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||||||| ZMAGAZINE #178 October 15, 1989 |||||||
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||||||| Volume 3, Number 41 Ron Kovacs, Editor |||||||
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|||||||(c) 1989, Rovac Ind., PO Box 59, Middlesex, NJ 08846-0059|||||||
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||||||| News Headlines.... |||||||
||||||| * Sig Hartmann Announces November Retirement |||||||
||||||| * ComputerFest '89 Report |||||||
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|||||||CompuServe: 71777,2140 GEnie: ZMAGAZINE|||||||
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CONTENTS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Editors Desk........Ron Kovacs Sig Hartmann Retires.....J.Nagy
The X-Com Wedge.........Ed Bachman ComputerFest '89........J Ullom
The Bookkeeper...........Don Lucia Ramdisk AutoLoad......J. Picken
130XE Changes.........Mark Elliott Hardware Pricewatch..WK Whitton
THE EDITORS DESK
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
by Ron Kovacs
As announced in between issues, we are now releasing ZMAG bi-weekly, the
news and reviews have been dwindling and causing a negative effect on
what we cover each week. In place of suspending publication, we offer
the new release of every other week.
I have been reading the negative responses to our change to 80 columns
and ask your indulgence until we select our new editor. I will try to
return to atascii 40 column format at that time.
Our next regular edition will be released October 29, 1989.
SIG RETIRES
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
by John Nagy
After five years with ATARI Corp, Sig Hartmann announced this week that
he will resign/retire effective November 1st.
Although currently assigned at Vice President level in charge of OEM
sales, Industrial sales, and Institutional sales, Sig has spent much of
his time away from his primary responsibilities in order to be the
primary public speaker for Atari.
Sig has regularly charmed audiences at Atarifests and shows with his
views and information about Atari, and generally has been able to thaw
the chilliest of listeners into feeling good about the company. As the
only effective public speaker offered by Atari since the variable but
very public Neil Harris, Sig has been in high demand.
Fortunately for Atari and audiences alike, Bob Brodie (new User Group/
Show Coordinator) has proven to be a thoroughly enjoyable and effective
speaker at several recent events. He spoke to an assembly of 200 users
from 5 groups last month in New Jersey, and shared the -Official- Atari
seminar duties at the WAACE Atarifest with Sig. Bob seems to be the
heir apparent for the -image- jobs to come.
Sig has hinted widely about retiring for some time. At the April 1989
World Of Atari show at Disneyland, Sig spoke of introducing the -new
blood- who would be shaping Atari's future. He shared the podium then
with Mike Dendo (VP Sales) and Joe Mendolia (VP Marketing), both of whom
have since resigned from Atari. -Sam [Tramiel, Atari Corp CEO] and Jack
[Tramiel, Atari owner and Chairman of the Board) don't think I have
suffered enough yet-, Sig joked then, -so I have to work a while
longer.- Private comments indicated that the retirement would come
within a year at that time.
Although it may well have been the lack of an appropriate replacement
for Sig on the speaking circuit that kept Sig from setting a date until
now, November 1 is the fifth anniversary of Sig's employment at Atari,
and his stock and benefits fully vest at that time. Sig worked with the
Tramiels at Commodore before they bought Atari, and before that was
instrumental in a total overhaul and turnaround at TRW.
Sig Hartmann's plans for the future are not settled, but may include
some additional service to Atari. It is expected that he will attend
COMDEX in November (Las Vegas) for fun and to see both new products and
old friends. Not one to sit for long, Sig has mentioned moving to
Germany (either to work or just to relax) as a serious option. For the
present, Sig hopes to finally be able to spend some time at his suburban
Los Angeles home without having to constantly commute to Sunnyvale, some
300+ miles up the Pacific coast.
Thanks, Sig, you have been appreciated, and you will be missed!
THE X-COM WEDGE v2.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
by Ed Bachman
An extended command set utility for SpartaDOS 3.2d and xl/xe's with at
least 128k of ram.
