the year. I'll be happy if they have 50
titles available; I'll be in heaven if they have close to 100!
But, having the games available isn't necessarily going to be the
end-all satisfaction for me personally. What will make me feel even
better is knowing that these games will be available nationwide, not
just in a selected few target areas. They also have to be available in
many outlets. There also has to be some marketing campaign to get Atari
back on the map where it belongs. Make people positively aware of
Atari and the Jaguar!
Is this happening? Well, I do know that there will be a
"campaign" to learn what's going on in the marketplace. There will be
a survey going out (I'm not sure if this is a public survey, or just a
media-related one) to see what's happening at the TRUs. I also know
that the Jaguar will be featured in an upcoming Sears catalog. I'm
sure that there are other plans being staged, as well.
So, if I might make a suggestion for Atari and its future
statements: be realistic, be honest (not that I believe that they are
being deliberately misleading), and follow through. In doing so,
you'll regain and maintain credibility and support, even when there's
the occasional setback.
Enough of my soapbox antics for one week. Let me know how you
feel about this topic, or any other comments that you might have. By
the way, we're still organizing your Jaguar-CD comments. As soon as we
have the numbers and comments put together, we'll make them available
to you (and Atari).
Until next time...
_____________________________________________
> Jaguar Catalog STR InfoFile - What's currently available, what's
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" coming out.
Current Available Titles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
J9000 Cybermorph $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9006 Evolution:Dino Dudes $49.99 Atari Corp.
J9005 Raiden $49.99 FABTEK, Inc/Atari Corp.
J9001 Trevor McFur/
Crescent Galaxy $49.99 Atari Corp.
J9010 Tempest 2000 $59.95 Llamasoft/Atari Corp.
J9028 Wolfenstein 3D $69.95 id/Atari Corp.
JA100 Brutal Sports FtBall $69.95 Telegames
J9008 Alien vs. Predator $69.99 Rebellion/Atari Corp.
J9029 Doom $69.99 id/Atari Corp.
J9036 Dragon: Bruce Lee $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9003 Club Drive $59.99 Atari Corp.
J9007 Checkered Flag $69.99 Atari Corp.
J9012 Kasumi Ninja $69.99 Atari Corp.
J9042 Zool 2 $59.99 Atari Corp
J9020 Bubsy $49.99 Atari Corp
J9026 Iron Soldier $59.99 Atari Corp
J9060 Val D'Isere Skiing $59.99 Atari Corp.
Cannon Fodder $69.99 Virgin
Syndicate $69.99 Ocean
Troy Aikman Ftball $69.99 Williams
Theme Park $69.99 Ocean
Sensible Soccer Telegames
Double Dragon V $59.99 Williams
J9009E Hover Strike $59.99 Atari Corp.
Available Soon ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER
Pinball Fantasies $ 59.95 Computer West
Super Burnout TBD Atari
Air Cars TBD MidNite Entertainment
Fight For Life TBD Atari
Flashback TBD U.S. Gold
Power Drive Rally TBD TWI
Rayman TBD UBI Soft
Ultra Vortex TBD Atari
White Men Can't Jump TBD Atari
Jaguar CD-ROM $149.99 Atari
Hardware and Peripherals ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CAT # TITLE MSRP MANUFACTURER
J8001 Jaguar (complete) $189.99 Atari Corp.
J8001 Jaguar (no cart) $159.99 Atari Corp.
J8904 Composite Cable $19.95
J8901 Controller/Joypad $24.95 Atari Corp.
J8905 S-Video Cable $19.95
CatBox $69.95 ICD
> Industry News STR Game Console NewsFile - The Latest Gaming News!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Jaguar Virtual Reality - VR Headset Official Specs
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Head Mounted Display (HMD):
Less than 1 pound. Two degrees of freedom (DOF)
tracking, stereo sound, and 52 degree horizontal by 40
degree vertical field of view. Uses a single 0.7" TFT
active matrix color LCD containing 104,000 pixels.
Optical System:
Custom-designed pupil projection with aspheric acrylic
lenses, beam splitters, mirrors and thin film coatings.
Large exit pupil size of 5mm x 14mm. Can be used by
anyone with an interpupilliary distance between 45mm
and 70mm.
Focus Adjustment:
There is no need for focus adjustment because the
optical system is highly tolerant, projecting a
binocular image, aligned to infinity to both eyes.
Tracking Systems:
"V-Trak" is the fastest tracker ever developed for the
consumer market, with a sample rate of 250Hz and a
lagtime of only 4 milliseconds.
Optional Joystick:
Offers two of six degrees of freedom, allowing greater
control over movements in the virtual world. Jaguar VR
games can also be played with the standard Jaguar
controller.
Docking Station:
Houses "V-Trak" position sensing system, a joystick
interface and high speed communications link to the
Jaguar for transferring audio and visual tracking data.
Atari has been in the video game business for over twenty
years. Today, Atari markets Jaguar, the only American made,
advanced 64-Bit entertainment system. Atari Corporation is
located in Sunnyvale, CA.
###
> Jaguar Online STR InfoFile Online Users Growl & Purr!
""""""""""""""""""""""""""
CATnips... Jaguar tidbits from Don Thomas
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
===================
E3: Supplemental...
===================
Soon after I finished my review of the Electronic Entertainment Expo
(E3), I remembered other great things and people related to the show.
For an overview of E3, see my CATnips from last evening. I think some
of these other items are big news so I want to pass them on.
For those of you looking for a dedicated Jaguar magazine, it's coming.
_The Jaguar's Edge_ will premier as a bi-monthly in July. I met the
publisher, John Marcotte, at E3 and he shared with me some of his
exciting plans as well as some layouts. The first issues will be
32 pages and printed on high-gloss stock. Distribution will be direct
to the home through the mail and Toad Computers and Steve's Software
will have copies as soon as they are rolled off the presses. John tells
me that Pat Solomon from the Des Moines Register will become the
Features Editor. In addition, Christian Svensson will be a feature
writer. Other surprises are pending formal announcement.
Early subscribers of _The Jaguar's Edge_ will find a $20 discount
coupon on Telegames' "Brutal Sports Football" or "International
Sensible Soccer" as a bonus. A one year subscription is just $15. For
more information, contact the publisher through the internet:
<jmarcott@mother.com>.
Dave and Jennifer Troy stopped by at E3 and gave me fresh copies of
their new color catalog. I like their catalog because it does an
exceptional job to describe each item in terms I can understand. I
also like it because they sell a lot of nifty Jaguar stuff as well as
virtually anything for the Atari computer lines. The cover price of
the catalog is $3, but I'll bet they can include one with most purchases.
For information, call 410/544-6943.
Speaking of dealers stopping by, Steve's Software customers will be
happy to know that Steve Kipker made his rounds at E3 too. Steve was
anxious to get the stories behind all the new upcoming releases so he
could share the news with his customers. For Steve's latest catalog,
call 904/762-8370.
Terry Grantham and Pete Mortimer, of Telegames, were at the show.
They were showing off their newest Jaguar titles in the Atari booth
and talking about their upcoming release schedule.
John Skruch reminded me this morning that he also left E3 a little
early on Thursday and Friday evenings to visit retailers and offer
demos to customers. As a matter of fact, he took the Thea Relm Fighters
along with him. On Thursday, John visited the Virgin Megastore in
Hollywood. One young birthday boy changed his mind from a CDi after
John pointed out the advantages of the Jaguar 64-bit system. The event
was so crowded and successful that over 70 T-Shirts were given away in
about 5 minutes.
On Friday, May 12th, John took the TRF team to the Electronics Boutique
in Lakewood. At both locations, John managed to "borrow" "Defender 2000"
and "Thea Relm Fighter" flash ram carts direct off the E3 floor to
show off to customers. He tells me "Val D'Isere Skiing and Snowboarding"
and "Doom" were favorites among the titles he had to show that were
already out for the Jaguar.
