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The WeST of Scotland Issue 01
WEST OF SCOTLAND
ATARI
USER GROUP
(Affiliated to The Association of Atari User groups)
Issue number ONE, February 1996
(ascii text version)
Our aim is to provide support for, and to foster communication
between, Atari Computer owners in the West of Scotland, to provide
timely information about Atari news, products, vendors, and service,
and to find solitary Atari computer owners and encourage them to join
the group.
Sandy Thomson Alasdair Goold
41 Mayfield Crescent "RoisBheinn", Overton Crescent
Howwood Johnstone
PA9 1BL PA5 8JB
Tel: 01505 703813 Tel: 01505 328254
e-mail:sandy_t@cix.compulink.co.uk e-mail:agoold@cix.compulink.co.uk
EDITORIAL
Welcome to the first ever issue of the Newsletter of "The WeST of
Scotland Atari User Group". The obvious question is why start a new
user group when everyone is saying "THE ATARI PLATFORM IS DYING". My
answer is that every computer platform will inevitably die sooner or
later. So just like the IBM compatible PC, the Apple MAC or any other
platform, yes it is dying, but, IT'S NOT DEAD YET, not by a long way.
"The WeST of Scotland Atari User Group" has been set up to bring us
all together, so that we can share our knowledge, experience and
enthusiasm for the Atari platform. If it is going to be a success it
will require everyone to take as active a part as possible. So if you
regularly use a piece of software, have any upgrade fitted to your
machine, or have any other Atari related matter you would like to
share then please send it to me on a floppy disk (ascii, 1st Word
Plus, Papyrus, .RTF or .STW format) for inclusion in a future
newsletter. Don't assume that because you know something everyone else
will too. Everybody has something to contribute !!!
Over the last couple of years there has been a major change in the
Atari scene. No longer are there dozens of games released each year,
we're left with only a handful of Commercial and shareware games.
However as far as good, serious software, both shareware and
commercial, things have never been better.
So if you haven't already done so, open your mind and have a good look
at what the Atari still has to offer the home user, you might be
surprised !
On the Atari magazine scene with the closure of ST User and ST Review
things looked grim for a while, but Atari World has appeared and is
getting better with every issue. The writers, who are mostly on-line
with CiX are committed to the Atari platform and use the hardware and
software they write about on a daily basis. I would urge every member
of the user group to support AW by either placing a regular order at
your newsagents for it, or by subscribing. You can subscribe on a
quarterly basis.
In this and in future issues there are a letters or Forum, and a For
Sale/Wanted section, so if you have anything you want to say about the
Atari World, any questions you want to ask, technical or otherwise,
any computing tips or anything you want to sell or buy (computer
related obviously) let me know.
Also do you know of any other Atari users ? They are all welcome at
the User Group. One of the aims of the Group is to seek out solitary
Atari users and encourage them to join our group.
So, if you have any ideas for the type of thing you would like to see
happening in either the User Group or in the newsletter please let me
know and if anybody wants to submit an article on any piece of
software, hardware or anything else you use with your Atari, or that
you use your Atari for please do so. (If you don't, I might have to
start allocating you things to write). Also anybody who wanted to
write a regular column on any Atari related subject would be very
welcome.
REMEMBER ! It is your Atari User Group, use it or lose it.
Alasdair Goold
INAUGURAL MEETING
The Inaugural meeting of "The WeST of Scotland Atari User Group" will
commence at 7:30pm on Tuesday 20 February 1996, within the upstairs
Lounge of The Railway Inn, Main Street, Howwood. Access will be
available from 7pm. It is anticipated the meeting will be concluded by
10:30pm.
The Railway Inn is easy to find if you have your own transport. You'll
need to find your way onto the A737 between Johnstone and Lochwinnoch.
This is the new bypass that was completed a couple of years ago.
Between Johnstone and Lochwinnoch you will find an exit marked
Howwood. Come off the A737 there and follow the road into the village
of Howwood. The Railway Inn is on your right hand side just after you
enter the village. You'll find us upstairs in the lounge.