The Wedge is a utilty, or actually a whole gaggle of utilities in one
package. It performs a range of operations, from viewing arc files,
moving files, peeks and pokes, a file reader, a file locator, to various
Sparta-specific functions. The -icing on the cake- so to speak, is the
fact that once installed all these functions become -resident- or
internal commands to the Sparta command processor. Better still, the
majority of these commands are NOT destructive to memory, unlike most
stand alone utilities.
The 1.x series of the Wedge was an attempt at consolidating varying
utilities, but at an enormous memory cost (hey, you have to put the code
somewhere!). Hence version 2.x of the Wedge, which bumps memlo by less
than 200 bytes. This is accomplished by placing the bulk of the code
out in extended ram. This requires a system of 128k or more, however,
this extra space also allows the wedge to be much more powerful than a
stand alone utility. All of the work performed by the Wedge is done in
extended ram, effectively preserving memory in the main bank. This
allows for a variety of normally memory destructive tasks to be done,
without harming any programs or data in the main bank of memory.
Some Wedge features..
The Wedge will add 17 -extended- commands to the command processor in
sparta 3.2d. It will add an additional three commands if it finds a
Multi I/O on line as well. Here are some of the features the Wedge
makes available.
* A -paged- file reader
* An arc/alf file viewer
* hex and decimal conversions
* Peeks and pokes
* Identify files
* Find files
* Protected copy, not mem destructive
* count files
* double column directories
* Move files
* Rename sub dirs
* Erase files w/query and more.
Mio users will also have a resident DSWAP, lock mio drive function, and
direct access to the mio menu which does not coldstart the computer
should you have a cart installed.
The Wedge works well under a variety of applications and programming
environments, and although it is a resident utility, it can be removed
at any time, for programs that require the extended ram for its own
uses. If I sound enthusiastic about the Wedge it's because I am! I
believe you'll find this to be a very useful utility, and after a time,
somewhat habit forming. <grin!> The Wedge is shareware, and can be
found on BBSes across the country. The most current revision is always
available on my support board, The Atari Computer Users Technical
Exchange, The ACUTE bbs 215-261-0620.
Happy Computing!
COMPUTERFEST 1989 (Not WAACE)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
by Jim Ullom, MVACE
Computerfest 1989 was held August 26th & 27th, at Hara Arena, in Dayton,
Ohio. The festivities began promptly at 10:00 am, and consisted of
about 20,000 vendors and users groups from all over the United States
and Canada. Dave Small of Gadgets by Small, Charles F. Johnson & John
Eidsvoog of CodeHead Software, Bill Teal of PC-ditto, and nearly all of
the famous programmers that you always read about and always wanted to
meet were there, available to answer your questions, or just chat. As
usual, Atari Corporation went all out to assist the local users groups
in their endeavors, donating displays and providing financial assistance
to the faithful. Atari also sent media representatives to assist in
marketing their new hardware, as they had a large display in the main
arena that dwarfed the competition.
Yes, Jack and the rest of the crew from Atari Corp were there, and gave
a private demonstration of the new Stacy laptop and Portfolio computers.
As a matter of fact, Atari presented each of the users group members
that worked the show with their very own laptop & Portfolio computers,
free of charge, just for being loyal to the company for all these years.
Jack came around and personally thanked each and every one of us for
-keeping the faith- with Atari. I immediately sat down and began
working with the complementary ST laptop, but suddenly heard a loud
buzzing noise. Things started to spin and fade out, and suddenly, I
awakened to............. the sound of my alarm clock. I woke up, and
then realized..... Computerfest '89 was at hand.
MVACE, the Miami Valley Atari Computer Enthusiasts, in conjunction with
two other Atari users groups, Troy ACE (TRACE) and Northmont Systems of
Atari Computers (NASAc), had an impressive display that consisted of
twenty (count 'em, 20) tables. Demonstrations were going on at least 15
computers, with the Spectre and PC-ditto drawing a large share of
attention. Bruce Hansford, ramrod of the ACES, and partner in 1st STOP
Computers, brought along his new Vidi-ST (video image digital interface)
package and new MiGraph Hand Scanner to demonstrate, and put on quite a
show. Games, desktop publishing, and a really dynamite MIDI
demonstration kept the crowds buzzing around the booths nearly all of
the two days of the festival. Both ST and 8-bit systems were well
represented.