=============
Other news...
=============
B&C Computers tells me they have "Krazy Ace Golf" now in stock for the
Lynx. The price is $39.95. Their phone number is 408/986-9960.
Intelligent Gamer E3 Report: Atari Brings Out a New Arsenal
by Brian Osserman
Atari's Jaguar VR
The VR helmet was clearly what Atari considered its big gun for E3:
they had two Virtuality displays placed in prominent positions at the
front of the booth, displays which were actually Virtuality's arcade
hardware (PCs using Virtuality head-mounter displays and handle
controllers) for a game called Zone Hunter. In Zone Hunter, you are in
a 3-D polygon world and essentially moving through corridors (you can
control speed of motion, but not direction) and shooting at enemies as
they appear. Virtuality's hand controller -- with tracked motion and a
button -- works nicely for aiming a gun, and the head-tracking and
realistic aiming make up somewhat for the lack of interactivity.
Although the demo was on Virtuality hardware and not shown for the
Jaguar, Zone Hunter is being developed for the Jag VR system by
Virtuality.
But more interesting was a display of an early Jag VR prototype,
which was open only to select members of the retail world and the
press. Although it was a pretty early prototype, it was very functional,
with the only major problem being a lack of proper eye focusing -- this
will be remedied on production models. Additionally, the infrared
tracking system means your head has only about 100 degrees in which to
move left and right. Finally, the system is designed for use while
sitting, and does not allow the user to walk around while using it
(hence, game motion has to use a controller). That's it for the
limitations.
How is Atari planning to put out high quality VR headgear for $300?
They have opted for monoscopic vision, which allows for the use of a
single screen, with the view spliced into two eye views, each eye
focused at infinity. Using one high-quality screen rather than two
low-quality screens will decrease the cost and keep the resolution
high (about 400 by 260), and simultaneously allow for very high quality
head-tracking (over 200 Hz). So, what's the point of Virtual Reality
without 3-D vision? Well, it is still much more immersive, taking up
your entire view, allowing head-tracking, and providing quality
surround sound. Moreover, the game on display showed another, totally
unexpected advantage of using the VR helmet: the headtracking is almost
as stable as a mouse for aiming.
The game on display was VR Missile Command -- aka Missile Command
3-D or Missile Command 2000. MC takes place in a 3-D polygon world in
which your perspective is from a ground-level gun-base assigned to
defend other bases and cities around it from missile attacks. The game
allows you to control three different guns, each 120 degrees apart, for
proper manipulation of the 360 degree world around you. Using the
standard Jaguar controller with left and right on the pad switching
between guns, and the buttons for firing, an aiming rectangle is fixed
in the center of the screen, and you aim by moving your head to put
incoming missiles in the center of the rectangle before shooting them
down. Despite the lack of ocular focus and early stage of the game's
development, this was a lot of fun to play, and aiming with your head
turns out to be a real blast.
Roughly a year ago, before Atari had finalized plans for the VR
headset, they had some concerns about liability; if a customer fell
and hurt themselves while walking around, they could potentially sue
for large amounts of money. Clearly, restricting use of the headset to
sitting will greatly diminish the risk, and the press release mentioned
an automatic lockout device that ensured the user stayed seated by
turning off the visuals when the user stands up. In talking with
Atari's Bill Rehbock, it was explained to IG Online that, even more
crucially, Virtuality has conducted a tremendous amount of testing and
research on safety, and unlike other VR companies, was willing to show
Atari the full results of the study. The studies made Atari much more
comfortable with the idea of releasing a HMD, and subsequently made
their decision of who to contract out the VR development to much easier.
When asked about whether or not the VR headset is still on track
for a Christmas release, Mr. Rehbock responded that Atari would be
lucky to have it out by Christmas with both Zone Hunter and Missile
Command ready, but he also stressed that he feels that if anyone can do
it, Virtuality can. He emphasized that they have only been working on
the prototypes and Missile Command demo for a couple months, and have
done a tremendous amount in that time. Virtuality is, in fact,
developing both Missile Command and Zone Hunter themselves. Are Atari
or any third parties were working on games which utilize the Jaguar VR
setup? Mr. Rehbock said that Atari is working on some titles which have
yet to be announced, and are heavily recruiting third parties to
develop for the VR setup, though as of yet there is nothing to announce.
Finally, Mr. Rehbock said that Atari is aiming to release the
VR helmet with the head-tracking device for about $300, with one or
two pack-in games. A Virtuality rep also added that the hand controller
used for Zone Hunter would probably not be included in the package, and
we were told that multiple head-trackers can be linked to increase the
units' tracking ability to a full 6 degrees of freedom.
Strategies for Success
Mr. Rehbock also spent some time discussing Atari's strategies to
become more successful in 1995. Strategies under development include
new outlooks both in their position in the market and their pursuit of
third-party developers, a subject Mr. Rehbock is in a particularly
good position to discuss: in addition to his other tasks, he has been
in charge of pursuing and signing on third party developers. First,
Mr. Rehbock mentioned that Atari is taking a two-pronged approach to
dealing with the lack of third-party support. First, they have stepped
up efforts to produce quality in-house titles, with Hover Strike being
one of the first products of this policy. Secondly, Atari is focusing
on licensing software titles from third parties to develop in-house.
This holds two major advantages; the third parties hold no risk, so are
more likely to sign a contract, and the profit potential for Atari is
much higher. When asked about third party announcements, Mr. Rehbock
said that some major contracts were in the works and will hopefully be
announced within the next couple weeks.
When asked specifically about Electronic Arts and the deal rumored
to have occurred at ECTS, he said that the reason there has been no
press release is that the deal has not quite been finalized; the exact
games it will involve have not been completely decided. He also said
that he is actively pursuing a contract to get Descent for the Jaguar.
Mr. Rehbock also discussed Atari's philosophy in dealing with the
newer systems from Sony and Sega: admitting they were more powerful,
he said that Atari will attempt to maximize the price difference by
keeping the core Jaguar system as well-supported and competitive as
possible. Major games will continue to be released for the system in
the hopes that consumers will compare the core Jaguar and its price
the other systems on the market, rather than comparing the Jaguar + CD
and their price to the same systems. To strengthen this approach, Atari
is hoping to eventually be able to lower the price of the core Jaguar
system to $99, and plans for an integrated CD and Jaguar combined unit
have now been dropped. He also stressed that the Jaguar will offer as
much flexibility as possible; while allowing consumers to get a serious
base console cheaply, it will also allow them to pick and choose
between peripherals like the CD player, VR helmet, and Voice Modem, all
of which will function independently of one another. He hopes that this
philosophy can bring the Jaguar into the mainstream to stay.
Additionally, Mr. Rehbock asked that IG Online mention that Atari is
actively looking to hire new staff in every facet of game development,
and anyone interested in working as a programmer, producer, artist,
etc. should contact them immediately.
The Jaguar Control Pad 2
Another prototype of a new Jaguar accessory on display was the
8-button control pad. With a shape similar to the current Jaguar
controllers, the most obvious difference in the new pad is the addition
of three extra buttons, somewhat smaller and taller, above the old ABC
buttons. These buttons seemed to map to 789 on the keypad, but it
wasn't entirely apparent if this was the case -- also added were left
and right triggers along the top, much like those on the Super Nintendo
joypad, which were mapped from the 4 and 6 keys. The basic idea of the
configuration is to give maximum support to six-button fighting games,
while allowing more complex games to keep all the buttons relatively
easily accessible in the triggers, buttons, and the 1235 keys. The only
other obvious utilitarian difference is a slightly different control
pad, which curves up around the thumb, favoring quick, precise
movements. Such improvements seemed to improve every sort of motion
except quick movement across the pad, which has now become a little
more difficult than was the case with the original model.
