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Atari Explorer Online Issue 1995 06
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:: Volume 4, Issue 6 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE August 21, 1995 ::
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:: ::
:: ATARI .............. News, reviews, & solutions ............ ATARI ::
:: EXPLORER ............ for the online Atari .......... EXPLORER ::
:: ONLINE ................. Community .............. ONLINE ::
:: ::
:: Published and Copyright (c) 1993-1995 by Subspace Publishers ::
:: All Rights Reserved ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: Publisher Emeritus ........................... Michael Lindsay ::
:: Editor/Publisher .................................. Travis Guy ::
:: Assistant Editor GEnie......................... Ron Robinson ::
:: Assistant Editor CompuServe................... Albert Dayes ::
:: Assistant Editor Internet.................. Timothy Wilson ::
:: Assistant Editor AOL.................. Dimitri M. LaBarge ::
:: Assistant Editor Delphi.................... Mark Santora ::
:: Unabashed Atariophile .............. Michael R. Burkley ::
:: User Group Coordinator .................... Ron Whittam ::
:: Jaguar Editor ...................... Christian Svensson ::
:: 8-bit Editor .............................. John Hardie ::
:: ::
:: Contributors: ::
:: """"""""""""" ::
:: Frans Keylard, Bill Scull, David A. Wright ::
:: ::
:: Telecommunicated to you via: ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: GEnie: ST/JAGUAR RT Library 38 ::
:: AOL: VIDEO GAMES FORUM Hints, Tips and Tricks II Library ::
:: CompuServe: ATARIGAMING Library 10, VIDGAME Library 15 ::
:: Delphi: ATARI ADVANTAGE & WORLD OF VIDEO GAMES Libraries ::
:: Fnet: AEO Conference, Node 319 ::
:: AtariNet: AEO Conference, Node 51:1/10 ::
:: ::
:: FTP recent AEO issues from: rahul.net:pub/wilsont/AEO ::
:: Search gopherspace under "aeo" for back issues ::
:: ::
:: World Wide Web: http://www.mcc.ac.uk/~dlms/atari.html ::
:: http://www.bucknell.edu/~svensson ::
:: ::
:: ::
:: EMail Request address: AEO-by-EMail-request@maximized.com ::
:: ::
:: >>> To subscribe to AEO, send a message to the request ::
:: >>> address, with the following line (no subject): ::
:: >>> ::
:: >>> subscribe aeo-by-email ::
:: >>> ::
:: >>> and your address will be added to the list. To ::
:: >>> unsubscribe from AEO, send the following: ::
:: >>> ::
:: >>> unsubscribe aeo-by-email ::
:: >>> ::
:: >>> to the same request address, making sure you send ::
:: >>> it from the same address you subscribed from. ::
:: ::
:: AEO is also in file format on the Jaguar Mailing List ::
:: ::
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Table of Contents
* From the Editors ................................... When high-tech fails.
* Ted Hoff Interview ............ What's the direction Atari will be taking
in the next few months? The new President
of North American Operations answers.
* Hands on: Jaguar CD & VLM ........ Does the VLM stack up to expectations?
A first look at the new Jaguar CD
and its built-in lightsynth.
* Jaguar Tackboard ....................... AEO development list - Atari PRs
and notices - Jaguar Gamer's
Guide CONTEST! - Tidbits.
* Surfing the Jagged Edge ................... More BattleSphere, the latest
Yak update, and the first
peek at Mutant Penguins.
* White Men Can't Jump ................... Dribble, dive and diss with Mark
in a wicked streetball game.
* Super BurnOut ..................... Motorcycle around the world at 60fps,
as you "Hang On" your controller.
* From a Saved Backup ................ Swap meets & Plan 9 - Ooooohh, scary!
* The Unabashed Atariophile .................... PD and Shareware files for
=your= Atari computer.
* HTML Browser ........................ A great way to introduce your Atari
to (offline) HyperText browsing.
* Atarinet List .............. Node list & file echos for this Fido network.
* Rare Gems .......................................... Quotes worth quoting.
* Shutdown ............................. Around the world and up your block.
--==--==--==--==--
||| From the Editors ........... Atari Explorer Online: Jaguar Voyagers
||| Travis Guy
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.MAG Delphi: AEO_MAG Internet: aeo.mag@genie.com
--------------------------------------------------------------
Two days later than intended, allow me to welcome you to Atari
Explorer Online Magazine, and our latest look at events in the World
Atari.
It was a fouled attempt at an automatic AEO distribution program that
kept this issue from going out last Saturday night. Not noticing this
failure until 24 hours later, I used a few minutes to go over the text
again. Note to potential editors: it never hurts to read through once
more.
One positive benefit of the delay is that it allowed the inclusion of
a 320x240 True Color TIFF (File SC10.TIF) of a recent version of
4Play's BattleSphere that I found in my mailbox. This space-fighter
simulator is starting to gel in its final months of coding, as you can
tell from the action going on in the screenshot. Look for a hands-on
preview of the amazing BattleSphere very soon in AEO.
Several new games have been released since we met last. One of them,
White Men Can't Jump, shares review time with another new game, Super
BurnOut. Sandwich Islands' new Jaguar Gamer's Guide was also released,
but instead of a review, we're giving away two copies - look under the
Tackboard for details on how you can win one.
"An original game that could be a showcase for Jaguar's abilities..."
is one way I've heard Attack of the Mutant Penguins described. For an
early peek at what until now has been a hush-hush UK title, check out
Dimitri's Jagged Edge.
I've waited this long in the editorial to mention it; the Jaguar CD
that was about to arrive at the time of my last editorial, did. I've
had thirty days to observe the VLM, and... my review of it runs after
our interview with Atari's Ted Hoff.
Astute Atari computer users will note that Michael Burkley's Unabashed
Atariophile column has returned to our virtual pages. Ron Whittam
shows that he has more than webs on the brain, and my old friend Bill
Scull updates the node list for Atarinet.
That's it for me this issue. Start watching your dealer's shelves for
the Jaguar CD players that are due to start shipping later this week.
Now the fun begins.
--==--==--==--==--
||| Ted Hoff
||| Interview by: Frans Keylard
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.2 Internet: fkeylard@on-ramp.ior.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
[AEO] Mr. Hoff, let me wish you a belated welcome to Atari! (May I
call you Ted?) I hope you are settled into your new job by now.
Could you please give our readers who haven't seen your press
release a little bit of background on yourself?
[Ted] Hi Frans. Thanks for the welcome. By all means, please address
me as "Ted." Actually, I have found an uncommonly great number of
people, inside of Atari and Jaguar gamers, who are eager to go to work
and make changes for the better... just like yourself. There's been no
welcome I've experienced better anywhere.
With regard to my background, that press release just ran as I recall
in the latest issue of AEO. Issue number 0405, wasn't it? Anyway, your
readers can refer to it for the formal data. My professional career
has been primarily in large corporations related to consumer packaged
goods. I first became interested in video games over 20 years ago,
when I purchased Pong. I have been an Atari system owner ever since
and I have since added game platforms for my entire family to enjoy.
(Raising four kids, we've gone through a lot of Atari games!
<smiling>)
[AEO] How do you feel about being a very desired commodity in the
online community?
[Ted] Ha! I don't think people consider me to be a "desired
commodity", at least I hope not. I think they may like what I
represent which is a focused effort to bring quality software to
market and to actively promote an expanded user base. This includes
luring hot titles and developers, picking up the pace of release
schedules, and optimizing every promotional dollar we can pump through
the media.
[AEO] Well, at least the announced photograph that was supposed to
accompany the press release! If it were a baseball card it
would be considered a collector's item! Atarians everywhere have
been genuinely interested in you, and what you are here to do.
[Ted] Thanks. I'm blushing. The mention of a photo is because the
onliners see exactly what we send out through formal PR channels. An
offer to supply a photo that way is not uncommon. I think Don Thomas
has scanned the photo and put it online for everyone. That may have
ruined any value as a trading card <smile>, but everyone has access if
they want it.
[AEO] Given the current next generation machine hype and industry
naysayers when it comes to Atari's chances, how are you going to
convert 4Q95 into profit for Atari?
[Ted] Excellent question. I had to ask and answer similar questions of
myself before accepting Atari's offer to join them. What I found was
that Atari is in a very good position, especially after having a
couple years on the market with a next generation platform system. I
welcome Sony's and Sega's efforts in the marketplace, primarily
because of the infusion of enormous marketing dollars creating an
awareness of new generation platforms. Atari's advantage will be that
we will have more titles on the market than Sony or Sega, and the
Jaguar is roughly half the price to get into. At about $150, we have a
very compelling price point.
Distribution is a matter of concern and we're working hard to increase
the retail exposure of Jaguar. A concentrated focus is planned with
the launch of the Jaguar CD. We expect to hold our retail position and
improve our product merchandising at an accelerated pace on through
the Holiday buying season. I am proud to say we have new retail
outlets carrying Jaguar coming on board on a weekly basis and BIG
announcements related to national chains are forthcoming.
[AEO] Did you have anything to do with the decision to rework Fight
for Life?
[Ted] Not really. You did. My staff was telling me what the onliners
were saying based on early magazine reviews and I thought the gamers
spoke clearly on what they want.
[AEO] How many programmers were working on that title, given that its
Japanese counterparts usually have teams of programmers on such
projects? Also, what is to become of FFL now?
[Ted] Francois Bertrand is working with Bill Rehbock and his staff to
review their needs on that project. Enough work has to be done that
many parts of it will need to be reviewed anew. Since it clearly will
not be something ready this Holiday season, I'm demanding that no
hasty decisions to be made.
[AEO] Can you tell us more about the planned multimillion dollar
campaign and new commercials. Is the Jaguar going to be called
the "Jaguar 64" from now on?
[Ted] Our marketing programs to support Jaguar 64 and Jaguar CD will
run from September through the end of the year and will include
extensive television and print exposure. A three page introductory
campaign will kick off in the fourth quarter. It will expose consumers
to the Jaguar 64, Jaguar CD and a broad range of software titles. By
the way, I coined "Jaguar 64" to remind people we are the next
generation machine.
[AEO] Now about the "approaching 100" and "approaching 75 games by
year's end" statements in recent Atari press releases. Such
claims in the past of "xx games by yy" have proven to be
impossible to back up and potentially damaging to Atari's
reputation as a company who can deliver the goods. Can this
change?
[Ted] I personally don't like to expound on a specific number of
titles until the titles are available for distribution. I agree that
numbers don't really mean anything to gamers until the product is on
the shelf. There really are numbers approaching 80 to 100 titles in
the works, but how many of them will pass our renewed quality
standards in time for fourth quarter cannot be certain. I think we all
know that even Bill Gates couldn't accurately predict the launch of
Windows '95 for a very long time. <wink>
[AEO] I hear about a second controller being offered to people who
purchase the Jaguar 64. Is this the anticipated six-button
controller?
[Ted] We currently have a free controller offer in the retail market.
Customers simply mail their proof of purchase of the Jaguar and UPC
with the coupon and Atari will mail a "second" controller absolutely
free.
By the fourth quarter, we plan to begin shipping the "ProController."
This joypad, aptly called a six-button controller (which actually has
22 buttons), provides enhanced game playing, new moves and
combinations - and will be supported by many of the software titles
currently under development.
[AEO] What are these new quality standards we hear about?
[Ted] I don't know how many people know this, but Atari has an
unprecedented team of Jaguar marketing experts. Each product no longer
just has producers, developers and testers, but a marketing team
leader; a Product Manager if you will. This person is responsible for
many aspects of quality review throughout the development process...
to the point that they will put a stop to a project if they have to.
Tools they use include intense focus groups, private media
invitations, and very specific checklists to help insure that every
title meets or exceeds minimum visual and fun-factor standards. As
more software comes out, the more involvement these Product Managers
will have had, and the more we all will enjoy the benefits.
[AEO] What is the status on the VR Helmet and CD-ROM? Any idea when
they are coming out? Any new peripherals planned yet?
[Ted] We are working closely with Virtuality on the development of the
VR helmet and software. In my opinion, we're not ready to launch this
product until the technology is perfected. As are other companies
which are exploring this area, we will continue our efforts, but not
launch the product until the time and product is right.
The Jaguar CD is in final preparation and should be in the market by
the end of August. This would put it into retail distribution and
available to customers in early September. Other peripherals include
the ProController, Team Tap (already available with White Men Can't
Jump), Memory Track and the JagNet adaptors, all expected within the
next 45 days.
[AEO] Is there anything you would like to add?
[Ted] I think the most important internal message I can get across is
that I expect my people to stay focused on their projects and to find
ways to ensure quality software while picking up the pace to ship at
more predictable cycles. It is critically important that software
being developed for the Jaguar 64 and Jaguar CD is the highest
quality, the most fun, "on time" software on the market. It does us
little good to continually slide software dates either because of our
own personal schedules or due to some contract developer excuse.
Without compelling software, there is no reason to acquire a piece of
hardware. All of the decisions I make are with this in mind.
[AEO] Ted, thank you for your time and participation. We wish you the
very best of luck and hope to see Atari do very well under your
expert guidance!
[Ted] I expect to see Atari do well under YOUR expert guidance -
"your" meaning the Jaguar gaming community. Obviously we cannot do
everything we'd like to all at once, but there are very definite
things to get done. I know everyone will discover that Atari products,
more than any other, are built to the demands of our gamers!
Thank you for the opportunity to share thoughts with your readers.
--==--==--==--==--
||| First Hand Impressions - Jag CD & VLM
||| By: Travis Guy
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.MAG Delphi: AEO_MAG
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Several weeks ago, I received a Jag CD unit and a mid-June copy of
Blue Lightning, and now two hurricanes and a heatwave later (yep,
it's been a busy summer), I'm ready to make my report - well, on the
CD and VLM at any rate. First, the physical nature of the Jag CD, and
its basic functions.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// A New Boot Won't Bog Down
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The Jag CD is a very compact unit. With a case the same color as the
Jaguar itself, the Jag CD slips into the "U" shaped concave top of the
Jaguar. An edge connector slips down easily into what was your
cartridge port, and a tiny tab snaps into a slot near to the Jaguar's
power switch.
Although I had been told otherwise, I was not totally sure about how
steady the newly mated unit would be when it came to inserting and
removing cartridges. You see, with the CD unit attached, the cartridge
port sets over the rear edge of the Jag.
So far, I haven't noticed any physical instability. (i.e., it doesn't
try to tip over backwards when a cartridge is inserted.) And for those
who've asked, ICD's CatBox does fit (snugly) under the rear of the Jag
CD.
There's only one button on the CD unit, and it's used to open the lid.
The lid isn't damped, and when opened, it pops up about an inch, and
you have to physically open it to get to the CD inside. (The lid
doesn't go close to vertical, so as far as I consider, it's =not= a
toilet lid! <grin>)
Next, you'll have to hook up another 9V AC adaptor, just like the one
that powers your Jaguar. That's it - it's time for your new bootup
sequence.
First, your Jaguar will look for the presence of a game cartridge. If
present, Jaguar will run it, and will not spin up a disc. If there's
no game cartridge installed, your Jag will then check for a disc. If
it finds a Jaguar game CD, the Jaguar will then check for a Memory
Track cartridge. If it's an audio CD, the Jaguar will load VLM from
the CD unit, and present you with the VLM control screen.
Before I forget, I should tell you about the new onscreen logo.