Public transport is a problem. If anyone wants to attend, and can only
use public transport, get in touch and we'll see what can be
organised.
The lounge will be closed to the general public for the duration of
the meeting and although the bar will be closed, refreshments will be
available from the Public Bar downstairs.
There will be a short presentation of the concept behind "The WeST of
Scotland Atari User Group" and then the floor will be thrown open for
a discussion on the direction we would all like to see the Group
going. I think it is important to get as much input from others as
possible, so come prepared with your thoughts.
The first order of business will be to elect a committee. Personally
while we would prefer "The WeST of Scotland Atari User Group" not to
become too formal, having a committee and appointing a treasurer seems
a prudent idea.
At the moment it appears as if we will be getting the premises for
nothing. The licensee is happy with the idea that a few Coca-Cola's
will be being bought each night. Therefore the only expense that we
can foresee at the moment is a relatively small amount per person to
cover the cost of the stationery involved in setting up the User
Group, and publishing the newsletter. To try to keep expense to an
absolute minimum we would ask that everyone who attends brings with
them a medium or large SAE for the next copy of the next newsletter.
We will also be looking at ways to raise the finance for the
stationery etc to reduce members costs as much as possible.
FORMAT OF MEETINGS
Our initial intention, which is open to discussion, is that each
meeting will be split into 3 phases.
i) Formal meeting: to discuss any relevant business and to allow
suggestions to be made. Hopefully this would only take up a few
minutes of each night
ii) Demo: A short demo by a member or a guest of either some piece of
hardware or software. Many of us have only ever seen some Atari
products in the magazines. This is your chance to see them live.
iii) Random Access session: A general free for all to allow the
members to meet, talk and try out software on the machines present.
AG
1996 MEETINGS
All meetings will take place within the upstairs lounge of The Railway
Inn, Main Street, Howwood. The doors will be open from 7pm . The
formal opening of each meeting will take place at 7:30pm. The proposed
dates for the meetings to be held in 1996 are as follows.
1996
20 FEBRUARY - 1ST MEETING
19 MARCH
16 APRIL
14 MAY
11 JUNE
9 JULY
6 AUGUST
3 SEPTEMBER
1 OCTOBER
29 OCTOBER
26 NOVEMBER
24 DECEMBER -NO MEETING
1997
21 JANUARY - AGM ?
All dates are provisional at the moment and will depend on both the
response to the groups as a whole, and the suitability of the Railway
Inn. AG
ATARI NEWS
ST Format stops new subscriptions.
With issue #78 of ST Format, subscribers got a note to say that all
new subscriptions to the magazine had been stopped. Existing
subscribers could re-subscribe for either 6 or 12 months, but Future
Publishing will no longer accept new subscribers. This is not good
news for ST Format. AG
The UK Association of Atari User Groups.
You may have noted on the front page of this newsletter and on our
headed paper that we are affiliated to The UK Association of Atari
User Groups. To explain what exactly this is I have included a press
release from Harry Sideras. For those of you that have read Atari
World, you might recognise Harry's name. He writes AW's Clubbin' page
as well as the occasional other article. AG
The UK Association of Atari User Groups re-launched
=============================
Recently Ken Ward announced the end of his involvement with the
UKAAUG. This followed 15 years of sterling and much appreciated work
on behalf of Atari 8-bit, ST and Falcon owners and User Groups.
Following that decision I contacted Ken and obtained his consent to
take over the AAUG and re-launch it within the UK as from January 1st
1996.
The primary purpose of the UK Association of Atari User Groups is to
maintain a directory of User Groups and their contact details in order
to enable individuals to join an existing network of support. Advice
and encouragement is also available on creating new groups in areas
where it doesn't currently exist.
The UK AAUG will continue to operate on a non-profit making basis, so
all postal contact requiring a response must be accompanied by an SAE
and disk.