With a few dollars burning a hole in my pocket, I ventured forth onto
the sales floor, and found myself surrounded by a cornucopia of computer
goodies. Software, hardware, paper, labels, disk carriers, cables, and
just about anything that a dedicated hacker could possibly wish for, was
present. Mendelson Electronics of Dayton had their usual spread of
hardware, both new and used, at very attractive prices. And speak of
software... several vendors had some real bargains, all you had to do
was look to find something that you could use, many of which were real
deals in the $2.00 to $10.00 range. Ah yes, so many deals.... so little
money.
Of particular note, was the spectacular graphics shown by the MS-DOS
crowd, on their VGA equipped IBM's and clones. Displays that looked all
the world like a photograph, with absolutely stunning colors and
detailing. It seems only yesterday that we were the envy of the
computer world with our Atari graphics. What happened, to our graphics
capabilities guys?
All in all, Computerfest was a great experience, well worth the time and
effort to attend. Too bad that it only comes around once a year. One
consolation however, there is a strong rumor of an Atarifest in the
Dayton area, and Hamfest is just around the corner, so all hope for a
computer-active fall and winter season is not lost. MVACE will have a
booth at the Hamfest if possible, the Atarifest, if there is one, and
also at the Computerfest next year, so.... come see us, we'll be looking
for you!
[Computerfest has been presented every year for the past 14 years by the
Dayton Microcomputer Association (DMA Inc.), a non-profit corporation.]
THE BOOKKEEPER
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
by Don Lucia
To those of you who have been around awhile you're already saying,
-that's an old program-, and you're right. But it was not a well
accepted program due to it's original cost. I paid $150.00 plus for the
program and $50.00 plus for the accompanying numeric key pad. That
price coupled with the fact that it is not a simple single entry
accounting program made it a difficult program to learn at a time when
the new computer user was having difficulty just learning about his/her
computer. So what's changed? Well, for starters you can now purchase
this program for as little as $10.00 or $25.00 with the keypad. That's
a terrific price for this well designed program. That along with the
following tips on the pitfalls awaiting the user will make this program
an attractive tool for the small business or dedicated budgeter using
the 800/XL/XE machine.
The manual that comes with the program recommends that anyone having
difficulty should contact a CPA for the initial setup to ensure the
usefulness of the program and the proper selection of General Ledger
(GL) account codes. The General Ledger (everyone), Customer/Vendor
Lists (business only) and initial General Journal (GJ) entries
(everyone), are the most important steps in starting up this program.
Well, now that I've scared off all the faint-hearted, let's get on with
the review. First of all it's very important to read the MANUAL at
least once completely through and read the tutorial through three times
even if your going to use this program for personal purposes the
tutorial will assist you in getting use to double entry accounting
methods. Then make backup copies of your disks and follow the tutorial
executing the program using the sample data disk. Even though this is a
small business data base it will provide useful information to those who
will use the program for a personal bookkeeping program. For those of
you who say 'I know bookkeeping and don't need the practice', you'll
eventually come back to the tutorial and complete it, save yourself
sometime and do it first.
You'll notice that from the Main Menu there are four choices:
1. Start Up Menu
2. Data Entry Menu
3. Maintenance Menu
4. Reporting Menu
Each of these items carries it's numerical series of sub-menus with it
into the next Menu, i.e., -1. Start Up Menu-, has four sub-menus
numbered 11, 12, 13, and 14. -2. Data Entry Menu-, has four sub-menus
numbered 21, 22, 23, and 24. Etc, etc.. Only when you start printing
does this sequence change as you'll see in a moment.
FIRST PITFALL --- Each time you initiate the program you MUST use the
start up procedure (selection #1. on the Data Entry Menu). This allows
you to select the data base disk that you wish to use for this session.
It's conceivable that one household might have a data disk for each
member of the household as well as a small business. Luckily the
program for a single data base disk does support multiple checking/
saving/money market accounts. It just requires some forethought and
reading of Appendix 'B' during the start up procedure.
SECOND PITFALL --- You need only do Submenu Items 13. and 14. on the
Start Up Menu when initializing your data base disk for the very first
time.