Instead of the regular Jaguar startup screen (with the falling
letters, jaguar cube, chintzy music, etc.), a different sized Jaguar
logo appears when you first boot up - accompanied by a random VLM
effect. The logo is the same logo we've all come to know and love,
just spiced up. (I prefer the tiny multicolored Jag logo sitting in
the moving starfield.)
If there's no cartridge or CD present, a picture of a gold CD with a
question mark flashing across it will appear under the new Jaguar
logo. (Bonus tip: If there's no power applied to the Jag CD unit, a
picture of the rear of the Jag/CD unit will appear - with a flashing
arrow pointing at the CD's power jack! Well, =I= thought it was cool.)
The unit itself was built by Phillips, and I've put it under four
weeks worth of use with no problems, and I'm talking -heavy- use.
I've found the Virtual Light Machine to be quite an attention getter
at parties.
Now that I've mentioned the VLM, it's time for a refresher....
The VLM is the latest in a long line of lightsynth programs by Jeff
Minter, author of many award-winning shoot-em'ups on various platforms
(including the Jag's Tempest 2000), and furry beastie follower.
"Trip-a-Tron" & "Colourspace" were two previous efforts I'm the most
familiar with, but like many people, I found the weak point of those
programs was that the listener had to move the mouse or joystick
around to make the pretty patterns dance on the monitor. Heck, you
really didn't need any music playing....
That's where VLM breaks away from Minter's previous lightsynth work.
VLM was conceived as a part of Atari's new Jaguar CD player. By
carefully monitoring the data flow coming off an audio CD, "triggers"
could be set to wait for various audio events - "triggers" that could
initiate and otherwise influence graphic effects. In effect, the
lightsynth would be "listening" to the music, and reacting to it.
The effect of each of Jeff's online announcements on VLM's status was
interesting. VLM reached "cult" acceptance levels among many of those
waiting to buy a Jaguar CD unit. (Which should start shipping from
Atari late this week. <This article's timing intended>) In fact, a few
Jag owners voiced that they would buy a Jag CD player on the appeal of
VLM alone.
When my CD player arrived, I felt that I had to Do The Right Thing.
So, as I would hope that Jeff would deem worthy, I christened my Jag
CD with a playing of my MFSL copy of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the
Moon. Yea verily, the music flowed, the pixels did dance, and my heart
was made light. I knew then, that the VLM is everything the Yak had
said it would be.
Just so everyone knows, the VLM is not part of some magic chip in the
Jag CD player. It's a program, stored in ROM inside the CD player, and
runs on the Jaguar console just like any other Jaguar program. Also
like other Jaguar firmware, the VLM benefits from EEPROM storage - the
current volume, and selected VLM bank/event settings are stored, with
100,000 writes possible. I was delighted to find this out.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Taking control
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The VLM controls may seem complex at first, but they quickly become
old hat. I managed to figure out most of the functions without
referring to the manual, so I don't think they'll be too much bother
for anyone.
Let me first point out that there are two modes of operation: Audio
Control Mode and VLM Mode. Audio Control mode allows most CD-player
operations to take place, and VLM mode is where Banks and Effects are
chosen. Depending on the appropriate Mode, different functions are
assigned to the joypad, to the fire and control buttons, and to the
keypad. A tiny "VLM"-logo bug appears in the lower right-hand corner
of the screen for a few seconds as you change modes: inverted when you
enter Audio Control mode, right-side-up when you're in VLM mode.
As for the joypad, while in Audio Control Mode, brief Left and Right
taps signal Back and Forward Track respectively. Longer presses signal
Cue & Review. (More on that just ahead.) Up and Down on the pad raises
and lowers the audio volume level with a "transparent" volume graph
appearing on the left side of the screen.
Cue & Review skips through 30 seconds of audio in 8 seconds of real
time (one second per "tick"), then without letting up on the pad,
shifts into 6X scanning speed. Segments of music cannot be "marked"
for loop playing.
The rest of the buttons are easier to remember. Pause pauses/
unpauses, Option toggles Audio Control/VLM Modes, and the A button
cycles between the three different displays. (VLM Only, VLM & Readout,
and Control.)
In Audio Control mode, the B button initiates Play, and the C button
Stops play. In VLM mode, the B button can be used in several bank/
effects to call up a special "Hyperdelic Interactor" effect that the
listener can use the joypad to control. (As in the days of Trip-a-
Tron.) The C button causes the screen to "strobe-to-black" for a brief
moment before continuing with the lightshow.
The keypad has two functions, direct entry of track numbers in Audio
Control Mode, and direct entry of bank/effect pairs in VLM Mode.
//// VLM Displays
As mentioned a few paragraphs back, there's three main displays. "VLM
Only" is aptly named - only the VLM effects are visible here. "VLM &
Readout" superimposes a "digital readout" line of Bank/Effect, CD
Track, and Time over the current VLM display. Time is displayed as
"m:s since track start" when playing a CD, and "total m:s" when the CD
is stopped. There's no way to select a different time value - say,
"m:s remaining in track."
The final display mode is significant in that a few of the controls
operate differently in it. The "Audio Control" display brings up an
overlay of "CD player" controls over the current VLM screen. Stop,
Review/Back, Play, Cue/Forward icons, along with track and time
readouts, fill the top of the screen. Mid-screen are three new buttons
which are referred to as Advanced Control Options, while at the bottom
of the screen, a 2 deep x 10 wide "music calendar" list of track
numbers shows you what's up next.
//// Advanced Control Options
The Advanced Control buttons are accessed by pressing Option. Doing
so, highlights one of the three buttons, cursor-like, and pressing "B"
activates the selected button.
The first button cycles through the three play modes, Normal, Random
and Program. "Normal" plays all tracks in order, from 1 to the end of
the disc. "Random" also plays all tracks, but shuffles the order each
time you start. "Program" enables you to move your "cursor" into the
track list, and create your own playlist. If the 20 visible slots for
programmed steps aren't enough, the VLM does allow for up to 190 steps
by "paging" the 2x10 list up and down.
A very cool thing I noticed is playlists can be edited on the fly.
Indeed, you can change between normal, program, and random modes
without a hitch. (Although every time you enter random mode, all
available tracks on the CD will be reshuffled and displayed.)
The second button sets "No repeat", "Repeat disc", "Repeat track". It
works as advertised.
The last control button lets you set the graphic display to "VLM",
"Random VLM", or "CD+G". VLM mode is the standard mode of the unit,
where one bank/effect is chosen by the listener, and is displayed
until it is changed. Choosing "Random VLM" causes different
bank/effects to be displayed every half-minute to minute or so. "CD+G"
mode displays encoded graphics on special audio discs - if selected,
without a special disc in the player, all you see is a blank screen.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// What's it like?
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I hit a few local music shops this past month in an attempt to snag
-any- CD+G disc to try on the VLM with. No luck finding such here in
proximity to AEO Central - but that wasn't totally unexpected. If CD+G
is a priority for you, sorry, but you'll have to look elsewhere for a
description.
But I =can= tell you what you'll see when you watch VLM performing.
Lots of different visual effects would be the easy definition. "Cosmic
confetti", "pink, ninja throwing stars", "Q's force field wall",
"sparkly floating pixels", and "many undulating strings-o'-fire" are
just some of events that could be used in any given bank/event.
Do+The/Math, there are nine banks with nine effects per bank.
(Although Bank 9 is filled with effects that are primarily user-, not
music-, driven.)
It's hard to put to word just -what- one could see at any given time.
I've seen pastel snowstorms and swirling color cyclones and screens
that look like a Fruitopia commercial gone awry. Some bank/effects
pulsate to the beat and the volume. Some seem to gyrate on their own.
My one piece of advice for VLM watching is, don't get stuck in a rut.
Go into Random VLM mode every so often. Some bank/effects that didn't
appeal to me when playing one type of music (let's say for instance,
loud, hard driving rock) have intrigued me when other types (let's say
for contrast, sweeping choral pieces) were on. Just the other day in
fact, I rediscovered the bold colors of Bank 7....
Overall, the VLM is an often beautiful, sometimes odd blend of light,
color and movement - all in some way set afire by the presence of the
music. That's probably the best way I can describe it.
The VLM can be a nice mood setter, and it wouldn't be out of place to
think of it being used in a dance club. (Bank/effect 2-9 works quite
well with the included Tempest 2000 CD soundtrack. Try it if you want
to check out the response time of the VLM.)
In all of the time spent waiting for the release of the Jaguar CD-ROM
unit, the harshest criticism aimed at the VLM has been, "Sure, it's
going to look Ok, but people will tire of it quickly."
Well after four weeks, I haven't tired of VLM. In fact, I listen to my
CDs on VLM most of the time now. Sometimes when I listen to music, I
want to tune the world out... and lately I have caught myself staring
at a pulsating VLM screen for long periods of time. I don't think I'm
going to tire of this anytime soon.
Thanks Jeff! VLM's well worth the price of admission.
//// Final Ratings
Title: Virtual Light Machine JagNet: No
Design: Virtual Light Company Players: n/a
Published by: Atari Availability: Late August
Retail: Included with Jag CD Age: n/a
A Summary of ratings:
"*" is a whole
"+" is a half
5 stars maximum
Graphics - ***** Often Mesmerizing. (Note to Marketing: VLM should
be a hit with ex-hippies.)
Audio - ***** CD quality. <g>
Control - ***** Loved the ability to edit a program on the fly.
Musicplay - ***** The only thing lacking is a CD changer.
Overall - ***** It's virtual no more. VLM is here!
Key to Ratings:
(The musical state of mind.)
***** - Floyd. (With Waters.)
**** - Floyd -or- Waters.
*** - Rock. Classical.
** - Pop. Country.
* - Disco. Rap.
--==--==--==--==--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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--==--==--==--==--
||| Jaguar Tackboard
||| Confirmed information about Atari's Jaguar
/ | \ Compiled from online and official sources
-----------------------------------------------------------------
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Independent Association of Jaguar Developers
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The IAJD (Independent Association of Jaguar Developers) has started
accepting members on GEnie. The IAJD is a private group where
confidential discussions can be freely held. (Category 64 of the ST
RoundTable is the IAJD meeting place.) Consequently, membership in the
IAJD is limited to Jaguar developers who are registered with Atari
Corp. To apply for membership, send EMail to ENTRY$ on GEnie (or
<entry$@genie.geis.com> if you're not on GEnie). Regular EMail
correspondence with the IAJD should be sent to IAJD$ (again, or
<iajd$@genie.geis.com> if you're not on GEnie).
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// NEW Internet Jaguar Mailing List
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Anyone with Internet EMail access can join the discussions on the
Jaguar mailing list. To "subscribe" to the list, send an EMail to
the following address: <listserv@bucknell.edu>
With the following as the body message:
subscribe jaguar FirstName LastName
(Where "FirstName" is your real first name and "LastName" is your real
last name.)
You should then soon receive the subscription information including such
options as a digest (for those who have requested that in the past).
The actual list address is: <jaguar@bucknell.edu>. All mail will go to
the list server and be sent to the over 250 readers of the list.
IMPORTANT: If your mail server charges you by the character or by the
letter, please be aware that the Jaguar list can generate dozens, and
up to a hundred EMails in a day.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Jaguar FAQ
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Robert Jung <rjung@netcom.com> maintains the Jaguar FAQ (Frequently
Asked Questions) file, an updated list of Jaguar specs and facts. The
Jaguar FAQ is posted to rec.games.video.atari on Usenet around the
first of every month, and can also be found via FTP, address:
ftp.netcom.com, in Andy Eddy's /pub/vidgames/faqs directory.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// AEO Development List 2.07
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Editor: The following list of game titles has been confirmed to
the best of AEO's ability as of August 16, 1995. Entries in the "S"tatus
column reflect any "e"rrors, "u"pdates, "n"ew titles, titles that are in
"P"roduction, or "?"uestionable listings since the last AEO list.
Entries in the "M"edia column reflect whether the title is "C"D-ROM,
"H"ardware, or "V"R software. (Blank entries are assumed to be
cartridge software.)
ETA dates are dates that have been provided by the developer. AMMV.
//// Titles in Development
Rating/
S M Title ETA Developer Publisher
""" """"" """ """"""""" """""""""
AirCars - MidNite MidNite
u C Alien vs. Predator: The CD H1/96 Atari
Allegiance - Team 17
u Arena Football League 11/95 V Real Productions Atari
? C Artemis Mid96 Springer Spaniel Springer
u Atari Kart 11/95 Atari
u Attack of the Mutant Penguins 11/95 Atari
u C Baldies 10/95 Atari Atari
C Batman Forever 4/96 Atari Atari
u C Battlemorph 11/95 Attention to Detail Atari
u Battlesphere 12/95 4Play 4Play
Battlewheels 1Q/96 Beyond Games Beyond Games
C Black ICE\White Noise 11/95 Atari Atari
P C Blue Lightning *7* Attention to Detail Atari
C Braindead 13 - Readysoft Readysoft
u Breakout 2000 12/95 MP Graphics Atari
C Brett Hull Hockey 11/95 Atari
? Casino Royale - Telegames Telegames
? Center Court Tennis ? Zeppelin Games
u Charles Barkley Basketball 10/95 Atari
u C Commander Blood 11/95 Atari
C Commando 11/95 Microids Atari
Conan - Arcade Zone
u C Creature Shock 10/95 Argonaut Software Virgin
'Dactyl Joust 11/95 High Voltage Atari
C Dante 6/96 Atari
Deathwatch 12/95 Visual Design Atari
C Defender 2000 10/95 LlamaSoft Atari
u C Demolition Man 10/95 Virgin Interactive Atari
C Deus ex Machina 12/95 Silmarils
u C Dragon's Lair 9/95 ReadySoft ReadySoft
Droppings ? Delta Music Systems
C Dune Racer 1/96 Atari
Dungeon Depths ? MidNite
? Evidence ? Microids
C FIFA International Soccer - Electronic Arts
P Flip Out *8* Gorilla Systems Atari
u C Formula 1 Racing 11/95 Domark Group Ltd. Atari
Frank Thomas Baseball 4/96 Acclaim Atari
C Freelancer 2120 Q3/95 Imagitec Design Atari
Galactic Gladiators ? Photosurrealism
Gotcha! 1996
Hardball 3 - Atari Atari
u C Highlander I 10/95 Lore Design Ltd. Atari
u C Highlander II Q1/96 Lore Design Ltd. Atari
u C Highlander III H1/96 Lore Design Ltd. Atari
Horrorscope - V-Real Productions
u C Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands 9/95 Atari Atari
Indiana Jags - Virtual Xperience
u C Iron Soldier II 12/95 Eclipse Atari
Ironman/Exoman 4/96 Acclaim Atari
C Ishar Genesis 12/95 Silmarils
? James Pond 3 ? Telegames
? Kick Off 3 ? Anco Software Ltd.