The directory will also contain information on groups that support
Atari software, Atari publications (both printed and on disk), PD
Libraries and Atari Bulletin Boards, FTP and WEB sites.
To this end I would ask that all organisations that need to be listed
in these directories, that haven't already been contacted directly on
this subject, confirm their current contact details as soon as
possible to ensure that they are included within my provisional lists.
Harry Sideras
UK Association of Atari User Groups
49 Haywood Road
Tile Cross
Birmingham
B33 0LJ
(Remember the SAE and disk)
Internet: sidcelery@cix.compulink.co.uk
hsideras@mettav.demon.co.uk
NeST: Harry Sideras on 90:102/143
TurboNet 100:1011/143
AtariNet 51:502/100.16
FIDO 2:254/108.16
COMMS
Several of the founder members of the WeST of Scotland Atari User
Group are keen users of comms. several of us are on CiX which featured
in Atari World, issue #9. The intention with this section is to bring
you news from the world of communications.
FORUM
Obviously, this being the first issue there are no letters or items in
The Forum section. I would hope that htis could develop into an area
where questions could be asked, then other members could write in with
their own answers which will be included in a future issue. Hints and
tips for any Atari related subject can also be featured here.
FEATURES
This section will contain features on Atari related items as written
by members of the group. This can be on a piece of software you use,
or a purpose that you put your computer to. There are no rules here,
as long as you can tie it to your Atari somehow. As a starter there
are a couple of items. The first on Grahpics cards by Sandy Thomson,
and the second by Brian Stanton on getting Timeworks, as supplied
witgh AW a few months ago to run with other useful bits of software.
If you have any comments on these or future articles, send them in and
we'll put them in the FORUM section.
GRAPHICS CARDS:
Although they have been available for some time for the MST and TT
range of Ataris, it is only recently that one has become available
for the STe & STFM range.
Priced at around 300, you either have to be a VERY enthusiastic
Atarian, or have a definite purpose in mind to even consider this as a
serious option.
First question is Why? As a professional photographer, I wanted to
use Multi-session CD Rom to store and re-touch my photographs so, when
I enquired about this, I was advised to fit a graphics card to my
MegaSTe4.
System Solutions could do a graphics card/multiboard package for
around 300.
So what would I get for my money ?
PROs
24 bit card gives "TRUE COLOUR", IDE Hard drive Compatible, Up tp
8meg Ram space
CONS
Multisync or VGA/ SVGA monitor required, Having to recase an ST into a
desktopper or similar, Cost
At this point, my interest began to cool VERY rapidly. An outlay of
400 or more to me, meant either opting out of the Atari platform
entirely OR buying a Falcon OR forgetting the whole idea altogether. I
opted for the middle idea and bought a Falcon. HOWEVER......
IF you own a basic system and
IF you intend to upgrade the memory and
IF you intend to buy a Hard Drive and
IF you don't yet have a monitor,
This could be for YOU!
Anybody out there got a card going CHEAP ???? ST
TIMEWORKS V2.04:
TITLE: Timeworks 2.04 & the Falcon -
I have at last got TW up and running - hopefully what follows may be
of interest. Thanks to Neal O`Nions at Compo for much needed advice at
various stages.
(After several false starts, I ended up working with fresh
installations of Speedo 4.2 & 5 on a spare partition and a bare
desktop. XBoot and a text editor - Everest for me - are almost
essential).
1. Install Timeworks 2.01 from the
Readers Disks, selecting ST High as the
screen resolution (printer to taste!). Do
not run either FONTWID.APP or
PUBLISH.APP.
2. Install v 2.04 as per READ.ME text
file supplied, with ASSIGN.SYS being
edited to remove all the fonts except
Dingbats screen and printer bitmap fonts.
Don't run Fontwid etc at this stage.
3. Change from ST High Res. with
"Set Video" option on the Desktop.
Personally went to Falcon SVGA 16
colour (640*480*16) mode which is my
default. From now on, this can be used,
and ASSIGN.SYS does *not* have to be
altered to take account of this.