Bill Rehbock added that essentially all the aspects of the
controller but the control pad itself have been finalized; they are
aware of the joypad's problem in moving left to right and down to up,
and are looking for a way to fix it. He expects the new controller
to ship in July, with a price as close to $25 as possible.
The Jaguar Phylon Voice/Dat Modem
A Jaguar peripheral conspicuous in its absence was the Voice Modem,
which was originally slated to be finished in time to incorporate
into Doom last year, and has disappeared from discussion as of
recently. Mr. Rehbock claimed that the final model should be going to
developers within a couple weeks, and that the majority of the delay
was in making sure that the modem and headset with microphone were
simple and robust enough to be used by the average mass market consumer.
IG Online inquired whether all of the previously announced features
(comes with headset and mike, error detection, and call waiting) were
still incorporated, and he confirmed that they are. He also added that
a new feature has been added: the modem can handle speaking either
through digital or analog means, such that the modem can automatically
switch between the use of a telephone or the headset for voice
transmissions. Mr. Rehbock also said that the Voice Modem will
probably be a Christmas product, noting that the only game well into
development with definite plans to use the Voice Modem is 4-Play's
Battlesphere.
Jaguar CD
Finally, the impending release of the Jag CD unit was very clear
at the Atari booth; there were 13 Jaguar CD titles in progress on
display, many of them substantially through development. Atari is
clearly quite committed to making sure that there are a reasonable
number of titles ready for the release of the CD, having delayed it
yet again to August, and promising there will be at least 5 games
ready for release by that time. At this point, Atari's plans for the
CD, although not yet definite, are to sell the $150 package with Jeff
Minter's Virtual Light Machine built in (this is definite) and include
Vid Grid, the Tempest 2000 soundtrack, and another pack-in game with
the package. The last game has yet to be decided, but an
Atari representative said that Atari wants to be sure to choose
something with wide appeal.
The obvious first question about the Jag CD is "what games will be
available this year and when will we see them?" Mr. Rehbock divided
these titles into three waves: those that should be available on or
about the roll-out of the drive in August, those that should be out
two weeks to a month later, and those which should arrive by the end
of the year. Although he admitted to having missed a few, he broke
them down as follows:
First batch: Defender 2000, Battlemorph, Blue Lightning, Dragon's
Lair, Space Ace, Myst, Vid Grid, and Highlander, although Defender
2000 might well fall into the second batch.
The rest of the second batch was: Demolition Man, Creature Shock,
Robinson's Requiem, and Starlight Bowlarama, with Brain Dead 13, an
animated game developed entirely by Readysoft, coming at the end of the
second batch or the beginning of the third.
The final batch consisted of: Varuna's Forces, Black Ice/White Noise,
and possibly a couple other titles. With titles such as Soulstar,
Brett Hull Hockey, Primal Rage, and Thea Relm Fighters not on this
list, Atari is looking to have 15-20 titles available for the Jag CD
by the end of the year.
With the Jaguar CD comes the question of memory cartridges.
Mr. Rehbock explained that they are still playing with specifications,
but are currently looking at a 128K cart to be sold separately at a
price of as close to $20 as possible. He noted that even a large,
complicated game should not need more than 32K per saved game, and
most games require significantly less than that.
Software
The Atari booth at E3 featured roughly 30 games in progress, along
with a handful of games already available. Released game which were
shown were: Tempest 2000, Brutal Sports Football, Alien vs. Predator,
2 Dooms networked together (apparently without errors), Iron Soldier,
Val D'Isere Skiing, and Hover Strike.
The following cartridge games in progress were displayed, roughly in
order of projected release date: Ultra Vortex, Pinball Fantasies,
Rayman, Air Cars, Burnout, White Men Can't Jump, Power Drive Rally,
Flashback, Ruiner*, Flip Out*, Skyhammer*, Fight For Life, Baldies*,
Hover Hunter, Battlesphere, and Deathwatch*.
The following CD games in progress were displayed, arranged similarly:
Blue Lightning, Dragon's Lair, Vid Grid, Highlander, Battlemorph, Myst,
Brett Hull Hockey*, Soulstar*, Defender 2000, Creature Shock, Varuna's
Forces, Primal Rage, and Thea Relm Fighters. (The projected release
dates of the games marked with "*" are guessed based on the level of
completion of the demos displayed.)
Additionally, the JagCD's Virtual Light Machine was on display, as was a
Virtuality VR demo of Zone Hunter, a game which they will be developing
for the Jag VR helmet, and Missile Command 3-D/VR/2000 inside an Atari
conference room.
The top games on display were undoubtedly Defender 2000, Hover Hunter,
Battlesphere, and Rayman. Defender 2000 is Jeff Minter's re-make of the
classic arcade shooter Defender, and was quite impressive though only the
Defender Classic and Defender Plus modes were playing. Classic mode was
just like the original arcade game, except for the constant 60 fps and
option to configure the control pad to control acceleration and
deceleration. Plus mode added new rendered bitmaps of the enemies,
along with two very nice graphical effects: the mountains had an
undulating brightly-colored pattern on them, and the lower portion of
the sky was dominated by a beautiful aurora-type effect. Like Classic,
Pulse mode was running at a steady 60 fps, and Jeff Minter is confident
he will manage to keep the 2000 mode at the same framerate. Play-wise,
the Plus version adds Lightning Lasers and 2 AI droids, both of which
function to kill enemies and pick up falling humans and bring them back
to your ship. The controls were incredibly responsive, and combined
with the high framerate gave an almost surreal feel to the demo being
shown. Aesthetically, there were a few peculiarities: the boundaries
of the mountains were still a solid straight line, which looked a
little out of place, and the star field was single color (although the
color did cycle) and scrolled flatly upward. However, these nits are
simply fodder for 2000 mode. Jeff says that Defender 2000 versus
Defender Plus will be very similar to Tempest 2000 versus Tempest Plus,
so we can look forward to some truly incredible effects in the final
version. 2000 mode will have some textured backgrounds, and the game
area will be more than a single screen high. Other than these, we'll
just have to wait and see the final version for ourselves. Jeff is
aiming for a September release.
Hover Hunter's graphics engine has been tweaked since its previous
showing, with more anti-aliasing to make for a much smoother picture.
For those who didn't already know, Hover Hunter is a high-speed
hovertank game with Voxel space graphics similar to those of Comanche
on the PC -- Hyper Image Productions uses a method called Displacement
Texturing to achieve a very aesthetically pleasing graphical effect
somewhere between Gouraud shading and texture-mapping. The demo also
ran at a very high framerate, though the software was still very
preliminary: sound effects were practically non-existent and enemies
were literally non-existent. The controls, although a quick hack, were
quite responsive. In single player mode, all there was to do was
explore one of two available levels, firing at the trees that dotted
the landscape. However, a 2-player mode was implemented, although it
too was a quick hack: it crashed regularly, there was no player-player
collision detection, and there was no way for either player to die.
The final version will have at least 4-player networking, and Hover
Hunter is looking very promising. Hyper Image is hoping for a late
August to early September release.