Legions of the Undead Q4/95 Rebellion Software Atari
? Lester the Unlikely ? DTMC
C Litil Divil - Gremlin Interactive
C Lobo ? Ocean Software Ltd.
u C Magic Carpet - Bullfrog Atari
u C Max Force 12/95 Genus Microprogramm Atari
C Mind-ripper 2/96 Atari
u V Missile Command VR Q1/96 Atari
? Mountain Sports ? DTMC
C Mortal Kombat III 4/96 Williams Atari
H MPEG - Atari Atari
u C Myst 10/95 Atari
u NBA Jam TE 12/95 Acclaim Atari
Nanoterror ? Delta Music Systems
C Need For Speed - Electronic Arts
? Nerves of Steel ? Rainmaker Software
u Netwar 11/95 Atari Atari
Phase Zero Q4/95 Hyper Image Atari
Pitfall 9/95 Activision
P Power Drive Rally 9/95 Rage Software Time-Warner
? C Powerslide ? Williams Brothers Telegames
C Primal Rage 11/95 Time-Warner Time-Warner
? Rainbow Warrior ? 3D Games
P RayMan 9/95 UBI Soft UBI Soft
C Return Fire - Alexandria
Return of Magic Q4/95 Virtual Artistry
C Return to Zork - Activision
u C Robinson's Requiem 10/95 Silmarils Atari
C Rocky Horror Interactive 6/96
Rollcage - Team 17
u Ruiner 10/95 High Voltage Atari
Skyhammer 12/95 Rebellion Software Atari
C Soulstar 9/95 Core Design Atari
C Space Ace 8/95 ReadySoft ReadySoft
Space War 2000 10/95 Atari
? C Starlight Bowl-a-rama - V-Real Productions
Sudden Impact 12/95
? Super Off-Road ? Telegames
u Supercross 3D 10/95 Atari
T-Mek - Time-Warner
u C Thea Relm Fighters 12/95 High Voltage Atari
n Towers II 12/95 JV Enterprises
? Ultimate Brain Games ? Telegames
P Ultra Vortek 8/95 Beyond Games Atari
C Varuna's Forces 11/95 Accent Media Atari
C Vid Grid 8/95 Atari Atari
? Virtual Warriors ? Rainmaker Software
? C Virtuoso ? Williams Brothers Telegames
? Waterworld ? Ocean Software Ltd.
C Wayne Gretzky NHL Hockey 11/95 Time-Warner Time-Warner
? Wild Cup Soccer ? Telegames
C Wing Commander III - Electronic Arts
Witchwood - Team 17
? World Class Cricket ? Telegames
? World Cup ? Anco Software Ltd.
Worms Q4/95 Team 17
Zero 5 1996
V Zone Hunter - Virtuality Virtuality
Zzyorxx II - Virtual Xperience
//// Current Releases (Ratings have been revised)
M Title Rated Company Publisher
" """"" """"""" """"""" """""""""
Alien vs. Predator 8 Rebellion Atari
Brutal Sports Football 6 Millenium/Teque Telegames
Bubsy 7 Imagitec Design Atari
Cannon Fodder 7 Virgin Interactive C-West
H Cat Box / Black Cat Design Black Cat
Checkered Flag 4 Rebellion Atari
Club Drive 6 Atari Atari
Crescent Galaxy 3 Atari Atari
Cybermorph 7 Attention to Detail Atari
Doom 8 id Software Atari
Double Dragon V 3 Williams Enter. Williams
Dragon 6 Virgin Interactive Atari
Evolution Dino-Dudes 6 Imagitec Design Atari
Flashback - NEW Tiertex Ltd. U.S. Gold
Hover Strike 7 Atari Atari
International Sensible Soccer 6 Williams Brothers Telegames
Iron Soldier 9 Eclipse Atari
Kasumi Ninja 6 Hand Made Software Atari
Pinball Fantasies 6 Spider Soft C-West
Raiden 6 Imagitec Design Atari
Super Burnout 6 Shen Atari
Syndicate 7 Bullfrog Ocean
Tempest 2000 10 LlamaSoft Atari
Theme Park 6 Bullfrog Ocean
Troy Aikman NFL Football 6 Telegames Williams
White Men Can't Jump 8 NEW High Voltage Atari
Wolfenstein 3D 7 id Software Atari
Val d'Isere Skiing... 5 Virtual Studio Atari
Zool 2 7 Gremlin Graphics Atari
Pts Stars AEO Ratings
""" """"" """""""""""
10 ***** GAMING NIRVANA!!! - You have left reality behind... for good.
9 ****+ Unbelieveable GAME!! - Your family notices you're often absent.
8 **** Fantastic Game!! - You can't get enough playtime in on this.
7 ***+ Great Game! - Something to show off to friends or 3DOers.
6 *** Good game - You find yourself playing this from time to time.
5 **+ Ho-hum - If there's nothing else to do, you play this.
4 ** Waste of time - Better to play this than play in traffic.
3 *+ Sucks - Playing in traffic sounds like more fun.
2 * Sucks Badly - You'd rather face an IRS audit than play this.
1 + Forget it - ... but you can't; it's so badly done, it haunts you.
0 - Burn it - Disallow programmer from ever writing games again.
//// The Short Term Schedule
Here's the Jaguar software schedule for the next few months. Please
bear in mind that these dates represent everyone's best assumptions.
"+"ick marks represent a title that (for whatever reason) AEO is very
confident in.
August: + Jaguar CD player September: Dragon's Lair
""""""" + Blue Lightning """""""""" Hover Strike: Unconquered Lands
+ FlipOut! Pitfall
+ Ultra Vortek + Power Drive Rally
Vid Grid + Rayman
October: Baldies November: Arena Football
"""""""" Charles Barkley Basketball """"""""" Atari Kart
Creature Shock Attack/Mutant Penguins
Demolition Man Battlemorph
Highlander Black ICE\White Noise
Myst Brett Hull Hockey
Robinson's Requiem Commander Blood
Ruiner Pinball Defender 2000
SuperCross 3D Formula 1 Racing
Netwar
Primal Rage
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Atari PRs & Notices
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// A Letter from Ted
A message from Mr. Ted Hoff, President Atari North America
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
A couple weeks back, I sent out a public response to the
on-line concerns and confusion I was hearing about "Fight
For Life". I want you to know that I appreciate the
megabytes of feedback everyone sent back through the
channels. You helped reassure me that I was hearing you
properly from the beginning and the decision to reexamine
the "Fight For Life" project was a good one.
Now that I have been with Atari for a short while, I find
myself very glad I came on board with my sleeves already
rolled up. The people I counseled with told me that
consumers were concerned about very specific aspects of
Atari development and support. I was told Atari Jaguar
users were happy, but they were also hungry and I realized
that one of my highest priorities was to set the table. I
have now taken a hard look under the hood and I can tell
you I agree. The Atari engine needs a tune-up. On the other
hand, I found a lot of high-quality polished steel and we
have a heck of a lot going for us. Of course all the
improvements we need to make will not all happen overnight.
I know you've all heard this before, but we continue to
need a bit more of your valued patience.
I hope everyone realizes I cannot share everything I am
working on, but I do feel obligated to stay in touch with
our most faithful users. Please allow me to share some of
the things I am working on.
Not too long ago, Atari hosted a media day at Atari which
turned out being a fun and very worthwhile event. It was an
opportunity to speak directly to the gaming industry's most
prominent media personalities, grant them unusual
interviews, offer them previews and answer their questions.
I am sure you have read about the event in one of the
on-line publications already. Based on that success and
addressing my eagerness to entice more publications to
cover the Jaguar, Ron Beltramo and our PR agency are
helping me to arrange a big media presentation next month.
The decision to provide the Team Tap peripheral with "White
Men Can't Jump" seems to very popular. I will be looking
hard at similar ways to give our loyal gamers great stuff
like that in the future. Please check this title out. Don
Thomas just sent out a CATnips with an accumulation of
kudos collected from all the major on-line services. Look
for the latest on-line publications for reprints of that
lengthy file.
We have just updated our snail mail list again and we have
very definite plans to use it soon so watch your mailbox. I
have heard from retailers telling me their customers are
walking in to stores with the postcards in hand so I know
they seem to be working. I think you'll see that entire
campaign become more frequent and improve as we integrate
the mechanism into our routine.
We are taking a hard look at exploiting the growth of the
Internet to provide more timely news, unprecedented levels
of support and access to our company. I think we have a
really cool company and I want people to experience that
with us.
You should all realize that right now is a very critical
4th quarter planning time. There's the CD-ROM and a
lot of software tumbling out of the factories fast. To do
it right, we are discussing specific strategies with key
retailers to accommodate their marketing plans. Some brand
new local and national retailers are coming on board...
names you've been telling us need to carry the Jaguar. Don
Thomas has been persistent with me with a request to let
him know as soon as we can make announcements. I've
promised him I will keep him informed.
By the way, the Jaguar CD-ROM is still scheduled to begin
shipping on August 24th. I know there were once a lot of
debates about VidGrid (which just so happens to be a lot of
fun), but "Blue Lightning" and the "Tempest 2000"
Soundtrack will also be tossed in the mix. On top of that,
I've seen to it that a playable Demo of "Myst" is included.
The "Myst" demo will help highlight visual aspects of the
complete CD-ROM/Jaguar 64 system that are nothing less than
astounding. The software which adds up to over $100 value
is all part of the CD-ROM package.
I am going to make an effort to regularly issue a statement
like this to keep people up-to-date. I'm sure you
understand I cannot answer everyone's questions
individually, but I don't want to be moving forward without
knowing how you feel. Make sure your forum/roundtable/topic
SysOps collect your questions and forward them to Don
Thomas [75300.1267@compuserve.com]. If he cannot answer the
question right away, I'll see what I can do to answer it
for everyone.
Finally, it is most important to once again say "thanks". I
want you to know that your word-of-mouth support of the
Atari product line is valued very much.
--Ted Hoff
President, North America Operations
Atari Corporation
//// Atari Supports Giants
ATARI CORPORATION GOES TO BAT FOR THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS COMMUNITY
FUND
Sunnyvale (August 1, 1995) -- On Saturday, August 12, Atari
Corporation will donate $10,500 to the San Francisco Giants Community
Fund. With over 300 Atari Corporation employees and their families in
attendance, Sam Tramiel, President and C.E.O. of Atari Corporation,
will present the donation to Giants' third baseman Matt Williams as
the team faces the Chicago Cubs at Candlestick Park. Last year, Atari
Corporation committed to donate $250 for every home run Matt Williams
hit. Williams met Atari Corporation's challenge, hitting forty-two
home runs, and raising a grand total of $10,500 for the Giants
Community Fund.
"Atari Corporation is a proud supporter of the Giants Community Fund.
It is a vital organization, as it champions key programs for all
ages," comments Atari Corporation President Sam Tramiel.
The San Francisco Giants Community Fund is a non-profit organization
dedicated to the improvement of local communities through the funding
of the Jr. Giants Baseball Program and other charitable endeavors. In
1994, the Junior Giants program, which focuses on self-esteem
training, ethics and teamwork, served nearly 5,000 children in more
than 50 communities.
Since its inception in 1991, the San Francisco Giants Fund has donated
hundreds of thousands of dollars to non-profit organizations
throughout Northern California. Recipients of the 1995 grant awards
include Golden Gate Senior Services, Friends of Recreation and Parks,
Hospice of Marin, and the San Francisco Consortium for Elder Abuse
Prevention.
For over 20 years, Atari Corporation has provided consumers with
high-quality value-priced entertainment. Atari Corporation, located in
Sunnyvale, CA, markets Jaguar, the only American-made advanced 64-Bit
entertainment system.
//// Atari Releases WMCJ
CONTACT: Dorf & Stanton Communications
Jessica Nagel/Jennifer Hansen
310/479-4997 or 800/444-6663
For Immediate Release
WHITE MEN CAN'T JUMP --- BUT CAN THEY PLAY BALL? Atari Corporation
launches "hoops" game with Team Tap peripheral
SUNNYVALE, CA (Aug. 1, 1995) --- Today Atari Corporation launched two
exciting additions to the Jaguar 64 product line. The quickly
expanding Atari arsenal now includes "White Men Can't Jump"(tm), a
fast-paced, trash-talkin' game of street ball based on the major
motion picture from Twentieth Century Fox, and "Team Tap"(tm), a
peripheral for the Jaguar 64 system that allows up to four players to
participate at once. Now, four players can compete in this
no-holds-barred hoops tourney where teams try to hustle and shove
their way into the street ball hall of fame.
"White Men Can't Jump" players must attempt to make it into the Slam
City Tournament, the ultimate in street ball play. It costs $5,000 to
enter, however, and players start out with only $500 loaned to them
from the BREAKLEG BROS, two unforgiving loan sharks. Hoopsters must
hit the court and win games to hustle the remaining cash.
Players custom design their teams as well as control the scoring,
timing and possession rules. The one thing they can't control is the
shovin' and trash talkin'. Players must be tough and ready to throw
elbows because street ball rules apply --- traveling and goaltending
are the only fouls called.
Atari also launched "Team Tap", a peripheral for the Jaguar 64 system
bundled with "White Men Can't Jump". "Team Tap" enables four players
to get in on the jammin' hoops action all at once. A $29.95 value,
"Team Tap" is included free with "White Men Can't Jump". With select
future titles, players can employ two Team Taps for eight-competitor
game play.
Two play modes are available for "White Men Can't Jump": Tournament
and Versus. Tournament mode lets one or two players compete as a team
in a street ball game. With "Team Tap" and Versus mode, three or four
players split into two pairs and play against each other.
"'White Men Can't Jump' launches our fall line-up of sports and action
games for the Jaguar," said Ted Hoff, President of Atari's North
American Operations. "This game showcases the power of the Jaguar 64
and 'Team Tap', which provides the capability for four players to
enjoy on-screen action in this two-on-two basketball game."
"White Men Can't Jump" is rated KA, appropriate for kids through
adults, and has a suggested retail price of $69.99. Atari communicated
with tens of thousands of Jaguar 64 users highlighting the new title
introduction and peripheral offer through the company's new Jaguar
First Alert consumer postcard program. Other Atari summer releases
include "Ultra Vortek," "FlipOut!," and "Rayman." The library of games
for Atari Jaguar 64 will approach 75 titles by the end of 1995.
For over twenty years, Atari Corporation has provided consumers with
high-quality, value-priced entertainment. Located in Sunnyvale,
California, Atari Corporation markets Jaguar, the only American-made,
advanced 64-bit entertainment system.
--===--
Team Tap(tm) all rights reserved. Team Tap(tm), Atari logo and Jaguar
are all trademarks of Atari Corporation.
"White Men Can't Jump"(tm) (c)1995 Twentieth Century Fox Film
Corporation. All Rights Reserved. "White Men Can't Jump" and
associated characters are trademarks of Twentieth Century Fox Film
Corporation. Licensed to Atari Corporation for distribution. Atari,
the Atari logo and Jaguar are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Atari Corporation. All Rights Reserved. This software is authorized
by Atari for use with the Jaguar 64-Bit Interactive Multimedia System.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// New Jaguar Book Contest
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
It has a black glossy cover, with peering yellow eyes. It's full of cool
stuff. It even includes a few AEO interviews. Now =you= can win an author
signed copy of Sandwich Islands' "Atari Jaguar Official Gamer's Guide."
How? Atari Explorer Online Magazine is holding a contest, of sorts. It's
the "AEO 'Read Between The Lines'" contest. It's easy to enter, and you
could win a copy of the book that shows (among other things):
[] Just WHERE that darn Motion Tracker in Alien Vs. Predator is located.
[] How to lower the drawbridge over the Big Pit O'Acid in Level 3 of Doom.
[] Exactly the path needed to complete the final level of Zool 2.
[] Cheats, Codes and Funny Captioned Fotos of eighteen Jaguar games.
//// How to Enter
EMail a tip about a Jaguar game to AEO <aeo.mag@genie.com> before
Midnight CDT (UTC-5) August 31, 1995. (Please put the word "Contest"
in the subject line!! AEO regularly receives dozens of EMails every
day, and it would make the sorting job easier!)