4. Install (activate) SpeedoGDOS
(5.0c preferred, but works with any
version), with OUTLINE.ACC &
DRIVERS.ACC also active. Probably
best just to start with the standard no. of
fonts supplied for manageability. (Loaded
all the Speedo fonts I had from HiSoft's
Designer's/Writer's Font Packs - 72 in all!
- worked fine but took 8 minutes to
load...)
5. Using OUTLINE.ACC, configure
EXTEND.SYS - set Width tables "ON"
but do not create width tables. Set caches
including the bitmap cache. Set point
sizes to 10, 12, and 14, set all fonts and
save. Reboot to activate these settings.
Can edit EXTEND.SYS with the text
editor but it's a lot easier with the acc.
6. Now (at last!) run FONTWID.APP.
This should process the screen widths,
the printer widths and finally the
Postscipt (sic!) widths. The prog. will
hang at this stage. Reboot.
7. Run PUBLISH.APP.
8. Once running it's probably best to
create a new DEFAULT.STY before
trying anything as "error in j_getfont"
tends to appear if the prog. looks for a
font in the original default.sty that isn't
there.
In general, care in making sure that the
correct versions of the printer drivers are
present, and also of OUTLINE/DRIVER
ACC's for the Speedo versions, plus
checking all the paths are correct makes
life a lot easier. FONTWID has to be run
after any alteration in fonts or screen
resolution, but creation of various sets in
XBoot of standard set-ups cuts down this,
as the Batch Command facility really
comes into its own to copy in the various
pre-created SCREEN.WID &
PUBLISH.WID files.
Works with NVDI 2.5 & 3 - but more of
that to follow.
Also to follow is how to get rid of the
original Dingbats bitmap bullet font. This
leads to the best combination a Speedo
"bullet" font, Speedo 5, and NVDI 2.5
(mainly from the ease of handling font
changes - NVDI 3 is a pig in that
respect). Truetype fonts are also on the
agenda.
Now to remove the original Dingbats
bitmap font as supplied so as to run
purely on vector fonts....
Start point - Falcon in 16 colour mode
SVGA using standard Speedo
4/5 fonts supplied (aided by XBoot &
Everest).
1. Assign.sys: delete all the zdbxxxxx
screen & printer fonts leaving just a list
of "path = ", screen.sys's and "21
appropriate Speedo printer driver.sys".
(The path I chose is to my NVDI 2
Gemsys folder to make life easier for
adding NVDI).
2. Extend.sys: set BITCACHE = 0
(leave WIDTHTABLES = 1).
3. PUBLISH.DEF: edit last line
BULLET_FONT 129 to
BULLET_FONT 5003 - now using one
of the installed Speedo fonts as the bullet
font that Timeworks requires - Swiss 721
BX000003.SPD in this case but can use
most of the others that have a full
character set AFAIUI (not More
Wingbats SWC!!) with Speedo 5 adding
5000 to the font id.
4. Reboot. Rerun FONTWID - hangs -
reboot. ...and that's it!
You can add/remove Speedo fonts very
easily with OUTLINE.ACC/PRG. I use
XBoot to install sets with various
standard groups of fonts, using the Batch
Command option to copy in the various
associated PUBLISH.WID &
SCREEN.WID files - so only have to run
FONTWID at the setup stage. For small
font alterations, I use a Timeworks
Reboot set which has no Assign.sys or
Extend.sys info file specified so
rebooting doesn't alter these just changed
files - but FONTWID has to be run.
Now for NVDI 2.5...
(I prefer 2.5 to 3, as it's much easier to
change fonts - reputedly the best setup is
TW 2.04, NVDI 2.5 & Speedo 5 with not
a bitmap font in sight).
1. Assign.sys: path points to folder
with NVDI 2.5 screen drivers and Speedo
printer driver. No alteration required if
this GEMSYS folder was used as
suggested previously.
2. Extend.sys: no change.
3. Activate NVDI.PRG in Boot
partition AUTO folder.