THIRD PITFALL --- As I stated before, go through the tutorial to insure
you understand data entry, printing reports and understand what those
reports mean before attempting to establish your own system disk.
The Data Entry Menu includes:
21. Checks Written (CW)
22. Cash Received (CR)
23. Invoices Written (IW)
24. General Journal (GJ) entries
The Maintenance Menu Includes:
31. Add/Change/Delete GL accounts
32. Add/Change Control Information
33. Add/Change/Delete Customers
34. Add/Change/Delete Vendors
35. Add/Change Invoice Prompts
The Reporting Menu Includes:
41. List Journals
42. Recording/Periodic Processing
43. Print Lists
44. Data Entry (Ret to D E Disk)
FOURTH PITFALL --- It is important to remember that you must follow the
prompts at all times when changing disks, or information/closing of a
report etc. may be lost and ruin all of your work up to that point.
Take heart - most mistakes can be corrected via the General Journal, by
nullifying mistakes with the appropriate debit (+) or credit (-) entry.
FIFTH PITFALL --- After every long data input, when you find yourself
back at the DATA ENTRY or REPORTING MENUS with one of the master disks
installed: Turn off your computer, boot DOS and make a backup copy of
your data disk! One night after I'd finished making all of my initial
entries, GL accounts, Customer/Vendor lists, Control Information, and
initial GJ entries; I was tired, so I shut off my computer, made a
backup copy of my data disk, and quit for awhile. But, wouldn't you
know it... When I started up again (I wasn't 30 minutes into my first
month's entries), I made the classic mistake of removing my data disk
before hitting the Esc key and saving my data. Fortunately, I only lost
the 30 minutes worth of input and all the table placement, since I had
backed up my disk before. I ran a printout and found things so fouled
up that I trashed those files, copied the files from the backed up disk,
and started over. Without that backup disk I would have been about six
hours behind instead of just 30 minutes! I now take the extra time and
backup my data disk whenever I'm going to stop for a period of time and
at the end of every session.
BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP
SIXTH PITFALL --- Remember as I said earlier, when you start up your
data base disk, enter your GL accounts, Customer/Vendor lists, Control
Information and initial balances via the GJ for Assets and Liabilities.
Some simple formulas to remember are:
a. Assets - Liabilities = Capital
b. Profit = Income - Expenses
Table I shows the relationship between the Major Elements of Double
Entry Accounting systems. It will assist you when you are making GJ
entries since that transaction always requires at least two entries and
must result in a zero (0) balance.
TABLE I
debit (+) Account credit (-)
increase assets decrease
decrease liabilities increase
decrease capital increase
decrease income increase
increase expense decrease
After you have completed the initial entries, go to the Reporting Menu
and print all of your lists; General Ledger accounts, and Customer/
Vendor lists. These will assist you when you are making data entries.
This is especially true with the GL account numbers, because during CW
and CR you are asked for the GL account number. Now go to the data
entry area via the screen prompts.
SEVENTH PITFALL --- Submenu Item #32. on the Maintenance Menu allows you
to establish the proper control information necessary for the automatic
portions of the program to work properly. DO THIS STEP AFTER YOU INPUT
THE GL ACCOUNTS BUT BEFORE, REPEAT BEFORE, YOU INPUT THE GENERAL JOURNAL
STARTING BALANCES. This is a very important step and, if accomplished
properly, will prevent a lot of screaming and frustration. This step
can only be accomplished before GJ entries or after month-end close out,
since that step closes out the GJ entries.
EIGHTH PITFALL --- Should you find yourself in the middle of data entry
and suddenly realize that you do not have an appropriate GL account for
a particular asset/liability, etc., all is not lost. Close out the
batch, press Esc and go via the prompts to the Maintenance Menu, select
31. and add your GL account that you require for that data entry.
NOTE
NOTE
Because of the disk swap, the wait to load the disks, etc., is very time
consuming. Carefully consider your initial inputs and GL accts before
starting data entry. Remember, it is better to have to many accounts
then be forever adding new ones. The list in the book gives you a lot
of ideas for the accounts you may want in your GL. Think of all your
Assets, then your Liabilities, and always include catch-all
miscellaneous accounts. TIP - account numbers like '1010 cash-on-hand'
should always be followed by '1011 pers checking', '1012 money market',
etc.