=Any= tip for =any= Jaguar game will suffice. (Don't know any tips?
Make one up! This contest is well named.)
Two tips will be selected in a random drawing of all entered tips. The
winning entries will be notified, and their entries will be published
in the next issue of AEO, due out the weekend of September 2, 1995.
All submissions will be considered the property of Subspace
Publishers, and may be used in future issues of Atari Explorer Online
Magazine. Void where prohibited. Yadda, yadda, yadda.
Get those tips in NOW!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Tidbits
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// List of VidGrid Videos
This list of videos included in Jaguar VidGrid was posted by Mr.
Lance J. "Where's that Smartgun?" Lewis of Atari Test.
To all who am be interested...
JAGUAR CD VidGrid will entertain with the following musical tracks...
Van Halen: Right Now
Chili Peppers: Give It Away
Aerosmith: Cryin'
Hendrix: Are You Experienced
Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer
Ozzy: No More Tears
Metallica: Enter Sandman
Guns & Roses: November Rain
SoundGarden: Spoonman
Nirvana... (oops, that's a BONUS video!)
--==--==--==--==--
||| Surfing the Jagged Edge
||| By: Dimitri Mark LaBarge
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.6 CIS: 71501,3353 AOL: dimitril
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Greetings Atarians, one and all. First things first - as Ted Hoff
informed the online world a few weeks ago, the excruciatingly long
awaited Jaguar CD is set to ship on August 24 (yes, 1995, to ye-olde
smart asses out there). In case you're wondering, that is indeed the
same day that a certain other piece of technological paraphenalia is
due to appear in mass quantities. How does this affect the release of
the JagCD? It could very well be a positive. Personally, I would very
much love to have a brand spanking new product available (and more
importantly, VISIBLE) in the stores during one of the busiest shopping
periods of the year.
But until then, we're still stuck like amber in the traditional dog
days of tech non-activity on all fronts. With that in mind, we take
you for a short jaunt with our old friends at 4-Play, some interesting
Mutant Penguin news, and, of course, the Yak man himself.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Yak Talk
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
This time, the maestro of psychedelic technological wonderment
finds himself awash in data (and he can't get up!)...
July 23: Hosed
Well, it's been an interesting few weeks. Yak has been hosed with
data on a variety of different fronts. The brain hurts from the
grokking of it all.
The new graphic artists are not only in place but churning out
excellent bitmaps at a high rate. There is now a complete background
level with
all parallax layers running, and the Jag is handling a
full game happening over the top without shredding the OLP - this is
a Good Thing. Much more structural stuff has been overlaid on 2K
mode - we now have waves that have a beginning and an ending, player
ship collision and explosions, enemy shots, and all kinds of good
stuff which makes it more of a game and less of a demo of 2K graphic
elements.. I'm getting more graphics from the new guys than I know
what to do with, never mind where to put in my ROM image.. but
that's normal at this stage, don't worry. We should have audio
happening in the next few days too. Last couple of days, between
the artists and the musicians, Yak has been hosed all over again. I
am awash in data and running out of hard disk space.. but there's a
Pentium with a bottomless hard disk on the horizon, so it's not
gonna stop me.
I've also implemented a couple of bonus/Easter Egg games - working
titles 'Pong On Acid' and 'Gridrunner 4 July Mix' - which are kinda
fun.. redid all the gameselect/intro screens to my exacting
standards of digital pulchritude.. hoping to have the first 5-10
levels more or less running within the next week. Once they're in I
should be into tweaking of the gameplay to make it excellent - it's
pretty good so far, but acceleration is not quite correctly balanced
at the moment. Then, once the gameplay is balanced, it should be a
simple case of jamming on new graphics, levels and weapons until I
run out of ROM...
More as it happens. Now I have my web page at a better site I hope
to be able to update it more frequently..
\
(:-) - Mama do you think they'll like this song...
/
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Penguins Are Go!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Travis managed to snag this description of the upcoming Attack of the
Mutant Penguins from AEO's new UK correspondent Iain Laskey.
I've had a good look at it at Atari UK. It's weird!
The premise is that aliens want to invade Earth and tuned into our
TV transmissions to see what we are like and to help plot their
invasion. Unfortunately, they tuned into a nature program about
penguins so got the wrong info and decided to invade in the form of
penguins.
There are different types of penguin, as in Lemmings. The screen
looks like several big islands floating in space and viewed from
above at about 45 degrees. The basic idea is to prevent them getting
a given number of their penguins to the end of each level thus
tipping a giant pair of scales indicating they have won.
You stop them by running around, picking fights, setting traps,
removing/adding ladders and walkways etc. There are =loads= of odd
bonus rounds and odd bonus items to achieve. (e.g., if you get a
policeman, soldier, sailer, lumberjack and red-indian to meet up,
they become the Village People and do a quick song and dance
routine.) The gameplay has changed a lot in the prior 2 months so
this may all change again.
Travis also wanted me to add that the buzz he's heard has AMP to be a
"well odd" game. There's no news on whether penguins on television
sets will explode when this game is played, but I expect we'll know
more in a few months.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// 4-Playing
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
As has become the tradition of this column, here's more excerpts from
the day to day progress of the space battle extravaganza,
Battlesphere. Doug "Thunderbird" Engel had earlier asked questions of
GEnie members regarding their opinions of a playable demo at last
month's MiST show. Here's an exchange between T-Bird and Chazz, who
was one of those lucky enough to be there.
#1) What did you think of the explosions
>>Explosions: After your descriptions here, I was expecting more
>>violence in them; they didn't swing me all that much. Some of my
>>favorites from X-wing went on for _seconds_; the particular one I
>>have in mind is the one where the broken hull of the ship spins
>>and spins with electrical arcs all around it and it throws out
>>about a dozen bright balls of energy before finally blasting
>>apart. You might want to keep the largest chunk of the destroyed
>>fighter in existence for a while and really _torture_ it -- trail
>>sparks, a bunch of little flashes and then a fullscreen whiteout
>>when it goes.
Our plan has always been to have the ships spin out of control
before finally giving up the ghost, while spewing fire or plasma or
something. It's an integral element of the play that they do this,
but that element hasn't been coded up yet. There are models and
artwork already done for that mode. There's also a much more
'violent' explosion in the storeroom waiting for the day the code
is written for it.
Also... the "Blocky" stuff only happens with bitmapped stuff. There
isn't much we can do about it. Look at it this way, the explosions
are already 16-frames of 16-bit color 64x64 pixels in size. They
aren't gonna get much bigger, so they get blocky. It doesn't
detract from the game at all.
>>The bitmaps were okay; nice animations on the ones I saw up
>>close. You might want to get some different colors into them now
>>and then; make them look really polluted, as if the ship was
>>using something vile for fuel. The polygon remnants were
>>excellent; I kept coming across the Constrictor's tail piece and
>>having Bab5 flashbacks. Think you'd have the time to decal map a
>>few scorch marks onto them?
When you have more time to play you'll notice the scorch marks and
ANIMATED damage on the ships which were already there. There's a LOT
of stuff to notice. Nobody has 'seen it all'.
#2) What did you think of the music?
>>Music: Excellent music. Powerful and intense, and
>>interesting enough that I don't think it'll annoy me while
>>playing after several days. Sounded like Williams/Franke with
>>_cojones_ ;)
Hear that Steph??? ;-)
#3) What did you think of the artwork?
>>Artwork: Overall, I liked it. I still find the cockpits a
>>little sparse for my taste, but all the different kinds had
>>interesting flavors to them.
Thank you very kindly.
#4) What did you think of the AI?
>>AI: Due to the way combat was running (Blam, Blam! Yer DEAD!
>>HAHAHAHAHA!) I didn't get much flavor off the AI. I did notice
>>that a lot of ships didn't realize I was shooting at them until I
>>killed them, even the one that had the white target marker.
Yeah... same thing happened to YOU. One shot and it's over and you
don't have time to react. In the 'fixed' version, they evade you if
they 'notice' you shooting them... just as you would if you didn't
go "poof".
It's great when they don't blow up so fast because each ship has
it's own "personality".
>>I did notice they were frighteningly accurate and very good at
>>leading shots.
Scott's amazing 3D targeting computer is installed in enemy ships as
well as your ship.
>>Watching them in the distance, they seemed pretty competent as
>>they hunted each other.
The scary thing is that Scott found some bugs in the AI that made it
really horribly crippled. It's much smarter now.
>>I'd like to see an "Enemy of my enemy is my friend" reaction once
>>in a while, where if you (or any AI) kill someone else's
>>attacker, that one will be more aggressive towards anyone on your
>>tail. It's good to have friends...
#5) What did you think of the "stationary" stars?
>>Starfield: Near Perfect. You might want to put some
>>recognizeable constellations in there for navigation in the
>>campaign games (point myself toward Cassieopia, spend five
>>seconds in hyperspace, and I should be _right_ on top of them!).
Something to consider if time permits.
#6) Did the ships fly "too slow" (like in the E3 video)?
>>Ship speeds: Seemed a little slow to me; and there could be more
>>extreme variance in ship speeds.
You wouldn't be saying that if you played as the "Annihilator". ;-)
#7) Did you like the "Attract" mode?
>>Attract Mode: I liked it. Gave me a chance to study things I'd
>>miss while fighting. Another option would be to have a flying
>>camera that hunts out the various fighters and follows them
>>around, keeping both attacker and target onscreen (one in
>>foreground, one in the distance) until one dies or the other
>>loses interest, and then winging off to follow another ship
>>around.
I love the demo mode. I'd love to have time to do the "Bungee-cam"
mode for it as well, and probably for the downed network players
waiting for the next game to start, they could "watch" the end of
the game.
#8) Would you like exterior views?
>>Exterior views: Sure! Especially the views where I can see my
>>ship and my chosen target, and the over-the-shoulder locked chase
>>camera views.
They are still a little screwey. The perspective is hosed. It will
get fixed soon.
#9) Did you have a favorite ship?
>>Favorite ship: Not yet; I didn't really get a full taste of them.
>>The talon was nice; I liked the Trident and Triluminary, and the
>>Apex looked extremely dangerous and hard to kill.
I think you mean the "Ajax". It's one of my favorites. I love to
watch it fly because it's so big and you really get the feeling it's
moving, when it rolls or pulls up. The lasers coming from the gun
locations looks so hot too (as it does with all the ships).
#10) Do you favor Multi-Player Networks?
>>Absolutely. Sometime between now and release, I'll be buying
>>another Jag and the appropriate cabling specifically for this
>>game. And another TV, I suppose ;)
Networking should happen this week sometime.
Glad to hear you liked it. So far we're doing really well. Everyone
who's contacted us after seeing BS at the MiST show (or at Atari)
has been really upbeat about the game.
We hear that Space War 2000 looked really lame compared to
BattleSphere at Atari, too.
As we continue into this work in progress, mild-mannered programmer
Scott LeGrand has just been asked about the surprising fragility of
the fighting craft in the MiST demo version of the game....
Hey, that demo code was just >SWIMMING< with bugs... One of them
was the way the maximum damage to ships was getting scaled down
improperly (supposed to be based on skill level)... Another that I
just discovered last night was using the machine address of the
laser's damage as the laser's damage rather instead of its real
damage potential. As a result, life is cheap, very cheap in that
version. Add to that the bug in the skill level-based delay between
robot laser shots and you have one steroid-laced violent demo...
Anyway, it's fixed now... Now on to the bugs in target selection
code... Machine-moderated dogfights now last 3-4 times longer...
The other half of the BattleSphere programming combo, the inimibitle
Thunderbird (tm), posted this question on GEnie last Monday. If you're
interested in BattleSphere and you want to offer your comments,
Thunderbird can be reached via EMail at <d.engel@genie.com>.
BattleSpher(tm) Update(r) 8/14/95 (c) Copyright 1995 4Play
Greetings BattleSpheroids(tm)!
Well, this past month sure has been hectic. We've really got our
noses to the proverbial grindstone now, in anticipation for our
rapidly approaching self- imposed deadline. Things are shaping up
nicely, but there's much stuff still to do.
BattleSphere(tm) was the focus of a focus group somewhere near
Atari, and lots of feedback came out of the group. Most of their
comments or suggestions were to do things we -already- planned to
do, but it's nice to learn that other people are interested in the
same things we are. It was a good experience.
We also got a lot of feedback from the MiST show, where several of
our online friends turned out to give their opinions of the game.
Feedback from this outing was really exciting to us. We're really
excited that everyone (except one person) loved the game. The other
dude was clueless, most likely. ;-)
Play modes really took a turn for the better with the addition of
our deluxe 2-player pilot mode. Now 2 players with only one TV handy
will still be able to play in cooperative mode against the computer
or their networked pals until they get a monitor/TV for everyone to
hook their Jaguars and CatBoxes up to.
We've got a really spiffy looking credits screen rolling away with
some cool graphics effects going along behind them. It looks really
cool. No boring screens for us! There's a similar but different
screen that scrolls the battleSphere(tm) story to those who wish to
run it as an in-store demo or someone who doesn't want to read the
manual. Both these screens will be linked into the current version
of the game very soon. (Concurrent development sucks, sometimes).
Scott controls the 'current' version, and adds the stuff I write to
his code, periodically updating my code to match his. My revision is
a few weeks behind the latest, but since we write modular code it
doesn't matter....
Stephanie cranked out a really swell sounding song (our "Flying in
Space" tune), and it's got a nice beat and a decent pace. I like it.
Supposedly it's not even done yet. I just happen to have a copy
because it turned up a bug in my music player which I quickly
vanquished. I got a copy so I could test the new player. Like I
said... it sounds great.
In other news, we now have a 'secret' ability added to the game
which is sort of the BattleSphere(tm) equivalent to a 'Special
Move'. There's only the one move, but it's REALLY cool. It gives a
whole new dimension to the gameplay. You guys are gonna dig this
one, 'cause it's really a lot more than just a 'move'. It's a whole
new way to combat, with new graphics and sounds. It simply RULES!
Scott happened upon a new type of weapon quite by accident.
(Actually, it's from an old Star Trek episode but he 'discovered' a
way to do it by accident.) This brings up a new question for our
loyal followers:
Should new weapons be 'earned', or 'acquired', or (something else).
We know a lot of people wanted to be able to 'buy' new weapons as
they progress, but we're thinking of a scheme more like this... each
race has a specific 'super- weapon'(as well as some of the random
aliens that wander through the BattleSphere(tm) from time to time).
Periodically, when a ship gets destroyed, an intact weapon system
will be ejected from the explosion and will drift through space
until some lucky pilot collects it for his ship. The systems will
probably show up on radar as a special color or something, so you
can spot them easily. Collecting new weapons and discovering what
they do seems really fun in a super-bomberman sort of way.
The other possibility is having pilots earn the weapons based on the
number of kills they get or something, but that's no fun to the
newcomer without a good ship.
We've gotta decide quick the best way to acquire new weapons.
Until next time... Happy BattleSphericals(tm)!
__________________
\hunderbird
In regards to a query about targeting specific areas of ships to
damage certain types of systems, T-Bird said....
This potentially applies only to bases and capital ships. We
discovered early on that the enemy fighters are hard enough to hit
_at all_ and to code it so that specific areas affect specific
systems would be a total waste of time since NOBODY would be able to
pick a system and hit it (intentionally).