4. Ensure XCONTROL.ACC &
NVDICONF.CPX are installed and
active.
5. Reboot and run FONTWID.APP.
Reboot.
6. Run PUBLISH.APP. This will
most likely result in an "Invalid Handle"
error message. Key <1> repeatedly (11
times!!!) and the Timeworks Info screen
will eventually appear and loading will
proceed unhindered.
This is due to faulty VDI calls and
enabling "TOS Compatibility" in the
NVDICONF.CPX will cure this,
although it is not recommended for
otherprogs - XBoot to the rescue again!
Works beautifully, snappy screen redraws
- so far seems stable.
Works with Screenblaster - have used
752*560*16 and a Virtual
Screen of 1505*1120 - impressive!
Note: I've not tried using this with NVDI
3 as I personally dislike the Speedo font
addition/removal and I didn't feel it was
worth the effort.
Still on the backburner is the use of
TrueType fonts - haven't had time to
investigate the use of these. However, I'm
waiting for my NVDI 4 upgrade which
may prove to have better font
interchangeability - there may well be
more to come... BS
SHAREWARE & PUBLIC DOMAIN
Genuine Shareware and Public Domain software will be available for
copying at meetings. Most of this will have been sourced from PD
libraries, Bulletin Boards, CiX and PD CD Roms.
I personally would strongly recommend that everyone registers any
Shareware software that you regularly use. At the moment, Shareware is the
strongest new source of quality new software. The only way to keep the
programmers active on the Atari scene is to encourage them by registering.
The fee is normally very reasonable
SOFTWARE PIRACY
The WeST of Scotland Atari User Group does not condone software piracy
and will not allow the group meetings be used to copy commercial
software.
HARDWARE UPGRADES
If you have, or know of someone with a 520 STE we have a supply of
simms chips to upgrade these to 1 megabyte machines. We will have
these at the meetings so if you bring the machine with you we will
supply and fit them there and then for you. For this service we will
charge 5 per upgrade. The half meg upgrades are chips that have come
from machines that have been upgraded already and have therefore been
obtained free of charge. The funds raised for the club would be used
toward stationary costs etc.
IMPORTANT Please remember that if any machine is opened to be upgraded
it is done at the owners own risk, and that it would invalidate any
warranty still existing.
In addition we expect to be lay our hands on some 1 mb simms shortly
to allow STE's to be upgraded to either 2 or 4 megabytes. These 1 mb
simms have still to be obtained and paid for, but I would hope to be
able to supply and fit them for appx 20 per meg. These are not being
being sold on behalf of the user group.
FOR SALE & WANTED
STE/FALCON Software for Sale: I'm
looking for offers for the following
software, which is all in perfect condition
:-
DA Vektor PRO, Cyber Paint, Rainbow,
Dogfight, Caesar, Bloodwych, Flight of
the Intruder, Championship Manager
Italia, Dragons of Flame, Falcon (STE
version) and both mission disks: Op
Counterstrike & Op Firefight, BOOKS:
Atari ST Machine Language, (Abacus
Software), ST Disk Drives Inside & Out
(Abacus Software). Tel: Alasdair on
01505 328254
FOR SALE : STe 4 meg Upgrade TOS
1.62 + Cumana ext DD + boxed games
250o.v.n.o. also STFM 4 meg
Upgrade TOS 1.2 - 2.06 switchable +
Atari SF 314 ext DD + boxed games
200o.v.n.o. Tel. Sandy on 01505
703813
WANTED ; Microvitec Multisync 1438
14" monitor or similar, Tel. Sandy on
01505 703813
CREDITS
This Newsletter was prepared using Papyrus Gold with N.V.D.I. and
printed at 300 dpi on a Hewlett Packard Deskjet 500C. The headings are
in Swiss 721 12pt text and the body text is in Times New Roman 10 pt.
Contributors:
Alasdair Goold Sandy Thomson
Brian Stanton Harry Sideras
(½ WSAUG, 1996)