See your CPA to assist you in the Start Up portion, especially in
establishing GL accounts required for tax documentation purposes. I
found that looking at my previous year's tax return helped in this
respect. It established those necessary accounts required to prepare my
tax return when the reports were printed at year end.
NINTH PITFALL --- When initially entering GJ information, startup
balances, etc., follow the procedure on page 84 of the manual. And
remember.. for every debit there must be an appropriate credit. Follow
the prompts in the manual.
TENTH PITFALL --- Read ALL, repeat ALL, of the Appendices. These
contain important information that you'll need (but, I'll not discuss
here because it would take up too much space in this column).
ELEVENTH PITFALL --- When making CW (checks written) inputs, the memory
buffer set up for this will usually hold only ten or eleven checks
before prompting that the buffer is full. Close the batch which clears
the buffer and go on inputting. It's only a minor annoyance when you
know what to expect, so don't panic. The first time it happens just
delete the 'check to info', hit return; and... If you wish to go back
thru the checks inputted, type n for no and then delete back to the
check #. Change the # to the number of the first check written in that
batch or the # of the check specifically that you wish to verify. When
you are through verifying and have come to the last check in the batch,
type y for yes at the prompt, and close the batch. Once the batch has
been closed the only way to modify the information is through a
duplicate entry or entries in the GJ. When this happens to me I write
down the info on a stick-up note and accumulate these errors until I've
finished the session. Then I make the GJ entries. When I close out the
month I print all of the reports, but DO NOT closet he books until I've
read all the reports and haven't found any other errors. Then I backup
my data disk before I execute command '81. end of month closeout'.
After I closeout I backup my data disk again keeping the disks separate
and marking them so that if I have to go back to the previous month I
haven't lost all of my GJ entries.
TIP: The program is at times a little tedious, especially when you're
printing out the reports. Go make a sandwich while everything is being
printed, then come back. Time will fly a little faster that way. I
keep all of my monthly printouts in an accordion folder with the check
statements, stubs, receipts, etc. by month so that year-end information
is all nice and neat for my CPA.
I wish someone would update this program to use two disk drives and
allow for some data entry maintenance directly on the tables. Ah well,
it's still the best program I've found to provide the kind of reports I
need.
ENJOY
A RAMDISK AUTOLOADER FOR MYDOS 4.5
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
by John Picken, GCACE
(From XIO3, May 1989, Garden City ACE, Victoria B.C.)
MyDos 4.5 is a very nice piece of software. I use it with Turbo BASIC,
and a RAMdisk. This combination is a convenient and powerful
programming environment. What's more, it's all Public Domain. One
thing I don't like about MyDos is that its RAMdisk autoloader is very
slow. The short program presented here will create a much faster and
more convenient, RAMdisk initializer for MyDos 4.5. PLEASE NOTE THAT
THIS LOADER WILL ONLY WORK WITH MYDOS 4.5.
To use it, run MyDos 4.5 and set up your RAMdisk using the O command.
Don't number your RAMdisk drive 1. Write this reconfigured MyDos to a
new disk, using the H command. Load the following BASIC program. Place
your new MyDos disk in Drive 1 and RUN the program. The program will
write an AUTORUN.SYS file to your disk. This is your RAMdisk loader.
When you boot MyDos the loader will set up the RAMdisk as you had
originally configured it. The loader also makes the RAMdisk the default
drive and copies DUP.SYS into it. However, the loader doesn't set up a
MEM.SAV file. MEM.SAV is useful with Atari BASIC, but with Turbo BASIC
it's not only useless, it causes lockups.
The loader is small and smart. It only formats an unformatted RAMdisk.
So if you can reboot using a warm start, you will not lose any of your
RAMdisk contents. If DUP.SYS is already in the RAMdisk, the loader
quits then and there. If DUP.SYS is not found, the loader copies
DUP.SYS and all protected (-locked- if you must) files from D1: to the
RAMdisk. This means you could use the loader to copy a second disk full
of protected files. Simply erase DUP.SYS in the RAMdisk and rerun the
loader, (just make sure your second source disk also holds DUP.SYS).