Capital ships are likely to -require- you to take out specific
systems, in order to take them out. For example, you want to take
out the shield generators first, then take out the engines to keep
the ship from fleeing, then you can work on the fuel stores to
polish it off. That sort of thing. If you can't knock the shields
out, you'll never be able to damage the engines. To add a bit of
skill to the task.
Finally, as this issue of AEO was going to press, there was another
set of updates. (The game is either getting close, or 4Play is just
getting better folks!) First, from Scott:
Today, I was videotaping Battle Sphere and I found all sorts of
rendering bugs.... I recommend this practice to anyone doing game
development. It's the programming equivalent of someone pulling
your pants down in public. T-Bird does this all the time
(videotaping that is, you perverts)...
Anyway, wow, I felt stupid. But they're all gone now and single
frame advancing confirmed that this things stays in the 25-30 fps
just about all the time. Sure, flood the screen with ships, debris,
explosions, and shots and we're down to 15 or so, but man does this
thing haul.... Heh heh, no one's gonna figure out the little magic
trick it took to make that one happen...
And the best sign is I am not bored with playing it yet. In the
early days, I used to go play Doom, Iron Soldier, or T2K after I
burned out on programming. Lately, I'm dogfighting in the Battle
Sphere... Life is good...
Now if only I can make the deadline. Our next major obstacle is
activating the networking... That's going to be very interesting...
Expect a public showing in the near future somewhere in LA...
Then Thunderbird has the last word....
Greetings, Friends!!!
Latest cut of BattleSphere(tm) is running just fine. Framerate is
indeed up, thanks to the special hardware 'hack' devised by Scott
and Myself. Nobody has though of this little ditty before... it's
too COOL! For what it's worth, this little trick would have easily
made DOOM a 320x240 game at 20-30FPS all the time...
This game is running so smooth now. Things are shaping up nice.
Scott's working on putting in the 'damage' that you see as ships get
beat up. He also said something about working on the 'drive flares'
that Chazz was asking for that I said we were going to add and that
the ships were custom designed to accept them.
There's some nice feedback when you hit someone or take a hit
yourself, so people who saw the MiST version can rest easy now. The
version we showed then looks like CRAP compared to how smooth and
consistent THIS version is.
I feel sorry for anyone thinking of writing a Jag Space-Battle type
game now. We absolutely KILL X-Wing and TIE Fighter as far as the
battle scenes work.
Loads of things still left to do. I just worked out the code to
handle the specific timing of CatNet, so once the packet handler is
running, it will go off to Scott for incorporation into the game.
Reminder: BattleSphere(tm) RULES!!!!
________________________
\hunderbird
'cause if the 3DO had games like this, they would still have a
chance...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Ciao For Now...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Well, now that we've been educated, I guess we can draw this column to
a close. Be sure to keep an eye out for the upcoming Beyond Games web
page, which will feature projects in the works, projected release
dates, mind-bending artwork, and gripping video sequences. But other
than that...
That's the dish for this ish!
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||| White Men Can't Jump
||| Review by: Mark "Stingray" Santora
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.4 Delphi: SANTORA
----------------------------------------------------------------
To date there have been only a few sports games released for the
Jaguar - Brutal Sports Football, Checkered Flag, Troy Aikman Football,
Sensible Soccer, and Super Burnout. Unfortunately, only Super Burnout
managed to wow critics and players - until now. The Jaguar has its
first basketball game, and it ain't trash.
WMCJ is a half court two on two basketball game which features some
rather innovative effects, like a floating camera, the Team Tap, and
use of a rather good movie license - but more on those later.
//// Getting Started
After the opening screens you come to the Main Menu on which you have
five selections - Vs. Mode, Tournament Mode, Resume Game, Options, and
Joypad.
VS. MODE - Using the Team Tap, up to 4 players can compete against
each other in a 2 on 2 game of Street Basketball. Choose your teams,
there are 25, with names like 3pt Kings, Super Dunks, Dis Masters, and
Urban Angels to name a few. From the option screen you can set
everything from a timed to a point game. You then can choose from 4
different courts, Street, Beach, City, Rural. Then it's up to you and
your friends. You can also play against the computer and choose its
team as well. After one game, it's over and to play again you must
sift through all the choices again.
TOURNAMENT MODE - This mode is far more complex than a simple two on
two game. It goes like this, you and your partner want to play in the
Slam City Street Basketball Tournament but you don't have any money
and it costs $5000 to play. So you borrow $500 from the local
loansharks, The Breakneck Brothers - Tangle and Cash - who you see
after every game. Start playing hoops locally, trying to earn $5000 so
you can play in the tournament. If you lose too much money and can't
pay back the Breakneck Brothers, well, they're loansharks - figure it
out.
If you make $5000, you instantly get entered into the tournament. You
have the ability to save your game in this mode so that you can come
back later if you run short on time and don't want to lose all your
money.
RESUME GAME - You have three "Keys" where you can store your money
from the Tournament mode. You can only save after you complete a game.
OPTIONS - Here you can change almost everything against in the game.
Changes will be saved to the cart. Certain options are only available
in the VS. MODE of the game -
standard score - 2 pts. per basket/3 per long shot
or
street score - 1 pt. per basket/2 per long shot
Time - Timed Game
or
Score - First to XXpts. wins.
Standard Play - After a basket, the opposite team gets the ball
or
Make It/Take It - You made the basket, it's yours again.
The following options are available for both the VS. Mode and the
Tournament Mode.
[] Messages On/Off - Running commentary that pops up on the screen.
Personally I find that it adds a lot of clutter to the screen and
makes it difficult to follow the game. I leave it permanently off.
[] Timed Arrow Players On/Off - There are colored arrows that appear
over each character on the screen. If you leave this option on, the
arrows will only appear when you change control to the other player on
your team. If you leave this option off, the arrow will permanently
stay on. Since the color palette is very earthy in tone, you can loose
sight of the player you are controlling. I suggest leaving this option
OFF which will keep an arrow on your player all the time.
[] Change on Falls On/Off - When your character falls, or is knocked
down (this is street B-ball), the computer will automatically switch
to the other member of your team. If you leave this off, you must
double press the Speed Boost Button. Personally, I leave it off, but
to each their own.
JOYPAD - This is where you and three of your friends can customize
the controls on an individual joypad.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Team Tap
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Included with WMCJ at no extra charge is the Team Tap, a four-player
joypad adaptor. The Team Tap comes in a box slightly thicker than the
standard Jaguar game box and uses heavy cardboard for packing. There
is a very nice picture of the unit on the front and back with a pair
of Jaguar eyes looking over it.
It is a very solid design and measures just under 6 inches x 3 inches
x 1 inch. Don't forget about the clearance room to use it. There are
four ports on the front of the Tap (A,B,C,D), and they are all the
standard size of a Jaguar port. Out of the back of the Tap runs a
single cable which connects to the Jaguar joypad port.
In the case of WMCJ, the Tap is plugged into port 2 on the Jag. Ports
A, B and C on the Team Tap are used for the respective number of
players in the game.
The Team Tap is NOT required to play WMCJ, but it does make it more
fun. Also, it is possible to use a Team Tap on each port which will
give you EIGHT players for a game, but software must be written to use
it first.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Shooting Hoops
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
You start with a zooming in camera that stops right about center court
- if this was a full size Bball court. You see your two team members
with the other team as you inbound the ball.
On the top of the screen are your team symbols and respective score.
Next to your score, a basketball will appear when you have possession
of the ball. If you have to take the ball out (past half court), a
giant "X" will appear through the ball. After moving it out, the "X"
will disappear. You can shoot the ball before the "X" is gone, but it
will not count.
Underneath the team logo are pictures of you and your teammate. On
either side of the pictures are a red and green bar. The green bar is
your Energy, the higher it is, the better you move, shoot and punch.
The red bar is your Anger level. Every time you knock down a player,
commit a foul (only goaltending and traveling are called), and get
knocked down, this bar goes up and it takes YOU longer to get up when
knocked down.
In between the team pictures and bars, the running commentary of words
dissolve and sweep into the screen. I personally find them very
distracting, so I leave them off. It also gives you a better view of
the court.
Speaking of "view of the court," I suppose this is a good place to
mention the floating camera. It starts about 8 feet off the ground at
half court and then arc back and forth, up and down, allowing
different angles of the action. Think of it as a much improved version
of the cameras found in the Virtua series by Sega. The camera is
computer controlled and looks nice. You don't lose any frames while
the camera is in motion, or still.
Each Character has several "SUPER DUNKS." These are performed by
moving the keypad while taking the shot. The higher the energy, the
better you are at making the shot. Each character has one Super Dunk
listed in the manual. Others are hidden within the game, as I am sure
other items are as well.
Controlling your team member is relatively simple. Move around the
court using the joypad.
[] One of the buttons is used for Pass/Punch. On offense, if you tap
the button once, you fake a pass to your teammate. If you tap it and
hold it, you will pass the ball. On defense, you can make the other
team taste asphalt. BTW, you can hit your own players, so be careful.
[] The second button is used for Shoot/Jump. On offense, you shoot the
ball. By timing it right with the correct movement on the joypad, you
can do a Super Dunk. On defense, you Jump to deflect a ball being
shot.
[] The third button is for Speed Boost/Change Character. If you hold
it down, you run quicker, but you lose energy quickly. If you tap it
twice quickly, you will change your character. On defense, by pressing
and holding the button, you form a defensive wall against the offense.
[] The Pause Button - Do I -REALLY- have to cover this?
[] The Option Button - Pressed while paused, you can change volume,
sound effects, and voices.
//// Graphics
The imagery is sharp and well defined. Two problems, one is purely
cosmetic. First and most importantly, is that the colors used in the
game all have the same tone. They are all earthy toned, from the
asphalt to the colors of the characters. This can cause confusion
while playing as you can lose track of what is going on - see why I
suggested leaving the arrow on about your guy in the Options section?
If there had been a little more light in the game, it would have
brightened up the scenes and made it easier to distinguish between the
characters and background.
Cosmetic - only the main players are rendered in 3D. The items along
the side of the court, people, fences, etc., are quite visibly flat,
as the floating camera shows us. I would have liked to see them better
rendered, and maybe doing something, like cheering. Aside from that,
the graphics are sharp and nicely drawn. They fit into the mood of the
game very well.
//// Sound
The music in WMCJ leaves a lot to be desired. It's not close to the
tunes in T2K. They seem to fit the game but sound tinny and really
lack the style one would find being played in a game of Street
Basketball.
There is also a running audio commentary by the players - "Get off me
chump!," "Hands on the Rim!," "It's hard being this good!" The samples
are clean and there. I leave them on, but really have no love or hate
for them.
//// Overall
White Men Can't Jump is NOT a game you can completely master in five
minutes. It takes time and practice to get the feel of it. But the
gameplay is there. It is really addictive, like Cannon Fodder and
Pinball Fantasies. The biggest difference over them that WMCJ has is
that it does not look like it could have been pulled off on a Genesis
or SNES. This is 64bits, for those who can describe a 64bit game to
me.
This is the best sports game on the Jaguar to date. It is fun,
addictive, and allows you to really show off what a fine machine the
Jaguar is. Kudos to the programmers at High Voltage. And there are
more sports games on the way, Hockey, Football, Baseball. I know of
two that are immediately planning for use of the Team Tap and will be
released with software built in to support it.
//// Final Ratings
Title: White Men Can't Jump JagNet: No
Design: High Voltage Players: 1-4(w/Team Tap)
Published by: Atari Cart Size: 4 Megabyte
Retail: $69.95 Availability: Now
(w/free Team Tap for a limited time)
A Summary of ratings:
"*" is a whole
"+" is a half
5 stars maximum
Graphics - **** Players are well drawn and the backgrounds fit the
game. Sometimes you can lose your player because
of the color scheme.
Audio - *** Average. Could have been much better.
Control - ***+ Very intuitive. You don't screw up at the controls
because you can't find something. Players are
very responsive.
Gameplay - **** Excellent. Really keeps you hooked. Well
implemented.
Overall - **** The gameplay is the thing. Really great. The
graphics are nice, but when I lose my player, it
annoys me a little. The game rocks.
Key to Mark's Ratings:
the Summer Blockbuster state of mind.
***** - Batman Forever
**** - Braveheart
*** - The Net (Sandra Bullock in a Bikini!)
** - Virtuosity
* - Waterworld
--==--==--==--==--
||| Super Burnout
||| Review by: Frans Keylard
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.2 Internet: fkeylard@on-ramp.ior.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Super Burnout (SBO) is a motorcycle racing game reminiscent of the old
arcade favorite Super Hang-On. The view is from about fifteen degrees
above and behind the racer, which gives you a very good view of the
track ahead. There are six bikes to choose from, and the trade-off is
road grip versus speed. The faster the bikes, the more the bike will
tend to drift in corners. The brake is not a luxury item on these
bikes!
You can choose to race on tracks in eight countries. In Tournament
racing order, you'll begin in....
America. Your race on this high speed course starts at dusk, and your
headlight comes on when it gets dark. The lit up skyscrapers become
brighter and more pronounced as it gets darker.
The technical Australian track starts at night and also boasts a
skyline, but the discerning feature here is a truly gorgeous and
humongous moon! ("Technical" refers to the difficulty of the track,
and this directly translates into lots of steering.)
The Brazilian track is also rated technical and starts at night, but
dawn comes soon to shed light on the jungle and city.
Canada's daytime high speed course is recognized by the large
mountains, a lake, and lots of green forest, it feels like you are
near the snow capped Rockies!
Moving quickly through Europe, France is semi-technical. The daytime
French scenery is lush and there is a old city with a castle in the
background You almost want to pull over and taste the grapes in the
vineyards. The German track takes you through a hilly countryside and
is built for high speed. Hungary has a semi-technical course with
mountains and forts along the way.
The last track is in Japan, and is technical with many hills, sharp
turns, and lots of obstacles to make your life miserable. The Japanese
gardens and cherry blossom trees are very pretty, shame that they have
to be viewed at breakneck speeds!
Dotted throughout the various sceneries are all sorts of objects such
as barrels, balloons, trees, gates, bales of hay, spectators,
grandstands, and various signs. There is some parallax scrolling of
the backgrounds, but this is not really noticeable when you're racing.
Besides these eight tracks, there are also four modes of play.
Trainer Mode allows racing against drones on any track. Championship
mode pits you against a selectable number of computer opponents on all
eight tracks. The drones you race against certainly keep you humble. I
have seen the drones crash on occasion, and they are very fast movers!
Record Mode is my favorite setting, you are alone on the pavement with
only the fastest times in your sights. This is where you get to know
the tracks intimately and prepare yourself for the Tournament Mode
onslaught. (Average time-per-lap, and best time-per-lap times are
saved on cartridge, along with your initials, whenever you best a
saved record.)
Versus Mode is a head-to-head two player mode. The screen is split
into two horizontal strips much like the classic Pitstop II, and two
players can race simultaneously.
//// Pros
Record Mode is fun to play with friends, instead of Versus Mode (more
about that in a minute)! The in-your-face joy you get from
obliterating your friend's record is great. The best thing about this
game is the sheer SPEED! This game moves at an astonishing 60 frames
per second, and the acceleration you get from barreling down a hill
can be quite exhilarating! The graphics are colorful and crisp, but do
not interfere with the experience. They're bitmapped versus the
polygonal graphics seen in Checkered Flag (CF). The racing conditions
range from day to night and tracks are rated for speed or
technicality. The choice of bikes definitely impacts the times
attainable on different tracks. You can configure the number of laps
to be raced and set the competition level of the drones.