Battlesphere is coming along nicely. It is a space combat game which
employs light-sourced, Gouraud shade graphics with some textures
overlaid. The enemy graphics in the demo often looked a little too
much like flat polygons, although this was highly dependent on the
ship you were opposing -- in character select mode, the colors were
vibrant and the shading was gorgeous. In-game graphics seemed somewhat
sparse, but this was probably due mostly to the fact that the HUD has
not yet been implemented, and there wasn't a whole lot around in the
demo. The explosions are quite nice, with beautiful debris flying in
all directions, although a few added bitmaps other than the main
explosion bitmap would probably make them look even better. Finally,
the framerate remained incredibly high throughout. Controls were smooth
and responsive, although they did not allow for acceleration and
deceleration or rolling while turning -- you needed, at this early
stage, to hold a button or push a keypad number to access certain
control features. There were two modes of play implemented:
single-player target practice mode to practice destroying ships that
didn't shoot back, and a two-player networked mode that allowed
one-on-one dogfighting. Battlesphere's final version will include a
large variety of single and multiplayer modes, and is intended to
become more or less the king of networked games, allowing up to eight
players to play against one another. 4Play, the team responsible for
Battlesphere, are entirely part-time, but in an ideal world
Battlesphere will be out in September. Ship interiors rendered in
3-D Studio were one of the major highlights of the in-game graphics --
they had a great alien feel with an Alien versus Predator type
aesthetic.
Rayman, the incredibly hyped up platform game by Ubisoft, is almost
finished and it *looks* stunning. The animated graphics are very
colorful, extremely well shaded, and unbelievably detailed. Sprites
move very smoothly, including a number of "background" objects, such
as butterflies which fly around the platforms. The stages I saw had
three levels of parallax scrolling, with the background, the play area,
and the foreground, although the ads Ubisoft was handing out said that
some stages had five levels of parallax.
So, what about the gameplay? Only 4 stages were on display, along with a
couple secret ones that I missed when I gave it a try. Rayman's controls
are responsive, and the interactivity seems good. There is at least one
common instance of apparently non-moving objects actually being
manipulable... but this is not a game for Sonic fans. Rayman moves at a
very sedate pace, and seems to focus more on interaction, puzzle-solving,
and exploration than on fast reflexes. Will there be enough depth to make
up for the lack of speed? The stages on display were too short to give a
definitive answer, but we should know for sure within a few weeks,
when the finished game should be ready. Rayman is currently slated for
a June release.
The next tier of games on display varied from quite good to showing
solid potential as next generation games. They were: Ultra Vortex,
White Men Can't Jump, Skyhammer, Varuna's Forces, and Battlemorph.
Ultra Vortex is the MK2-style fighting game by Beyond Games, the makers
of Battlewheels. It was nearly done, and Beyond Games was displaying
a nearly bug-free version on a large screen TV at the very edge of the
booth. The graphics got mixed reactions from viewers; the artwork and
character graphics were undeniably incredibly well done, and the
costumes were original, but the game's smoothness was unquestionably far
from ideal. While the framerate is now not much of an issue -- much of
the parallax scrolling was eliminated to lower the load -- the smoothness
is now limited mainlyby the number of frames of animation, which is
unfortunately a little on the low side. There were a large number of
backgrounds on display, at least three of them with their own
fatalities (all pit variants). I'm pretty sure that a couple other
stages have their own fatalities, also. The characters each had a
pretty wide array of moves, and although none of them were innovative
mechanically, the way they are executed is almost invariably very cool.
We were told that each character has two fatalities, although we never
saw more than one per character. Fatalities we did see were very well
done: Buzzsaw extends a drill from his wrist and runs opponents through
the stomach, Lucius grabs and electrocutes opponents, and then
uppercuts them into two, and another character knocked his or her
opponent's head off, which flies directly towards the screen.
Most importantly, the controls were quick and responsive, along with a
couple semi-innovative features like a double back-tap making your
character hop quickly back. Moves were reasonably easy to execute with
the proper timing, and Ultra Vortex seemed pretty well balanced. Also,
Beyond Games has spent a lot of time on the enemy AI, and it shows.
The enemies' actions are very unpredictable, and there was only one
obvious serious weakness involving drawing uppercuts, and even that
required just the right distance. Fans of Mortal Kombat should love
Ultra Vortex, and it may appeal to others as well. Ultra Vortex should
be available in mid-to-late June.
White Men Can't Jump was also close to complete, and seemed to be a very
solid all-around title. It is a two-on-two street basketball game based
very loosely on the movie of the same name. The graphics were basically
quite good, with a textured court and scaled sprites for players; the
camera view changed nicely, and the player animation is pretty detailed.
Unfortunately, the framerate was on the low end, taking away from what
could have been an extremely impressive visual effect. Sound effects
are nice, with a wide variety of digitized voices for every situation.
WMCJ's gameplay had a good basic engine, with an easy but powerful
control system, but the details were something of a letdown. The
game's designers opted to go for something a little rougher than real
life street ball, with no fouls called and punches a regular occurrence.
This in itself wouldn't be much of a problem, but when someone makes
a basket, the ball never really leaves play; only the other team is
allowed to touch it, but once they do, either team can do what they
want, except that the ball has to be cleared behind the 3-point line.
This strange juxtaposition of lawlessness and specific rules would be
confusing enough if they had made matters clear, but, for example, I'm
pretty sure that one sample, saying "you didn't check it," was
actually supposed to mean "you didn't clear it." So, as is, White Men
Can't Jump is pretty confusing, although this sort of thing would be
pretty easy to fix in the final few weeks they have to work on it.
Finally, the new 4-player adapter was present and fully implemented,
allowing each character to be played by a different person,
reminiscent of NBA Jam. White Men Can't Jump should arrive in late
June to early July, and will be packed in with the 4-player tap.
Skyhammer was something of a surprise presence, but it was certainly a
pleasant surprise. Developed by Rebellion, of Alien vs. Predator fame,
Skyhammer is a texture-mapped action game that takes you through a city
in some variety of flying crafts. The textured graphics look great; the
textures are chosen nicely, and although the buildings are all
orthogonal, the engine does allow for full 3D motion: looking up/down
and banking are both implemented. The framerate was more problematic.
While forward motion seemed pretty smooth, any variety turning was
quite choppy. Hopefully, this is due to the fact that this is a
relatively early demo. The (fully textured) enemies looked quite good.
Other than choppiness, the only other immediate problem with the
graphics was the short horizon, which could conceivably hamper
gameplay somewhat. Controls were nice and responsive, allowing full
range of motion. The gameplay wasn't very solidly implemented
yet; you could only go around and shoot at enemies, but Skyhammer
looks like it could be quite a hot title.
Surprisingly enough, Varuna's Forces was only showing a demo of the
introduction, character selection, and mission intro sequences. The
FMV was nicely done, although not totally stunning. Character
selection had some nice effects, especially the gratuitous texturing
of the FMV of the character selected. Varuna's Forces is intended to
be a fully immersive war-strategy-with-some-action game. You will
control your squadron, giving them orders, seeing what they are doing,
and hearing their reports of what's going on. Whenever you want to, you
can "jump into" a character, at which point the game becomes more
Doom-like; you control their motions with a textured, first-person
viewpoint. It sounds like a great idea, but until we see some of the
real game, we won't know for sure. According to an Accent Media,
Varuna's Forces should be ready for the CD release in August, though
Bill Rehbock claimed that it wouldn't be available for a month or two
after that.
Battlemorph had a playable demo (finally), and it seemed like roughly
what one would expect out of Cybermorph II. The improvements obvious
from the demo were all graphical: the horizon seemed a little longer,
the Gouraud shading was smoother and less gaudy, the enemies and some
objects and buildings were textured, and most importantly, the
framerate was much higher. Most of Cybermorph remains in the sequel,
including most, if not all of the weapons, and a kinder, gentler Skylar.