The loader does not copy DOS.SYS.
I use the loader with both a 256XL and a 320XE. It works well. The
loader should work equally well with a 130XE. If you get a RAMdisk that
you did not specify, check out the RAM sequence options provided by
MyDos. Your extra RAM may require some custom configuration.
5 REM Ramdisk Autoloader
10 DIM SEC$(125)
12 FOR SEC=1 TO 4
14 READ SEC$,CKSAV
16 PRINT
18 PRINT -Checking -;SEC$
20 CK=0
22 TRAP 76
24 FOR B=1 TO 125
26 READ A
28 CK=CK+A*B
30 IF CK>65535 THEN CK=CK-65535
32 NEXT B
34 IF CK<>CKSAV THEN PRINT -Error in -;SEC$:GOTO 90:REM 2 spaces
36 NEXT SEC
38 REM --------------------------
40 RESTORE
42 PRINT -Ready to write file-
44 PRINT
46 PRINT -Place disk in D1: and press RETURN-
48 INPUT #16,SEC$
50 OPEN #1,8,0,-D1:AUTORUN.SYS-
52 FOR SEC=1 TO 4
54 READ SEC$,CKSAV
56 PRINT
58 PRINT -Writing -;SEC$
60 TRAP 82
62 FOR B=1 TO 125
64 READ A
66 SEC$(B)=CHR$(A)
68 NEXT B
70 PRINT #1;SEC$;
72 NEXT SEC
74 REM --------------------------
76 POP :REM Trap part 1
78 GOTO 34
80 REM --------------------------
82 POP :REM Trap part 2
84 PRINT #1;SEC$;
86 PRINT
88 PRINT -Done!-
90 END
92 REM --------------------------
100 DATA Sector 1,31304
110 DATA 255,255,0,48,197,49,173,10,7,201,2,176,5,169,9,141
120 DATA 10,7,201,10,176,247,9,48,141,171,49,169,0,141,91,3
130 DATA 141,107,3,141,89,3,133,242,162,170,160,49,32,148,49,169
140 DATA 128,157,68,3,133,243,169,5,157,69,3,133,244,32,142,49
150 DATA 173,130,5,201,68,208,15,173,171,49,141,178,27,141,165,27
160 DATA 41,15,141,11,7,96,32,0,216,32,210,217,165,213,201,8
170 DATA 144,23,162,170,160,49,32,148,49,32,138,49,169,254,32,142
180 DATA 49,16,6,32,138,49,76,135,49,169,188,141,68
190 REM --------------------------
200 DATA Sector 2,54907
210 DATA 3,169,49,141,69,3,169,9,141,73,3,141,66,3,162,0
220 DATA 32,86,228,169,128,141,68,3,169,5,141,69,3,162,10,189
230 DATA 177,27,157,128,5,202,16,247,32,46,49,48,201,32,65,48
240 DATA 162,181,160,49,32,148,49,48,189,169,131,157,68,3,169,5
250 DATA 157,69,3,157,66,3,162,16,32,86,228,48,169,173,131,5
260 DATA 201,32,240,242,201,42,208,158,162,0,160,8,189,133,5,201
270 DATA 32,240,7,157,131,5,232,136,208,242,173,141,5,201,32,240
280 DATA 24,169,46,157,131,5,232,160,0,185,141,5,201
290 REM --------------------------
300 DATA Sector 3,62032
310 DATA 32,240,9,157,131,5,232,200,192,3,208,240,169,155,157,131
320 DATA 5,224,7,208,28,189,131,5,221,173,49,208,5,202,208,245
330 DATA 240,167,224,2,208,11,201,83,208,7,173,132,5,201,79,240
340 DATA 152,32,46,49,192,128,240,150,208,143,169,49,141,129,5,141
350 DATA 73,3,162,0,32,86,228,169,4,32,87,49,192,136,208,11
360 DATA 173,171,49,141,129,5,169,8,32,87,49,132,203,32,135,49
370 DATA 164,203,96,141,106,3,72,32,135,49,169,128,157,68,3,169
380 DATA 5,157,69,3,169,3,32,142,49,48,224,169,198
390 REM --------------------------
400 DATA Sector 4,64503
410 DATA 157,68,3,169,49,157,69,3,104,201,4,208,5,160,255,140
420 DATA 105,3,105,2,208,7,162,32,44,162,16,169,12,157,66,3
430 DATA 76,86,228,142,84,3,140,85,3,32,138,49,169,19,157,72
440 DATA 3,169,6,157,74,3,74,208,228,68,52,58,68,85,80,46