SBO allows automatic or manual shifting and supports the forthcoming
six-button controller. The six button controller will make shifting a
lot easier, and should lead to even better times with the faster bikes
because you can downshift instead of brake. The button layout is
configurable; I prefer having my acceleration on button A and braking
on B.
There is a stationary track map at the top of the screen, it allows
you to anticipate corners, use it! Corners are well indicated with
bright arrows, and this is a good thing because they come up in a
great hurry! After a while you will memorize the track and will be
capable of unbelievable speeds. The casual observer who walks in at
this point will most definitely gain great respect for your seemingly
superhuman reflexes. Suddenly, your bike goes from 200 mph to zero in
one second after hitting a stationary object, at this point you get to
impersonate a human cannonball, but luckily you save face when you
gingerly get up and continue on your way!
//// Cons
Two-player mode is exactly that, there are no drones. Worse is that
the lack of perspective due to the horizontal splitting of the screen.
This makes anticipation of corners quite difficult. The worst aspect
is that the top half of the screen seems to be smaller than the bottom
half. This gives an unfair viewing depth advantage to the lower
player! (At least that is my excuse for getting stomped as Player 1 all
the time.)
The announcer's voice sounds tinny, I guess some people are not meant
to be announcers. The other sound related gripe is that the countdown
buzzer is annoyingly shrill. The rest of the racing music is adequate
however, but after Tempest 2000, all sound gets judged by that
astronomical standard. I have a suspicion that there are hidden bikes
and other cheat codes in this game, but I sure wished that the
programmers would have supported the Catbox, Jaglink, or Voice-modem
with this game. That would have allowed two-player Doom-like games
with the full screen and possibly even drones. I emphasize such
options because they provide such wonderful replay value.
I like being able to at least tinker with my bike, but there is no
customization option. The first thing I'd customize is the silly
headlight, this could have been an amazing special effect, but instead
it is a fairly useless round yellow spotlight just ahead on the road.
//// Tips
Memorize the tracks; this is the only key to fast times. You will find
out quickly enough which turns warrant heavy steering and which ones
you can take without any steering. As long as you start some turns at
the inside corner, you will end up at the outside of the turn when you
come out of it with all your speed intact!
The Killing Turtle is the bike to learn with, it has no drift and is
therefore extremely forgiving in the corners compared to the other
bikes. After this you can graduate to the Super Rabbit, and so on.
Set records with the Super Rabbit or Reflex-Z, and then try to break
them with the other bikes. Try to ride out corners without leaning the
bike over, it appears that you can gain lots of speed if you don't
lean over. Often times certain corners can be taken by entering them
on the inside of the turn at full speed, without too much steering
involved. This is a key to fast times.
The Super Rabbit will be a good choice for the tracks with "technical"
ratings but will be at a disadvantage on the high speed tracks. For
those faster tracks I prefer the Reflex-Z, the other crotch rockets
are even faster, but also a tad suicidal. I bet these bikes would be
even better if you master the manual shifting, this way you don't have
to slow down to a crawl while braking.
Tournament racing is pretty tough, but if you keep to the tire tracks
on the pavement, then bikes coming from behind will smack into you if
you just fell or are going very slow. Of course this works both ways
and it slows you down or worse.
If you think you are the king of the hill, compare your times to those
posted on GEnie or USENET. That should keep you humble!
//// Conclusion
Super Burnout is an exhilaratingly fast and colorful game with
excellent control. The bikes respond as advertised and cornering is
predictable and smooth. I can't help but wonder that if Checkered Flag
would have had a similar method of control, it would have been a great
game. As listed in my "cons" section, there are many little nitpicks I
have about it. Nevertheless I did enjoy the sheer speed for speed
itself. This is the same sort of thrill you find in Val d'Isere Skiing
and Snowboarding. I will keep playing SBO until no more records
crumble. Judging by some times posted to the net, I have some more
work to do! I will try to find the hidden codes in this game, try the
same! [Ed: There are three codes in SBO - one for a super bike, the
"Punisher"; one for a "turbo boost" for automatic transmissions; and
one to set your bike at the front of the pack. The codes have not
been released yet.]
//// Final Ratings
Title: Super Burnout JagNet: No
Design: Shen Players: 1-2
Published by: Atari Cart Size: 2 Megabyte
Retail: $69.95 Availability: Now
A Summary of ratings:
"*" is a whole
"+" is a half
5 stars maximum
Graphics - ***+ Fast and flashy!
Audio - *** Music is adequate, but some sound effects are
shrill.
Control - ***** Excellent control, responsive and accurate.
Gameplay - **** I feel a need, a need for speed!
Overall - *** A solid "Good" rating. Vroom, vroom!
Key to Ratings:
The straightforward state of mind.
***** - Excellent, gaming nirvana!
**** - Very Good, this is of very high quality.
*** - Good this will do, but it is not the ultimate gaming experience
** - Sub par, this will not do, take it back.
* - Forget It! This game should never have been put into production.
--==--==--==--==--
||| "From a saved backup...."
||| By: Ron Whittam
/ | \ GEnie: EXPLORER.4
-----------------------------------------------------------------
//// Just another day on the computer
Here we go again.... It was a sad day in Boise the night the lights
went out on the Atari cyclops. He winked and then died. After eight
years of faithful service to his Atari handler, he spun his disk for
the last time. Phsssitt!
The stunned Atari handler sat in shock. Now what? Where does one in
such a condition find another such faithful component? It couldn't be
just any computer - those you can pickup at any corner retail computer
store or discount house. No. It needed to be special, innovative,
reliable. It needed an easy to use Graphical Environment. This
computer is not on every corner nor easy to find. You must seek to
find; so seek he did.
While traveling the ions of cyberspace on the Internet "superhighway"
he found a note, nay a message. Another handler had difficulty
training an Atari Mega4 STE and was looking for someone to take over
the challenge. This would be quite a step for the Atari 1040 ST
handler. Two modem ports, a serial port, a parallel port, MIDI, VME,
DMA, Network, and a cartridge, would be a lot to handle. Not to
mention the option of TV, Color, and Mono video; and the 1.44 Meg
Floppy disk. The 340MB hard drive made the offer even more difficult
(to decline). A few messages sent back and forth, hardware moved, the
exchange of monitary value, and the transaction was complete. The old
Atari 1040 ST now seemed but a fond memory. The new computer has begun
to take over the heart and mind of its new owner.
While for others the event may not be so melodramatic, it will occur.
And for you who will travel the road, be of good cheer. There is hope.
There is a computer with your name on it.
Recently the ABUG's youngest member, a 6th grader, replied to our
local paper's article on "obolete" computers being used in the school
system. His letter was printed. He objected to the term obsolete. He
looked it up and found it ment that an item no longer serves a useful
purpose. He contended that computers "used" in the classroom were not
"obsolete." It is a contradition of terms.
I think a lot of people have the same misconception about any computer
that can't do "Internet" or run "Windows Apps." If they do a faithful
job and do it well, they are not obsolete. If programmers, retailers,
and repair shops are continuing to provide assistance and new
products, its stands to reason that that computer is not obsolete at
all. I have encountered a few who have argued that the ST just
couldn't do what they wanted so they went to another platform that
could. But wait, the ST (still a viable machine) was developed before
1985, 10 years ago. Both the Atari TT030 and the Falcon020 have the
capability to run some pretty fancy stuff - albeit, not industry
standard stuff - but quality none the less. (Who needs industry
standards when you have an Atari, anyway?)
Look around. Check your newspaper classified... this is the time for
yard sales and swap meets. You might find some good deals of "unused"
Atari machines and programs. In the late 1980's the Atari was bought
as a game machine. It is now sitting is a shed or in an attic just
waiting for a yard sale. It will be dragged out, dust and all. It will
be stuffed in a box full of electronic odds and ends and "old"
computer games. Someone will put a price tag on the box, "Junk Box and
all $5.00." You might be the one who buys it and takes home a very
useful computer system.
Swap meets are also a logical place to pick up Atari system hardware.
Swap meets and thrift stores. A swap meet is similar to a yard sale,
but the ware is a bit more specific. Usually electronic odds and ends
are available. "One man's junk is another man's treasure," is a
concept that rules a swap meet. I picked up a data extender at one and
ran my Deskjet 520 over a phone wire 100 feet away from my Atari, in
another room. Old games, odd printer ribbons (just the one you need),
and a variety of electrinic wizardry will be in abundance.
Don't give up on the Atari hardware, yet. There are some pretty
innovative products that may just make the Atari a very useful piece
of hardware in the years to come.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// "You stupid humans!"
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
AT&T PLAN 9, the new operating system coming out of Bell Labs, has
some impressive prospects. It will run on a variety of hardware
platforms including Motorola 68020 CPUs. Both the TT and the Falcon
(and the Eagle) might fit the bill for this system - a system with
some pretty impressive Internet and graphic capabilities imbeded into
the OS. Getting a add-on board for the ST to bring it up to a M68020
may also provide the proper equipment to run this new OS.
From what I hear... PLAN 9 (in homage of "Plan 9 from Outer Space")
may just be the next generation of Atari OS. Built to run on the
Motorola 68020, it "might" be just possible to run it on an upgraded
ST. Only time will tell. Between Linux that requires the 68030 and
PLAN 9 that uses the 68020, it seems that these multi-tasking multi-
threading Operating Systems require the memory protection and
addressability these processors provide (and the 68000 doesn't). I am
not going to put Linux and PLAN 9 head to head. Linux is a UNIX clone,
PLAN 9 is a brand new OS from the ground up. While it takes some older
concepts from earlier systems, it has brand new code with some very
interesting concepts of its own.
Developers at AT&T Bell Labs in the Computing Science Research Center
turns out to be the same group who developed the C programming
language, UNIX operating system, and C++ programming language. These
guys are good and well established in the industry. Names like Dennis
Richie, Ken Thompson, Rob Pike, and the others involved ought to
bring a lot of expertise to this project. PLAN 9 has been in
development for over two years. It is being tested by quite a few
systems. (200 universities have a licenced copy - not that they all
have implemented it.) AT&T's WEB 800 Directory and other products are
running on PLAN 9.
PLAN 9 consists, in concept, of 1) terminals, 2) file servers, and 3)
CPU servers. In this OS, all components are considered a file that can
be manipulated. All the system resources are presented as named files
and are manipulated by read and write operations. This is similar to
other existing OS systems. These "files" can exist either locally or
remotely. This is also similar to current OS systems. What sets PLAN 9
apart from other operating systems is that each program running on
various machines (or hardware platforms) is independent of the machine
running the file service. Files or system objects are dynamically and
individually adjustable to what ever program is accessing them. Simply
put, the programs don't need to know where they are running. Sounds
like techo-lingo? It is. And you can read more about it in various
computer magazines or on the Bell Labratories Plan 9 home page on
the World Wide Web, brought to you by AT&T.
This innovative operating system, if and when it ever runs on an Atari
68030, may be a good shot in the arm for owners of this hardware.
While this project's goal was not to produce a commercial product (it
was for internal use at AT&T), you can get a commercial licence for
it. They plan to ship the OS for all platforms on a single CD-ROM, the
basic binaries on four discs, and even throw in a manual or two. The
future of computing is ever changing, and one never knows what might
turn up. This operating system has the potential to do what others
have tried. It will be interesting to follow the trail of PLAN 9 as
the years progress to the century mark. In 1943, Thomas Watson, the
founder of IBM, said that there was a world market for about five
computers. Over a half century later, and what a change! The next ten
might just bring as much change as the previous fifty two did.
The Atari ST line of computers is still here and living well. Some of
the new developments may just keep them around a lot longer. Plan 9
has a very small kernal and is designed to run easily on a small
computer. With the right add-in board/chip The Atari might just be
able to handle this system without a lot of hardware upgrading.
(Note PLAN 9 is a registered Trademark of AT&T and some of the
information presented here was found on AT&T's home pages on the World
Wide Web - any mistakes or errors in this report are probably mine).
The computer industry is always changing and innovation is the name of
the game. The Atari computer is still quite a package of innovation,
and still has some spunk huddling under its hood. The Atari platform
and its developers have a proven track record of doing things thought
impossible. Multitasking the M68000 with GENEVA and MagiC. Cross
platform emulation with PC-Ditto (PC XT on an Atari), GEMulator (Atari
on Intel platform), MagiCMac (Atari on a MAC), Spectre GCR (Mac on an
Atari), and a host of other innovative inventions scattered around the
Atari platform. Atari runs UNIX software with the advent of Linux....
Will Plan 9 be added to this group? Only time will tell.
Got a comment or question?
Send me Email... "an empty box is an empty box."
Until next time.
Ron Whittam is the president of the Atari Boise User Group in Boise,
Idaho. He works for a software development firm as a customer support
specialist. He picked up his first Atari 1040 ST in 1987 and now owns
an Atari Mega/4/STE with 2 SCSI hard drives, a floptical, and a CD-
ROM. Answering the question "Do you turn it off or leave it on?" He
said, "Leave it on 'cuz you can't use it when it is turned off." You
can contact Ron on GEnie Mail: EXPLORER.4, via the Internet at
<whittam@primenet.com>, or on the ApC BBS in Boise, Idaho (Supporting
Atari computer owners) 208-362-1790.
--==--==--==--==--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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--==--==--==--==--
||| The Unabashed Atariophile
||| By: Michael R. Burkley
/ | \ Delphi: MRBURKLEY GEnie: M.BURKLEY1 I-Net: MRBURKLEY@Delphi.COM
-----------------------------------------------------------------
It's been awhile since I've last graced (hopefully graced, that is!)
[Ed: Of course!] the pages of AEO. I've been busy with a lot of
things and have just not had the time or the opportunity to do much
writing. But I'm B A C K !!!!
I've found a very quick way to spend lots of money. You might find out
about it just as I did, so I think I'll tell you about so you might
prepare. One morning way back in March I turned on my computer and
hard drive and found out that while the computer turned on the hard
drive didn't. Major bummer! The drive was 2.1 Gig and it was full with
the entire Suzy B's Software library, all of my Church related files,
all of my tax records, drawings that my kids had done on their ST, and
more. None of the calls here or there, or the suggestions that
hoping-to-be-helpful friends made helped at all. The drive was dead.
The drive was under warranty and actually most of the data had been
already backed up (the whole Suzy B's library was by that time on CD).
Unfortunately I hadn't backed up my tax records, my church files,
databases, kids drawings, and several hundred megs of downloaded but
not described PD software. The software I could re-download (put
please NO!), the tax records I _could_ laboriously re-compile, but the
databases, the kid's stuff, and my church records (some of my sermons
are ones I am proud of and want to keep!) couldn't be replaced. I
hadn't backed them up. Foolish me.
But I knew that the data wasn't damaged on the drive: only the
bearings were bad. I figured that it wouldn't cost that much to
recover the data from the drive. All the company would need to do
would be to start the platters spinning and pull the files off to
another drive. Simple...right, inexpensive...wrong. It has cost me
$950 to get that data off of the drive as well as all of the time lost
because of not having that data. It could have all been avoided by
doing backups. I have, now!
Now that I've gotten the drive back I'm going to start wading through
some of those undescribed files and describe them for you. I will also
be telling about some new files I download too (of course). So on to
the file descriptions! I'm sorry that I can't tell you where most of
them are from (they all were mixed together in my backups). You'll
have to find that out for yourself.
[] ASM_CPX is a set of CPX programs for use with Atari's eXtensible
Control Panel (not included here but you may find it as XCONTROL in
the UTILITYS category). By Andreas Mandel, this archive includes...