An FMV intro now shows your Mothership in greater detail, and the intro
has some very nice moments. Apparently gone is the pod collection on
every level. Added are some new powerups (a more powerful radar, for
instance), a map key (although not yet implemented in the demo), and
underwater and tunnel sequences. The underwater sequences didn't seem
to add much to the demo, other than a change of graphics. Tunnels were
a little more interesting, with doors that needed to be opened and
closed, or in some cases, opened and closed automatically -- careful
timing helps you to get through. Both the water and the tunnels could
add variety to the gameplay in the final version. The only obvious
problem with the demo was that the aiming hadn't been changed much,
and could still provide problems when it was necessary to fire off a
stream of shots at a strange angle. It appears that nearly all that's
left is to actually design the levels. Battlemorph should be available
with the launch of the CD player in August.
The next few games fall into the categories of "fun, but unimpressive,"
or games that have potential but will need serious work. These are:
Burnout, Power Drive Rally, Primal Rage, Fight For Life, Thea Relm
Fighters, Brett Hull Hockey and Highlander. Burnout is a simple,
Hang-On type motorcycle racing game. It was on display in what looked
like a nearly finished form. For sprite-based graphics, Burnout looks
quite nice, with quite well-drawn (although obviously not digitized)
sprites, moving in large numbers extremely quickly and smoothly across
the screen. The controls respond quickly and effectively, and did not
burden the game at all. However, if they don't include a two-player
mode, it just won't be worth buying for those of us who get bored
quickly racing against the computer. Burnout had no official release
date, but looks like it should be out within one to two months.
Power Drive Rally was also on display, and is in a situation similar to
that of Burnout. It is sprite-based, with well-drawn and smoothly moving
sprites, although where Burnout's viewpoint resembles Hang-On's, Power
Drive Rally uses a Super Sprint type overhead view. The controls seemed a
bit sluggish, but appropriate to the tracks on display. There is a
computerized co-pilot who warns you out loud about oncoming turns, and
ends up being extremely useful. According to the Time Warner
Interactive press release, this will implement two-player play, which
should make it somewhat more interesting than it would have been as a
relatively slow-moving racing game. Also, there are a number of options
to modify your car with money earned from races, so it should be a
pretty good game for those who like car racing. According to the press
release it will be available in June, but according to the general
TWI list, it will be out in July.
Primal Rage had a demo that was actually surprisingly far along. As
far as I could tell, it ran through the entire out of game sequence
just like the arcade, and the in-game graphics and gameplay seemed
very similar to its arcade parent. The graphics and gameplay engines
seemed to be well in place, although I have no idea if all the moves
were in yet. Because this was still a relatively early demo, the
decompression and loading time before a game was ridiculous--about
2-3 minutes, so it spent most of its time with the controllers
unplugged running through the introductory screens. It would appear
that Primal Rage fans can expect a near-perfect conversion when it
arrives in November.
Fight For Life has been steadily improving since its near-disastrous
demo at WCES. It is currently in the middle of texturing of the
characters, with some looking quite nice and others looking somewhat
silly, with a textured torso and blocky polygonal legs. Ultimately,
many of the characters will be fully textured, and the final effect
should be pretty good. FFL's backgrounds are pretty good-looking
bitmaps and city skylines and the like, while the ground was made up
of ugly, now-inappropriate Gouraud shaded polygons. If he can keep the
framerate high enough, programmer Francois Yves Bertrand intends to
texture the ground for the final version. There were a pretty wide
variety of moves implemented, although some hadn't been put in at all,
and others hadn't had the collision detection written yet. There were
a variety of basic punches and kicks, along with a few grabs, throws
and body slams. Instead of a block button, FFL had a dodge button that
would try to dodge whatever attack was being made. Basically, the
gameplay of the demo was very simplistic, with very little in the way of
act-and-respond moves, and a lot of pounding on the keypad and hoping
"gee, I hope that doesn't hit me." Also, the moves were pretty
non-intuitive, with sweep and uppercut being rotate down to forward
and kick or punch respectively. Francois expects to be working on it
for at least another month before final testing, so it probably won't be
available for at least two to four months.
Thea Relm Fighters is Atari's answer to the MK series. To Atari's credit,
they took the four best actors from MK II (leaving MK III with bad
actors, incidentally): Ho Sung Pak, Daniel Pesina, Dr. Ahn, and Katalin
Zamiar. The game will be out on CD, supposedly including more than
20 characters, and Atari clearly expects it to be a huge hit, having
arranged for the actors to come to E3 and do a martial arts
exhibition. When asked what it was like to switch from Williams to
Strata to Atari, Daniel Pesina (formerly Johnny Cage) responded
pleasantly, "Atari definitely treats us better than Williams,"
eliciting a supporting chuckle from one of the other martial artists
present there.
As always, reality intruded into the TRF debut. The demo was very
preliminary, running on an EEPROM, and in a word, horrible. Characters
looked reasonably good but moved unbearably jerkily. As far as I know,
the demo was unplayable, and really actually worse than unimpressive.
Thea Relm Fighters is scheduled for a 3rd quarter release, but with the
amount of work they have to do, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see
it delayed into at least the 4th quarter... or mid-96.
Brett Hull Hockey had a playable demo showing, and seemed pretty far
along: it's essentially a sprite based hockey game. The graphics
looked pretty good, with well-drawn (or digitized) sprites moving
very smoothly around the rink, which scrolled flatly, but there was an
option to change views, which occurred smoothly, suggesting that the
possibility of a dynamic viewpoint during play is quite feasible. The
controls seemed pretty intuitive and responsive, and the players moved
pretty well. Brett Hull could develop into quite a good hockey game,
though it will be pretty much like most of the 16-bit hockey software
we've seen to date.
Highlander was displaying a pretty close to complete version, lacking
only a number of enemies and objects to find and use. It is an
action/adventure game in the spirit of Alone in the Dark, with static
backgrounds and polygon characters. The backgrounds were nicely done,
and the characters were reasonably detailed, although the bright
colors made them really stand out from the background. The fighting
engine was mostly in place, and allowed a couple defensive moves and a
few different offensive moves. Nothing too exciting was my verdict,
though Highlander became more interesting when you were being attacked
from more than one side. The objects and puzzles were not yet in place,
so it's hard to guess how involving the final game will be. However,
the mechanics seem to be in place for a pretty solidly good game.
Highlander should be available with the rollout of the CD in August.
The final group of games is rather eclectic. Some were only showing FMV
demos, others were quite limited in audience, and some were distinctly
average or just plain bad. Soulstar was a surprise entry in this
category. A shooter conversion by Core that is supposedly well on its
way, for some reason it only had the FMV demo playing. The demo was
pretty well rendered, but as usual, gave no info whatsoever about the
game itself. I had been assuming it would be done in time for the
CD's launch, but now I'm not so sure.
Creature Shock, the conversion of the PC spooled graphics shooting
gallery, was also only displaying an FMV demo, although this was at
least a demo of the actual levels. The graphics seemed pretty good
and smooth, although as with Soulstar, they didn't give much of an idea
of what the final game will be like. Creature Shock should be out
within a couple weeks to a month of the release of the CD player.
Yet another unplayable demo -- not even FMV -- was the conversion of the
Mac/PC game Myst. This consisted basically of a slideshow of the
beautiful locations that make up the land that Myst takes place in. I
would imagine that they should have no trouble making an essentially
identical conversion with moderately improved graphics, for whatever
that's worth. Myst should be available with the first wave of CD games
in August.
The final non-interactive totally FMV demo was something of a random
surprise. Entitled Nerf Max Force, it played FMV showing a kid firing off
nerf weapons at rendered enemy mechs, while a description of the game
played. No clue as to what this will be like ,or when it will come out.
Moving on to the eccentric games, a puzzle game called Flip Out was on
display and seemed pretty far along. Clearly targeted towards a younger
audience, the point of the game is to rearrange tiles into a desired
pattern by flipping them into the air, at which point they land wherever
the next tile was flipped from. If a tile ever lands before the next
one is flipped, it breaks, ending the game. Animated characters in the
background and the general simplicity make it seem like a perfectly
reasonable game for younger children.