450 DATA 83,89,83,155,68,49,58,42,46,42,155,160,195,239,240,249
460 DATA 233,238,231,160,155,224,2,225,2,0,48
470 REM --------------------------
130XE CHANGES
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
by Mark Elliott, Innovative Concepts, Ctsy CIS
The -NEW- batch of 130XEs, that were produced this year, (yes!) have the
following changes made:
1) RAMs used (4), are the 41464 (4464) types. (compared to 16 - 4164, on
old)
2) The O.S. has minor changes like;
A) The MEMORY TEST (from SELF TESTS) tests the extra 64K now! (in 4
squares)
B) Also, the MEMORY TEST checks the first 48K over TWICE as fast as
before!
C) The KEYBOARD TEST has the F1-F4 keys missing on top. (function
keys), although the code that interprets them is prob. there.
(like XEGS)
D) Also, it types out -COPYRIGHT 1985 ATARI- at the keyboard test,
when all tests are done. (compared to COPYRIGHT 1983 ATARI,
before)
E) And, the O.S. chip itself, is on a 27256 EPROM, but only have of
it is used! (compared to the original, which was on a 16K x 8 ROM,
27128 comp.
3) Finally, the PIA is a completely different chip! Being a 68B21.
(compared to the 6520/6520A on all other Atari 8-bits.)
4) Last, but not least, the Owner's Manual (Rev. D), is now paper-bound,
compared to spiral-bound on the original.
Hmmm, at least Atari went to the bother of updating the new machine.
(prob. will save them money, being more reliable with less chips.)
HARDWARE PRICEWATCH
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
by WK Whitton
If you are looking for some inexpensive hardware to upgrade your current
ST or 8-bit system, here is a list of some of the better prices I have
been able to locate through many hours of research:
720K 3.5- DS Drive Teac $63 Falcon 213-390-3955
720K 3.5- DS Drive Teac $69 Mighty Micro 800-277-8585
720K 3.5- DS Drive Sony $62 Essence Group 714-546-3110
720K 3.5- DS Drive Mitsumi $56 Colorado Memory 1-800-245-3040
720K 3.5- DS Drive Model #1035 $59 408-434-0168
3.5- DS disks .49 in lots of 25 MEI/MicroCenter 800-634-3478
3.5- DS disks .66 cents in lots of 100 1-800-288-8025
ST-157N 50 meg $317 Colorado Memory 800-245-3040
ST-277-1 65 meg $315 CTI 1-800-223-4492
ST-177N 60 meg $419 USA Flex 1-800-872-3539
ST-250R (RLL) 40 216 bare
$259 kit Colorado Mem 800-245-3040
ST-251 40 meg $290 Micro Informata 800-752-0842
ST-251-1 $305 Data Dynamics 1-800-999-1172
ST-251 XT kit $372 Express MicroMart
ST-251 XT kit $355 FD Microsys 800-548-2660
M8450 Miniscribe 40 meg kit Express MicroMart $297 1-800-533-0177
- - $282 Computer Products 1-800-338-4273
ST-238 w/controller $229.95 Colorado Memory Systems 800-245-3040
HP Deskjet Plus $699 Arlington 1-800-548-5105
- - $675 Micro-Technology 1-800-283-0505
- - $655 American Multitech Systems 800-888-6615
- - $659 Value Plus 800-843-1181
HP Deskjet Carts $16.95 USA Flex 800-872-3539
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ZMAGAZINE ISSUE #178 October 15, 1989
Copyright 1989, Rovac Industries Inc..
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