Boot Register - log your boot-ups
Mastermind - Puzzle Game
Solitaire - Jump the Pegs game
Horror Puzzle - 15 squares on steriods
Biorythm - Charts Biorythms (I'm biased, I think this is a DUMB
concept)
D Free - Shows free space on all drives
Telephone Index - What it says
Drucker - Printer Config
Monolupe - Magnifys - not sure how
All of these are in German, but you can still figure them out.
[] BALLER2 is Ballerburg II by Schloss Schwanstein. This is an updated
version of the Baller game (BALLER--see below). It is designed to run
on the ST/STE in Monochrome and on the TT in TT medium. It is a fun
program where you try to bomb your opponent's castle. You buy powder
and shot, men and repairs as you blast away at each other. I like
Baller a lot (even though it is all in German). Ballerburg II is all
in German as well, but I haven't been able to figure out the play as
easily as in Baller. Oh well, perhaps you might do better. I just
haven't had the time to figure it out, and I enjoy Baller enough that
I don't worry about it. Maybe you can do better! Shareware.
[] BALLER is the BEST cannon game around. You choose your castle, the
amount of powder you put in your cannons, how you will spend your
money (to buy more powder, shells, guns, oil wells, men, etc.). The
wind varies with each turn. You may play against the computer or a
human opponent. The object is to hit the King in the other castle.
Unfortunately the game is in German, but you can figure it out--I have
(but then again I'm brilliant [modest, too]). Mono only.
[] A_PUZLE1 is a set of 16 puzzles for use with David Becker's
Agitation puzzle program. They range from "as easy as they come" to
"you will never solve this". Mono only. Freeware.
[] MUMBOJUM is Talking Mumbo Jumbo by David Becker (dated 1993). This
sequel to Mumbo Jumbo features a real human voice announces each
letter of the alphabet clearly. Great for kids or the sight impaired.
This program is a word jumble/anagram puzzle, much like the kind you
can see in your local newspaper. Choose the size of your word (3-12
letters) and the letter with which it will start (if you wish). The
program will do the rest. An example of a four letter word beginning
with "S" might be ZYSU. It uses the dbWRITER dictionary file (included
in his DBWRTR18, an excellent mono wordprocessor), or a smaller
dictionary included in this file. Keyboard and mouse controlled. At
least one meg of RAM required. Docs included. Mono only. ST--TT
compatible.
[] BLITZINT is a simple introduction to the Blitz cable. This cable
and software allows you to copy practically any disk protected or not.
This allows you to make copies of your LEGAL software for your own use
or copies of any PD stuff quickly and easily. Using the TCOS
hypertext-like program you can read some basic information and
directions about Blitz. I like the Blitz cable because the author is
aware of problems with piracy and has incorporated anti-pirate
elements right in his software. Good for him! Color only (though you
can read the text in mono the pictures don't show up - but that's
really only a small loss). Also, the address listed is no longer any
good. If you want a blitz cable talk to your dealer or check out how
to build one yourself in our catalog!
[] CED_V111 is the Ultracool CED Texteditor v.1.11 by Matthias
Pfersdorff (dated April 14, 1992). This GEM Shareware text editor is
very full-featured and useful. It has the ability to load up to ten
texts at one time, mark blocks (in a variety of ways), print out texts
and much more. It has a nice custom interface and file selector. The
docs and program are in German (though I can see from the docs that
while there should be an English version of the program in the archive
it is missing <sigh>. Shareware. ST--TT and Geneva compatible (at
least).
[] CHKBKMNG is Checkbook Manager by Mike Cummings. It is an ST/STE
compatible check book management tool (obvious, right!).
Unfortunately for all of you TT and Falcon owners out there this will
not work on your machines. This will help you to keep track of your
checking account as well as your ATM machine transactions. Floppy or
hard drive usable. Shareware. Docs included.
[] COLORMAP is a set of messages and some C source code from the
Internet telling about how to change color maps on the fly. The
discussion centers around how Spectrum 512 does it on the ST and
other's solutions to the same project. Dated in 1988.
[] CPXBASIC is CPX-Basic v.0.01 by Oliver Teuber (based on David
Gillespie's Chipmunk-Basic v.1.0, if I puzzle out the German docs
correctly). This file allows you to program in BASIC in a CPX! With
this you can pull up a BASIC interpreter in any GEM program! Includes
a 68000 version, and a TT version (that does not work on a Falcon, the
68000 version works, though). Lots of support files included. There
are also detailed English docs telling how to use Chipmunk-Basic.
Dated April 24, 1993.
[] DCLOCK1 is DCLOCK v.1.0 by Robert Adam II (dated April 25, 1993).
This is a fun .ACC which shows the time "melting away." That's what it
really does! Run this on your ST--TT and set the options to make your
clock digits (set in a movable window) melt off the bottom, slide of
the side, expand into the screen, and more. You can show the seconds
or not, set the clock to run in standard or military time, and show
the date as well. Two versions are included, a slow version that uses
less RAM and a faster version that stores the "melts" in memory, thus
using more memory. Mouse and keyboard controlled. Geneva compatible.
[] DESKMZAP is a patch program by Bill Aycock (dated Oct. 14, 1992)
for C.F. Johnson's (of CodeHead Technologies fame) LGF Desk Manager
bootup program. It will allow Desk Manager to work with NEWDESK.INF
files (TOS2.05 and up) instead of the DESKTOP.INF files used by TOS
1.62 and lower. Requires Desk Manager v.3.3 (DESKMG33). Docs
included.
[] DVI_221B is the Fast DVI TEX viewer v.2.20 by (dated Sept 26,
1994). Why the archive says, "221B" when the program menu says 2.20, I
don't know!. GEM based, this program allows you to load, view, and
print (in configurable DPI) three versions of TEX files (Strunk's CS
TEX, PasTEX, and Lindner-TEX). There are piles of other options as
well, but the program is all in German, and there are no docs. If you
are at all familiar with TEX then I suspect that this is a program you
will want.
[] EALPHAQ is Alpha Quest, a short program by Albert Baggetta for
children learning the alphabet. Eliemouse (the part elephant/part
mouse hero) plays a couple of games with them (mom or dad might have
to help out a bit). Lots of color graphics, sound effects, and music.
Color only. Shareware. Docs included. Runs on "all ST's." Also
included is a listing of many of his other programs. Dated 1993.
[] ELF_SER is the Serial Monitor Accessory/Program from E.L.F.
Software. This accessory is intended as a debugging tool to keep track
of the system serial interfaces while an application is running. It
shows the status of DCD, CTS, RSR, TSR and buffers and can be used to
monitor (and do all sorts of things with) any of the ST/TT serial
interfaces (without changing the mapping of AUX) by selecting the
Modem 1, Modem 2, Serial 1 or Serial 2 buttons. Docs included. At
least TOS 1.04--TT and Geneva compatible.
[] EQ_CD_02 is v.2.0 of a set of CD ROM drivers (dated May 25, 1994)
for use with EXPRESS! BBS by Steve Yeomans of "The Equine Connection
BBS." This set of files will allow EXPRESS! BBS users to access the
Atari GEMini CD, the Aminet CD (a compilation of Amiga files from the
Internet), T & A 2 the Max (Profit Group), and the Night Owl #10, 11,
& 12 CDs (sets of "Messy-DOS Free/Shareware). The requested files are
copied to a set SIG on your hard drive and downloaded from there. The
script automatically deletes those files from the SIG on the sign-off
of the requester. Docs included. The author will also try to write a
script accessing any other data CD you send him (with return postage
included).
[] GDCHECK2 is GDOS-Check v.2.0 by Christoph Bartholme, the author of
IdeaList. GDOS-Check will test your current GDOS (or SpeedoGDOS or
NVDI) installation and provide you with a text page showing the
maximum area your specific GDOS device can print. It will also write a
list of all fonts in all sizes that are installed for that specific
devise. You may select which devises you wish tested (of those set in
the ASSIGN.SYS file) and to limit the amount of fonts to be shown you
may limit the font type (vector, bitmap, or both), and the range of
the first characters of the font names. There are lots of other ways
to configure this program as well. Docs and online help. German and
English versions.
[] GNUSHL153 is the GNU C/C++ Shell v.1.53 by Dhrisian Felsch (dated
Jan. 22, 1994). This shell will work with any ST/STE/TT (Falcon?)
under all TOS versions including MultiTOS and MAG!C. It requires a
640*400 (ST Mono) or better screen resolution. I think the docs say it
requires at least four meg of RAM. The program and docs are in German.
[] HP_CNTLR is the HP LaserJet Printer controller by Marc Handler
(dated Aug. 1, 1988). He wrote this utility to allow him to send
commands to his HP. There are 46 commands included in this utility.
All you need to do is type the first few letters of each command (as
taken from the screen) and you're off! I don't know how this works
with newer HP's but I doubt if much has changed. So, If you ever want
to change from letter to legal size, or to print out envelopes, then
this utility will let you set up your printer to do it. Docs included.
Works on my STE.
[] HSMODA06 is the Dec. 30, 1994 version HSMODEM by Harun Scheutzow.
This package of utilities (several different utilities are included
for your specific machine) that is a serial fix/serial port
accelerator for all ST(e)/Mega ST(e)/TT/Falcon machines/MultiTOS/
Mag!X/Geneva. Put this program in your AUTO folder and you will find
that you no longer have a problem your serial-port speed limitations
on Modem Port 1. The author claims a reliable speed increase to 38
kbps on an 8-mHz ST and much more on a Mega STe and TT. ZOOM! The docs
are in German, but the author has included his rough English
translation.
[] IBFORMAT is a text file describing the IBI/IB3 icon file format as
used in ICDRAW, the Falcon desktop icon editor by Dr. Bob (W.D.
Parks). Dated May 18, 1994.
[] LIZST001 is a MIDI file for all you piano fans: The Sonata in B
minor by Franz Liszt. Created by Damon Atkinson.
[] LIZST002 is a MIDI file for all you piano fans: The Hungarian
Rhapsody #2 by Franz Liszt. Created by Damon Atkinson.
[] LIZST003 is a MIDI file for all you piano fans: The Hungarian
Rhapsody #10 by Franz Liszt. Created by Damon Atkinson. This file has
a brief text file included with it telling how best to play it on your
synth.
[] MBBS2XPR is a program by Rich of C&R Systems (the BBS Express! ST
excellent support people) which will convert Michton BBS File format
descriptions into BBS Express! ST format. Dated Oct. 30, 1991, this
program can be very useful when converting your BBS from Michtron to
BBS Express! Docs included.
[] MEHRCPXE is two CPX's by Roman Hodek for use with any ST--TT (at
least). The first is a free RAM CPX which shows available free RAM
(both ST and TT RAM) and the next is a command line style calculator.
Docs in German but the CPX's themselves have been translated into
English. XCONTROL required. Dated January 1993.
[] MREN101 is Message Rename v.1.01 (dated Feb. 15, 1993). This
program from C&R Systems (the BBS Express! ST excellent support
people) will allow you to rename your BBS Express! ST message bases
(v.1.60 and above) by modifying the .IDX file defined in your
SYSDATA.DAT file. Docs included.
[] MULTTX01 from Richard Sanchez of C&R Systems (the BBS Express! ST
people) is the MultiTOS and BBS Express! ST "Preliminary Test Results"
Text-file dated May 29 1993. He concludes his review by saying that
because of the slow speed and high memory usage he is putting MultiTOS
away for another day (at least when used with BBS Express! ST.
[] P2BBX is a program by Richard Sanchez of C&R Systems (the BBS
Express! ST people) which will convert PRO 8-bit file descriptions to
BBS Express! ST file descriptions (dated July 20, 1991). This can be
very useful when converting your PRO 8-Bit BBS to BBS Express! ST.
Docs included.
[] PATHLIST is Pathlist v.1.09. This program by Bman will allow you to
easily create an ASCII path list of files you select. This is a nice
utility to have for those programs which don't use the item selector
and yet require you to input a file name and path. Now you don't have
to remember the path or write it down by hand. Just print it out and
save it for future use. Docs included.
[] ROBOTWAR is RobotWar II by Anthony Rau. This FOREM/TURBO BBS game
pits you against a mob of Robots out to get you. The computer randomly
plunks you down amidst a field of Robots who immediately try to get
you. Your job is to stay alive inside of an electrified fence while
those robots destroy themselves trying to get at you. Can you do it?
Probably not! Online docs.
[] RSC_TO_C is a program from E.L.F. Software which will convert a
resource file to 'readable' Pure C "C" source code. The purpose of
RSC_TO_C is to put the data from the resource file for an application
into the program itself. The resulting code can also be edited,
allowing control not available from many resource file editors. You
may have to do some hand editing of the resulting code to make it
compatible with other C compilers. Docs included. TOS 1.04 and above
compatible (at least).
[] RT_CD_24 is the BBS Express! ST Gemini Atari CD_ROM file library
v.2.4 by Darren Trutzenbach of the Round Table BBS (dated May 3,
1994). This library will allow your users to access the Gemini CD ROM
from your BBS. It comes complete with file lists and keeps track of
UL/DL ratios. Simply edit a few lines in the CD_ROM.DAT file to
customize it for your set-up and you're all set to go. Clear and
detailed docs for you and for your users are included.
[] STSAVE27u is the Soft-Sci Screen Saver, v.2.7 by Michael Crisafulli
(copyrighted 1994). Now fully compatible with CodeHead Technologies
Warp 9 Screen accelerator program (and more!), Soft-Sci is an
excellent screen saver. This screen saver doesn't only save your
screen--it lets you have a fun time doing it! When it is active it
displays a black screen with a small picture bubble or balloon
(several of which are included) which moves continuously, bouncing off
the edges of your screen. That bubble can be different every time you
boot your computer (and now you can select the "bubbles" you wish to
display by using the Warp 9 control panel). Color or mono. Docs
included. SHAREWARE. With your shareware payment you get a stand-alone
version of Soft_Sci (not requiring Warp 9), a program that allows you
to edit the pictures bouncing around on your screen (and more). TOS
1.0--2.06 and Geneva (GEMulator, too) compatible at least. Requires
Warp 3.7 or above.
[] STUSQ is a VERY OLD compression utility which will uncompress a
"Squeezed" file. The sqeezed files has a "Q" in the second letter of
the three letter extension (for example a .NEO file would be squeezed
as a .NQO file). This won't uncompress any current compression
techniques, but it might just be handy to have around for that file
you find on some odd BBS.
[] S_ED_103 is the System Data Editor v.1.03 for BBS Express! ST
v.1.60 and up (dated Sept. 12, 1992). By David Blanchard of A+
Software, this GEM based program can make your editing a lot easier!
Mouse and hot key controlled. You can send your output to the printer
or to a disk. Docs included. STE and Geneva compatible (at least).
[] TOS4_FIX is TOS 4.0x FIX v.1.0 by Charles F. Johnson of CodeHead
Technologies Fame (dated 1994). For all of you Falcon users out there
it will patch several GEMDOS functions in TOS 4.0x to make them
compatible with earlier versions of TOS (I wonder why Atari changed
them in the first place!). This is necessary for CodeHead's MaxiFile
III and Little Green Footballs Desk Manager to work correctly on a
Falcon. It will also fix some problems in other programs. Docs
included. Freeware, but if it solves a problem for you let him know
you appreciate it, perhaps with a signed check!