A game called Baldies certainly fits the eccentric label, although
more in the way that Lemmings did. Perhaps best described as a cross
between Powermonger and Cannon Fodder, Baldies is a humorous flat
overhead game in which the point is to get your Baldies to build
houses, reproduce, and create inventions to help them battle the evil
people with hair. This seemed like the type of game that, if done
right, could appeal to a certain number of people, but it will
certainly never be a 64-bit extravaganza, either.
Pinball Fantasies is the conversion of the computer pinball game of the
same name, and seemed to be pretty straightforward pinball that's not
likely to appeal to anyone other than serious pinball fans. Not being
one, I didn't spend much time trying it out. It should be done and
available pretty soon.
Ruiner is another pinball game. Moderately more impressive than Pinball
Fantasies, it is not likely to hold the attention of anyone who doesn't
play pinball. It seemed pretty far along, so I'd expect to see it in the
next couple months.
Vid Grid looked very close to done. It is a simple rearrange-the-pieces
of-the-puzzle game, with the twist that the puzzle is an FMV music video.
The FMV was smooth, and the pieces moved just fine. This certainly isn't
much of a game, and an Atari rep said they are considering packing it in
with the Jag CD along with the Tempest 2000 soundtrack CD and a real
pack-in game.
Dragon's Lair had a fully playable demo display, and looked like, well,
Dragon's Lair. Fans of the original should like this, while others will
be annoyed at the scripted-ness of the actions and lack of
interactivity. The animation was pretty good, but far from stunning.
Dragon's Lair is essentially done and should be available in August
when the CD comes out.
Like Dragon's Lair, Flashback is a straight port of a now unimpressive
game. Flashback is a cartridge game, and does not seem to have been
incredibly improved over the original. It should be a decent, playable
game with good animation and nice backgrounds, but it certainly won't
blow anyone away with stunning, 64-bit graphics. It is well on its
way, and I'd expect to see it within the next couple months.
Deathwatch -- Deathwatch? (well, at least that's what it looked like on
the EEPROM) was a simple, animated platform/shoot-em-up game. Animated
colorfully but without any really incredible shading, it looked very
16-bit, and played like a standard platform game. It could end up being
a perfectly reasonable game, but is certainly nothing that couldn't
have be [sic].
The final version of Air Cars wason display. A networking action game
by Midnite Software, it has been lambasted as one of the worst games
being developed for the Jag. While a re-tooling of some of the graphics
helped, they are still pretty bad; the Gouraud shaded landscapes look
decent, but the objects are all ugly and badly formed, giving a very
negative visual impression overall. For example, the smoke screens
look like black globs rather than smoke screens. The controls also
seemed pretty sluggish, although I didn't spend a lot of time trying
them out. There are some good ideas in Air Cars: 8-player networking,
enemies that retreat dropping smoke screens when damaged, and pretty
good physics allowing jumping off of hills all work to the game's
advantage, but I doubt they will be enough to offset the incredibly
poor graphics and overall implementation. Air Cars should be shipping
in June.
Finally, Blue Lightning was showing a 95% finished version, and it was
probably the overall worst game on display. Aside from some nice FMV
demos, it had very little going for it in any department. Imagine the
Lynx Blue Lightning with prettier bitmaps and more difficult controls,
and that's basically what Blue Lightning is like. As you fly along in
the plane, the flat hills give the impression of flying through a
shooting gallery, and the controls are pretty imprecise and
unenjoyable. This is almost done, and barring a much-needed major
reworking, will be available with the CD player in August.
All in all, there were few surprises at Atari's booth, and although
there were a number of solid titles, Jaguar owners continue to be
forced to play the waiting game. While some neat peripherals were on
display, small release catalogs and lots of potential for future
delays may well prevent even Atari's most innovative devices from
reaching the hands of their hungry fans.
-Brian Osserman
Sb: Minter Update
Fm: SYSOP*Jeff Kovach 74777,3071
To: All
From the Internet, Jeff Minter's latest update on Defender 2000:
----------
D2K Thangs for May
May 21: Decoupled
Sorry no updates for a while, but it's been kind of a hectic month.
There were three trips to LA, two for the purposes of doing some Jaguar
demonstrations in various shops in that area, and the third for E3. In
between those times I have been involved in the process of decoupling
the Yakly abode from the apartment complex in Sunnyvale and
re-establishing it in a far more appropriate place, out in the country
where there are plenty of beasties and where blasting out some tunes
llate at night won't result in the neighbours calling in the gentlemen
with the handguns and the nightsticks to order me to turn it down.
It certainly feels excellent to be in my own space again. I'm much more
adequately wired than I ever was back in Wales, with a good solid
dialin to the Santa Cruz netcom node to get me on the Net, and thank
God a line of sight to the DSS satellite (back in Wales we had no cable,
crappy terrestrial reception of two out of the four UK channels (one of
which was in Welsh), and the line of sight to the satellite went right
through the hill behind my house)..
I can now revert to my 'natural' work mode, which frequently involves
late-night, CD-blasting, inspirational coding runs which just weren't
possible in the old place. One can't hack Jaguar late at night without
loud music. It's not natural. I'm certain I'll be more productive in
this environment.
I've even found a local - even if at 15 miles' distance it isn't that
local. However, it's worth the drive as the Penny Farthing in Salinas
is a proper British pub, with proper beer and excellent food. A man's
got to have his local. It's important.
To revert to the subject, with all this going on I've done a relatively
small amount to the game this time. I've been going back through
Classic and Plus while I wait for some artwork for 2K, fixing up odd
little things that bugged me while I was playing the game at E3; I
should soon be able to label those portions of the game as completely
finished with. I got one of the 6-button controllers from Atari, and
I've implemented the Classic control mode from the arcade game, with
Thrust and Reverse completely decoupled from the d-pad and exported to
separate buttons. On the new controller the left shoulder pad is used
for Reverse, B is Thrust and A is Fire. This gives your hands and
fingers almost exactly the same tasks as on the coin-op controls - the
left thumb controls up and down and the index finger Reverses, while
the index and second finger on the right control Thrust and Fire
respectively, leaving the right thumb to fall naturally on the Smart
Bomb on C, as God and Eugene intended.
Since those controls went in, I've been having a massive binge of
Classic-playing. It now feels *just* like the original game to play.
It's a bit harder than the mode with thrust and reverse incorporated
in the d-pad, but somehow it's just a lot more satisfying to play this
way. As I've said in newsgroup, Uncle Eugene knew exactly what he was
doing, taking those controls off the joystick. Classicdudes are gonna
llove it.
The easier mode will still be there as an option, 'coz of course not
everyone will have a 6-button controller. Although you *can* use that
mode on a 3-button controller, as the L shoulder pad maps to 4 on the
keypad - if you lay the controller flat on a surface and use the index
and second fingers on the left hand to do up and down, the thumb falls
on Reverse, even closer to the ordained button layout for Classic...
Otherwise.... been tidying up. Rez-in works properly. Optimised a bit.
Fixed the left hand edge clipping of pixelshatter coz of the A1 clip
bug. Corrected the dangle height for Humanoids under the ship in
Classic mode. Kinda stuff. Hey, it has to be done sometime and better
now than in Final Test...
This week, I look forward to trying out an idea for an unusual feedback
effect, which the hardware may or may not allow, as I shall be asking
it to do something unnatural once per scan line. Sign off mentally on
Plus and Classic; instigate Predator and Prey classes for the object
handler; and I really must get cracking on some Easter Eggs.... oh, and
I hope I shall get my desk from storage at Atari, as my llegs sometimes
go to sleep while I'm sitting on the floor and typing. I still need a
bunch more furniture to fill this big house :)
\
(:-) - who is probably the last person on the planet to finally get his
MTV
/
________________________________________________
> ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PEOPLE... ARE TALKING
=====================
On CompuServe
-------------
compiled by
Joe Mirando
73637,2262
Hello again folks. Well, the days keep getting longer and warmer and it
won't be long 'till we all start complaining about the heat and humidity
(My New Year's resolution for this year was to bludgeon the first person
that tells me "It's not the heat, it's the humidity"). Anyway, while
Spring is still here in full bloom, so to speak, we mere mortals find
that we have even less time than we had last Spring and spend half of
the time that we DO have trying to figure out how to spend the other
half.
Thank goodness that I've got a CompuServe account. CIS gives me a
chance to look through all of the information that MIGHT interest me so
that I can find the information that DOES interest me. So, thanks to
CompuServe, I have time to do more things. Thanks guys!
C'mon with me and I'll show you what I'm talking about...
From the Atari Computing Forums
===============================
Michel Vanhamme tells us:
"I just did my first ftp session with NOS! The solution to my problem
was quite simple, really. NOS was installed two folders deep on my HD,
and apparently didn't like it. I moved my NOS folder to the root, et
voila, everything suddenly worked! Next thing I'll try is setting up
the usenet reader.
BTW, I got hold of a newer version of NOS, V0.42. I haven't tried it
yet, but I will soon."
Chris Roth tells Michel:
"I didn't think of that, sorry: If you want to start NOS nested in a
directory, you must start it with the parameter '-dc:\your\path' (f.e.
'-dc:\nos'). However, if you want to run the newsreader (SNEWS) you
have to set an environment variable to point to the right directory, so
probably putting NOS on the root is the most easy but for me too messy
way.
Good luck with the installation of the newsreader SNEWS! It took me
quite a time to get that thing running, unfortunately the GEM-based
newsreader Oasis is still buggy and bombs in the configuration phase...
The newer version of NOS (0.42) has some advantages over previous
versions, as the author told me, and is smaller due to removal of
unnecessary features. As a result, the newsreader isn't anymore
integrated into NOS, but is a seperate program package (SNEWS).
You can find all that internet related Atari stuff on the ftp site:
ftp.demon.co.uk in the directory pub/atari/. Now that you can ftp
<grin>!"
Michel tells Chris:
"Well, NOS is in its folder, the folder is in the root. The only files
in the root are startup.nos & dialer.pp0. But, agreed, it's not very
neat.
Concerning NNTP. Do you have addresses of news servers? I tried an
NNTP session with news.demon.co.uk, and all I had was this message :
"502 imp.demon.co.uk NNTP server can't talk to you. Goodbye. - NNTP
Bad reply on banner (response was 502)" I don't know if this comes from
the news server or from NOS."
Chris replies:
"...as for nntp, you have to configure news.compuserve.com to be your
newsserver, since others (as you saw) won't talk to you.
The bad banner error can be related to that. I once had it too when I
tried to talk to the compuserve newsserver but never occured again."
Michel tells Chris:
"I was beginning to suspect something along those lines... I should
have guessed that one can't use just any newsserver."
John Montgomery posts:
"I don't think this is the right place, but Compuserve's *find* says
that Tiny Computers can be located here. I want to ask them about my
computer's configuration - ( a 486 PC ).
Are they here, or, do you perchance know where they are?"
Sysop Keith Joins tells John:
"Tiny is a picture/graphics format on the Atari computer so that is why
you were
pointed here. If this was the only location you got then I don't think
that
Tiny Computers is on-line."
Lyle Raymond asks:
"Is there any PD FAX software available (esp. here on Compuserve) that
is compatible with class 1 modems?
I've tried the BATFAX demo, but it only works with class 2."
Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Online Magazine tells Lyle:
"None that I know of. The only one that comes to mine is STraight Fax
2.x which is a commercial product."
Patrick Wong asks:
"I know a 486 emulator isn't out for the ST but I've heard of a few 286
emulators on the market. How are they? I was wondering if you could
convert them to a 486. Does anyone know if they contain real 286
chips? There's a chip by Cyrix that turns any 286 into a 486 simply by
removing it and plugging in a new chip. One of my friends have one of
those old Atari compatible PCs (I don't know if anyone remembers them)
but he bought the chip, plug it in, just for fun and it worked! He's
running Windows on it and everything! I was wondering would this work
on the 286 emulators."
Albert Dayes of Atari Explorer Online Magazine tells Patrick:
"I do not believe they work on the Atari 286 emulators."
Patrick tells Albert:
"Thanks Albert. Oh well, that's really too bad. Do you know if the
emulators use 286 chips at all or do they use some other system?"
Albert fills Patrick (and us) in:
"There was AT-Speed and another one (I forget the name) which uses 286
chips. These worked on the normal ST series of computers. There is
also one on the Falcon030 by Compo which is also a 286 chip based
board.
Compo is working on a 486 version currently. No word on the date of
release however."
David West posts:
"I need a good, inexpensive word processor for my classroom. I
currently own a 486, but once upon a time used a 130xe to write all my
college research papers. The 130xe still works fine, my kids use it
for frogger and pole position. My cousin donated his old 1040st for
use in my classroom. If anyone knows about available shareware for it
please tell me. All I have with the computer is a bunch of games.
Also, can you download atari software with a pc, and somehow transform
it to the atari format? Any help or advise would be great. Thanks in
advance."
Albert Dayes tells David:
"You can format a 720K floppy disk on your PC and use it to move files
between the PC and the Atari. There are quite a few programs in the
library. For a word processor there is ST-Writer ver 4.8 which is very
similar to AtariWriter on the 8-bit Atari."
Laurence Glazier asks for help:
"A friend of mine who suffered a stroke a year ago and who's only
undamaged ability is musical, composes music on the ST - inadvertantly
he has deleted a file which I would like to recover for him. I can only
find two utilities here - the 1986 one works only at mid-resolution,
and the other one (the GOODIES accessory) keeps reporting ERROR 43.
Would much appreciate be directed to a tool which will actually do the
job, assuming that part of the disk is still intact."
Terry Cano tells Laurence:
"There's a program called UNDELETE that I'll send you E-mail it may
work. I have used it once 'believe."
Peter Joseph replies to Terry:
"Will you be my friend too? <grin> Seriously, my brother did the same
thing recently and I'm not sure he's gotten Disk Doctor to work or not.
Appreciate it."
Andreas Rosenberg tells us:
"There is no secret in running an ST with a standard SVGA monitor. I
simple soldered a cable with the right connectors on both sides and
connected the three RGB inputs of the VGA monitor with the monochrome
output of the ST. The connector for the ST must connect the monochrome
sense pin with ground and that's all. I'm running the ST high
resolution with my ADI 3E monitor for about 3 years without any
trouble. You'll only need to have a look at the horizontal frequencies
your SVGA monitor is able to manage. If you have a sync band around 36
kHz it should work.
To prevent misunderstanding: You will not get any higher resolutions
by using a SVGA monitor. I simply wanted to have more room on my desk
by making ONE monitor useable with both the ST and PC."
Fred Zelders asks:
"Does anybody have a GIF/TIF/BMP picture of the ATARI 1024 ST computer
system? I want to embed it into a WWW-page I am preparing."
Albert Dayes tells Fred:
"There should be some in degas format floating around. I remember
seeing some a long time back. You could use GEM-VIEW to convert it GIF
or TIFF to use on the WWW-page."
Santiago Escuain asks Soft-Logic Publishing:
"I am one of your registered users of PageStream 2.2 for ATARI. I have
been working with a Mac for some years now due to the disastrous
commercial policy of Atari in Spain (what a pity to loose such an
excellent machine). However, I keep my old machine as PageStream is so
flexible and useful for many tasks. With PageStream I laid out not
only small magazines, but a huge work in two 600+ page volumes (Charles
Hodge of Princeton, Systematic Theology, which I also translated to
Spanish). These volumes featured footnotes in every page, headers, and
what-not.
Now I hear you are planning to port PageStream to MAC. Great news. I
have been browsing in your forum, and I see that we registered users
will have a rebate. May it be a very big rebate - pleeeze! ;-).
Another big news is that you are going to tell us owners of previous
versions as soon as it is done. Please refresh me in your data base,
and tell me as soon as it is available!!"
Over in the Atari Gaming Forum, when someone makes the mistake of
saying that the Jaguar is really a 32 bit machine (for myself, I'm happy
if they don't leave the "3" out of that statement), John Mathieson at
Atari posts:
"I really thought we had settled this 64-bit thing. We do not claim
Jaguar is 64 bit because 32 + 32 makes 64. We claim it because Jaguar
has a 64 bit bus and has 64 bit processors. If you really want to knock
Jaguar call it 16-bit. After all it has a 68000. But then so does
Saturn."
The poster of the original message tells John:
"Well I heard from a press release, that it had 2 32-bit processors.
Is it really 64-bit? Man I'm sorry."
Sysop Jim Ness explains:
"It's got 5 processors, ranging from a 16 bit to a couple of 64 bit.
And a 64 bit bus connecting them. With multiple processors tossing
data around, the bus itself is probably the most important spec."
Tony Talarico jumps in and posts:
"WAIT A MINUTE! The 68000 is a -16-BIT- processor??!! Then how come when
you add two registers, you get a 32-bit result? Why are there 32-bit
loads and stores? And what about multiplies and divides? Are you saying
this because the 68000 only has a 16-bit data bus EXTERNALLY? Well,
then, I guess that makes the 8088 an 8-bit processor! No, that can't be
right, the Z-80 was DEFINITELY the king of the 8-bits. 8-{)
As far as that 16-bit bus goes, the 68k will do 32-bit transfers a LOT
faster than any TRUE 16-bit processor (i.e. the 8086). That's simply
because it does 16-bit transfers on successive clock cycles. A 16-bit
processor would need to process another instruction in between.
Of course, I realize that you already know this. However, some people
around here don't and might believe your statement that the 68k is only
16-bit. They might not realize it has 8 full 32-bit general registers
and a full 32-bit accumulator."
Scott Sanders tells Tony:
"The primary benchmark for what a system is in terms of 'bits' is the
size of its data bus. The Jaguar has a 64-bit data bus. Three of the
five processors in the system, the GPU, the Blitter, and the Object
Processor have complete 64-bit access to this bus. They are, in fact
the processors that _need_ 64-bit access. The 68000 has 16-bit access
to the data bus. Internally, it can manipulate data as wide as 32-bits
but whenever a result is stored in memory, a 32-bit data word must be
transferred in two steps, each 16-bits wide. The DSP has 32-bit access
to the bus. Since it is almost always used for sound, that access is
plenty. Enough to grab two 16-bit samples at a time.
In all console systems, the bottleneck is almost always graphics. The
Jaguar puts the power where it needs it the most."
Randy Magruder tells Scott:
"I beg to differ with you on this one. A fair amount of programmers
and engineers would define a system's bitness not by its bus but by the
size of its registers. The 80386, 80486, and Pentium processors are
considered 32-bit because they employ 32-bit registers and can perform
32-bit multiplies of those thirty two bit registers in a single
instruction. On the other hand, the Jaguar's GPU will multiply two
32-bit numbers yielding a 64 bit result, but does not directly multiply
two 64-bit numbers. In terms of throughput, I do consider the Jaguar
64-bit if only because 64-bit quantities are generally not that usual
in the high speed integer math used to transform matrices, shade and
texture polygons, etc. The bus becomes an important indicator because
its the means by which large amounts of graphics make their way through
the system. I've always considered the Jaguar a hybrid 64-bit system,
but as far as games are concerned, because its 64-bit where it has to
be, I don't mind Atari calling it 64-bit.
However, to say unequivocally that the bus size alone determines the
bitness of the system is, in my opinion, technically inaccurate. Most
would argue that a 64-bit ALU is the necessary missing component,
though it becomes far more important in desktop operating systems like
Windows NT, where some functions that return large numbers do so in a
full 64-bit quantity.
>> They are, in fact the processors that _need_ 64-bit access. >>
Yes but how many instructions and registers does it take to multiply
two 64-bit numbers? How many does it take to multiply two 32-bit
numbers?
>> In all console systems, the bottleneck is almost always graphics.
The Jaguar puts the power where it needs it the most. <<
I agree with this in general, but I still think the Jaguar badly needs
to run at a higher clockspeed...."
Robert Reilly asks:
"The Atari Bond is selling at about 51 cents on the dollar with a
yield to maturity of over 17.7%. Is it a Good Buy? Is it backed by the
good faith of the Tramiels .
If the cd is due in August, I heard it was callable last year ,then
January, then April, May, June. What is the remaining rate of interest
and is it guaranteed by Atari. We know what that is worth, less. It is
the only cd with a future at Atari the other cd just got wiped out by
lack of interest and portfolio switching to Sega. Jag owners are
selling their systems in droves, what will the cd attach to besides a
Jag."
Jeffery Norwood tells Robert:
"Okay, first, I'm not the stock market guy (but I like regular stocks
and options, and follow the mondestly)
The Tramiels, no matter what anyone says, have great faith in their
products. However, Atari is off to a slow start, and the sudden (four
months early) release of the Saturn shocked the world! Atari has a
promising future. With a CD (disc, not bond) attatchment due out in
July, and a Virtual Reality helmet late this year. Atari seemingly
forgets that although they have almost unmatchable hardware techinical
stuff, they don't put it into the software. It's like making a gas for
a car, but there are no cars for it!!! If this were BUY, SELL, or
HOLD, I'd say HOLD."
John Lange tells us:
"About a year ago I bought the Jag on the day of its release. When I
brought it home the only thing I got on my screen was a red screen with
the Jaguar logo on it. It growled and that was about it. Now the same
thing is happening again. If anyone has a clue to what this problem may
be please respond."
Bill Devonshire tells John:
"Sometimes the red screen happens because you do not have the cart
plugged in correctly (seated properly). The worse case is that you
have forced the cart into the slot and crushed one of the connector
pins. To fix that you have to send it back. Get a bright light and
look at your connector - if you see a shiny bit of metal at the bottom
of the connector then it is probably a crushed pin. Hopefully not!"
Well folks, that's about all for this week. Tune in again next week,
same time, same station, and be ready to listen to what they are saying
when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
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STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON"
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> A "Quotable Quote" A true "Sign of the Times"
""""""""""""""""" CLOSE OBSERVATION REVEALS TOO MUCH!
REMEMBER THE FEINSTEIN SENATE RACE??
------------------------------------
Where the good Mayor of San Francisco won the election?? Oh how the
loser screamed and cried foul. Why he spent a little over $26,000,000
dollars to wage a campaign against Feinstein is baffling. With that kind
of money he and his family for generations to come would be able to enjoy
life. Anybody care to guess WHY anyone would spend $26 million on a
campaign to become elected to the US Senate?? How many terms would this
candidate have to serve before earning back the money spent on the
campaign?
Perhaps..
---------
It really is true.. that one may cobb much more than that amount of money
with little or no fear of detection and prosecution..
...food for thought
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STReport International OnLine Magazine
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STR OnLine! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" May 26, 1995
Since 1987 copyright 1995 All Rights Reserved No. 1121
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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
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