[] TREEOPT is a short ".C" file by Carl Barron which will optimize a
binary search tree after or during its creation. More details about
this file may be found in the Feb. 1993 "C Users Journal."
[] X_DA_101 by Rich Sanchez of C&R Systems is a simple GEM based
program for all of you BBS Express! ST SysOps out there (dated Jun 5,
1992). Using this will allow you to access your Desk Accessories.
while in BBS Express! ST. Docs included.
[] X_WAY101 by Rich Sanchez is a X_WAY v.1.01 (dated Jan. 3, 1992).
This small utility program for use by BBS Express! ST SysOps when they
need to create a FOREM.DAT file required by many BBS online games. The
nice thing about this utility is that it allows you to keep the
program right in the same folder as the game. That way things don't
get "lost" on your hard drive. Docs included.
[] YBS5 is the Yale Bright Star Catalog, revision 5. This 1.8 meg,
single-file catalog, composed of descriptions of 9110 astronomical
objects, is widely used as a source of basic astronomical and
astrophysical data for stars brighter than magnitude 6.5. The catalog
contains the identifications of included stars in several other
widely-used catalogs, double-and multiple-star identifications,
indication of variability and variable-star identifiers, equatorial
positions for B1900.0 and J2000.0, galactic coordinates, UBVRI
photoelectric photometric data when they exist, spectral types on the
Morgan-Keenan (MK) classification system, proper motions (J2000.0),
parallax, radial- and rotational- velocity data, and multiple-star
information (number of components, separation, and magnitude
differences) for known non-single stars. In addition to the data file,
there is an extensive remarks file that gives more detailed
information on individual entries. This information includes star
names, colors, spectra, variability details, binary characteristics,
radial and rotational velocities for companion stars, duplicity
information, dynamical parallaxes, stellar dimensions (radii and
diameters), polarization, and membership in stellar groups and
clusters. As you can see, it's loaded with data. Unfortunately, it is
difficult to get at this data in a meaningful way. The YBS reader for
the Atari (YBS_STY3) doesn't work with this file. Some programmer
would help a lot of budding astronomers if he or she would use the
explanations in this file to create a reader program. Any takers?
[] YBSCATV3 is the Yale Catalog of Bright Stars, revision 3. This
program contains descriptive listings for over 9,000 stars (and a few
other astronomical objects). While in an ASCII format, it doesn't make
much sense unless you read the directions on interpreting the data. It
just so happens that they are included! Even so, you can't make much
sense out of this without the reader program since the data
interpretation is based on a range of bytes found on each line (bytes
1--x mean something, x+1--y means something else, and so on). An IBM
basic file is included which shows you how to write a program to read
this data. An ST/STE version is available (YBS_ST3 by Robert W.
Quance) which will allow you to read this data fine on your Atari. I
would say that it is a necessary file in order to use YBSCATV3.
Finally, this is not the newest version of the Yale Catalog of Bright
Stars. It is now up to revision 5 (as far as I know). Unfortunately,
it cannot be read by YBS_ST3. That file does contain information on
how to interpret the data so I don't think it would be to hard for a
programmer to cobble something together. Anyone interested? This file
comes in eight sections totalling over 1.9 meg of data uncompressed.
You can use it from a DS floppy drive, in pieces, but a hard drive is
a lot nicer!
[] YBS_ST3 is the YBS Star Catalog revision 3 Reader by Robert W.
Quance. This program will let you read the YBS data files contained in
YBSCATV3 (printed to the screen or to a printer). This file also
contains a program which will check those data files using their
included Checksum file and tell you if there are any errors in the
file. It is a non-GEM program, you just enter a file number and the
program displays the data. Docs included. Color or mono. ST/STE
compatible (at least). This will not work with the newest YBS catalog
(revision 5).
That's it for now. I'll have more current files for the next time.
Remember to always back up your hard drives!
Michael
All of these files can be found on one or more of the following
on-line services: Delphi (MRBURKLEY), GEnie (M.BURKLEY1) The CodeHead
BBS (818) 980-6763), Toad Computers BBS (410-544-6999), and at Toad
Hall, now the official BBS of the Boston Computer Society
(617-567-8642) (as Michael R. Burkley), or on the Internet Hensa,
Uki-Germany, or Atari U Mich sites.
Drop me a line!
Michael lives in Niagara Falls, NY. He is a former Polyurethane
Research Chemist and is presently the pastor of the Niagara
Presbyterian Church.
--==--==--==--==--
||| HTML Browser 0.94
||| Review by: Rom Whittam
/ | \ GEnie: EXPLORER.4
---------------------------------------------------------------
If you are looking through Atari software libraries and run across a
file called HTML094.LZH or HTML094.ZIP, download it for a great
experience. Alexander Clauss has written an HTML (HyperText Markup
Language) browser for Atari computers.
"HTML Browser" is different from the average Web-Browser in the fact
that it doesn't browse the Web. It just browses HTML documents.
Web-Browsers need TCP/IP and a SLIP or PPP dial-up connection (or
direct line) to the Internet. The HTML Browser does not. It browses
documents on your hard drive, floppy, or CD-ROM that were created in
HTML format. Since HTML is an ASCII text document, it doesn't matter
that it was created on another computer, you can still read it.
However, the URLs will not be "just a mouse click away," unless they
point to a FILE on your hard drive.
Before I go any further, for those of you who don't know, HTML
documents are what make the World Wide Web (WWW) Browsers work so
well. Imbeded in HTML documents (which are ASCII text files at heart,
remember) are Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) - think of them as
highly extended path-and-filenames that allow browsers to jump from
one document or resource to another (on a different computer - in a
different hemisphere of the planet, even!) with the click of the
mouse.
HTML Browser is FREEWARE, Alexander is testing the waters. Depending
on the reaction and acceptance in the Atari community, he will either
continue to develop it or not. If you like it, he would like a
contribution to give him an incentive to do more. Rumor has it that an
"on-the-NET" version would not be that far away. Getting the TCP/IP
sockets hooked into the HTML Browser would not be a problem.
Atari computers do not have a GEM socket for TCP/IP that can be used
in native GEM. MiNT-NET and other multi-taskers could handle this.
I would like see a GEM-Sock ACC that would do the SLIP/PPP and
interface with the HTML Browser and turn it into a fully functional
WEB-Browser. Only time and the Atari developer community will tell....
HTML Browser is Speedo-GDOS aware. If you have Speedo-GDOS or NVDI, it
will run your Speedo-GDOS fonts and NVDI Speedo and True Type fonts.
If you don't, it will use the system font and work just fine. The
Speedo fonts allow you to use different fonts and sizes for differing
HTML features.
HTML Browser allows for a high degree of configuration. If you are
familiar with Mosaic or Netscape Navigator, this product will be easy
to use. It loads the HOME.HTM file and away you go. HTML files can be
created with a text editor. They can be used with the HTML Browser or
used (later) on the Internet. Since HTML documents are ASCII text
files they can be sent and received with EMail. They can be
downloaded, or found on diskettes and CD-ROMs. HTML is an excellent
method to create a help system, train employees, or educate people. It
is not only easy to use, HTML documents are easy to create. And since
HTML is not computer specific, any book that teaches how to create
HTML files can be used.
HTML Browser can be installed as a program or an accessory by renaming
its extention, PRG or ACC. HTML Browser uses external programs to
display or use resources such as GIF or JPG picture files, sound
files, MPEGs, and other types of files. (Programs are executed based
on the file extention of the files being selected.) HTML even has an
option to view "c't-CDROM" - the 1994 c't magazines in HTML format. I
was in a couple of bookstores today and found a lot of CD-ROM titles
that had HTML documents, including pictures, sounds and movie files.
This program is in its infant stage, but has demonstrated potential to
be a program Atari users will grow to use a lot. The program is being
distributed in both Europe and the USA through BBS, Online services,
and Internet FTP libraries. You can download HTML094.LZH from GEnie's
Atari ST libraries.
Some people have wondered where a person could get an HTML document to
view or use on the Atari. There are many avenues to collect these
files, or you could create them yourself. If you are using a World
Wide Web Browser, the following is a short list of uniform resource
locator (URL) sites for you to locate. (Some Web browsers have the
capabilities to collect and pass along the raw HTML data - check your
manual.)
Online Magazines
Atari Explorer Online Magazine.
ftp://ftp.rahul.net:/pub/wilsont/AEO/
CAIN
http://ace.cs.ohiou.edu/personal/mleair/cain.html
HENSA
http://www.hensa.ac.uk
ST FORMAT
http://www.futurenet.co.uk/computing/stformat.html
Internet Resources
Atari Resources on Internet
http://www.edu.isy.liu.se/~z94patsa/atari.html
TOAD Mail Order
http://www.charm.net/~toad/
Jaguar Game Machine
http://www.bucknell.edu:80/~svensson/
Other Atari Links (link to Atari webpages)
http://www.aston.ac.uk/~pitchfsj/atari/STlinks.html
Atari Newsgroups
Atari Programs
news:comp.binaries.atari.ST
Atari Sources
news:comp.sources.atari.ST
Atari
news:comp.sys.atari
Atari 8-Bit
news:comp.sys.atari.8bit
Atari Advocacy
news:comp.sys.atari.advocacy
Atari Announcements
news:comp.sys.atari.announce
Atari Programming
news:comp.sys.atari.programmer
Atari ST Computers
news:comp.sys.atari.st
Atari ST Tech Support
news:comp.sys.atari.st.tech
Atari France
news:fr.comp.sys.atari
C Programming on the Atari ST
Sozobon C Extended (SozobonX - Freeware)
ftp://ftp.fu-berlin.de/pub/atari/programming/sozobon/
Ron Whittam, AEO Staff Writer
mailto:explorer.4@genie.com
--==--==--==--==--
||| What and Where is AtariNet?
||| By: Bill Scull
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.9 AtariNet: 51:1/0@atarinet.ftn
-----------------------------------------------------------------
^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^
^^ ^^^ ^^ A t a r i N e t ^^ ^^^ ^^
^^ ^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^
^^ ^^^ ^^ THE ^^ ^^^ ^^
^^^ ^^^ ^^^ International ^^^ ^^^ ^^
^^^ ^^^ ^^^ Atari ^^^ ^^^ ^^^
^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ Network ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^
^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^
^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^
So you've heard of this network called AtariNet and have no idea what
it is or how to find it. Well, here's the information you're looking
for.
AtariNet is an international network devoted to Atari computers. It
is based on Fido-technology and therefore compatible with any system
capable of handling messages and files from FidoNet and similar other
networks.
Here is a list of the current AtariNet message echoes:
A.4SALE.COMMERCIAL Commercial Advertisements
A.4SALE.PERSONAL Personal Items For Sale
A.ADM.ECHO AtariNet Echo Discussion
A.ADM.FDS AtariNet FDS Announcements
A.ADM.HOST AtariNet Hosts (restricted)
A.ADM.SYSOP AtariNet SysOps
A.ADM.TEST AtariNet Test Echo
A.ATARI Atari General Discussion
A.ATARI.8-BITS Atari 8-Bit Computers
A.ATARI.DTP Atari Desktop Publishing
A.ATARI.EXPLORER Atari Explorer Magazine
A.ATARI.FALCON Atari Falcon Computers
A.ATARI.GAMES Atari Games (for all hardware)
A.ATARI.GRAPHICS Atari Graphics Hardware/Software
A.ATARI.SOUND Atari Sound Hardware/Software
A.ATARI.TECH Atari Technical Discussions
A.ATARI.TELECOM Atari Telecommunications
A.BBS Atari BBS Programs & BBS Ads
A.BBS.NETWORKING Atari Fido-Style Networking
A.MISC General Discussion
A.MISC.FILEFIND AtariNet File-Finder
A.PROG Atari Programming
A.PROG.C Atari C Programming
A.PROG.GFA Atari GFA Programming
A.SUP.BINKLEY BinkleyTerm-ST Support
A.SUP.FIDODOOR FIDOdoor Support
A.SUP.JETMAIL JetMail Support
A.SUP.RATSOFT RATSoft BBS Support
A.SUP.SEMPER Semper Mailer Support
And a list of the current AtariNet file echoes:
AFDS.NODELIST AtariNet node administration
AFDS.SYSOPS Files of interest to Sysop's
FAN.APP.DEMO Demos of application programs
FAN.APP.EDIT Editor applications (Text, Font, Graphic, Icons)
FAN.APP.GEMINI Gemini applications and tools
FAN.APP.GRAPH Graphic applications
FAN.APP.GRAPH.DEMO Graphic demos
FAN.APP.MISC Application programs
FAN.APP.TEX TeX applications, utilities, tools, fonts and
styles
FAN.COMM.BBS BBS-programs and tools (other than QBBS)
FAN.COMM.FIDO Fido-Mailer/Tosser and tools
FAN.COMM.GAMES Online games
FAN.COMM.HAM radio operating software
FAN.COMM.MISC Other communication tools.
FAN.COMM.QBBS QuickBBS ST and tools
FAN.COMM.QWK QWK Offline Reader
FAN.COMM.TERMINAL Terminalprograms and utilities (dialer, etc.)
FAN.COMM.UUCP Uucp, tpc/ip, NewsReader for UseNet, etc.
FAN.FALC.APP Falcon Applications
FAN.FALC.DEMO Demos of Falcon applications and games
FAN.FALC.GAMES Falcon games
FAN.FALC.UTIL Falcon utilities
FAN.FOLI.MISC Applications and tools for the PortFolio
FAN.GAME.ACTION Action games
FAN.GAME.ADVENTURE Adventure games
FAN.GAME.MISC Other games
FAN.GAME.STRATEGY Strategy games
FAN.MISC.BBSLIST Filelists (Atari only)
FAN.MISC.DTP Desktop Publishing support
FAN.MISC.LINUX Linux (Unix System V.4 clone)
FAN.MISC.MINT MiNT tools
FAN.MISC.MTOS MultiTos tools
FAN.MISC.MULTITASKERS Other multitaskers (Mag!X, Geneva)
FAN.SRC.A Assembler Sources
FAN.SRC.C C Sources
FAN.SRC.MISC Other Sources (GFA, etc.)
FAN.TEXT.AEO Atari Explorer Online magazine
FAN.TEXT.COMM Communication orientated text files
FAN.TEXT.COMP Computer orientated text files
FAN.TEXT.HARDWARE ST hardware orientated text files
FAN.TEXT.MAG Other ST magazines
FAN.TEXT.STR ST-Report magazine
FAN.TT.MISC Applications and tools only for the TT
FAN.UTIL.ACC Accessories, CPX-moduls
FAN.UTIL.DISK Disk and Harddisk utilities files
FAN.UTIL.GDOS GDOS tools/utilities/fonts, files
FAN.UTIL.GRAPH Graphic utilities (GIF-viewer, converters, etc.)
FAN.UTIL.MISC Other ST utilities and tools files
FAN.UTIL.PACKER All kinds of compressing/uncompressing
software, shells. etc.
FAN.UTIL.PATCH TOS patches
FAN.UTIL.PRINTER Printer tools/utilities
FAN.UTIL.PROG Programming tools and languages. Helpfull
tools for programmers
FAN.UTIL.SCRSAVER Screensaver and modules
FAN.UTIL.SOUND Soundtracker, Midi support etc.
FAN.UTIL.SYSTEM System utilities
FAN.UTIL.UNIX Ports of unix commands/tools (tar,less, awk, etc.)
So now you're interested and have no idea where to find AtariNet. It's
easy. Ask your local Sysop if he has it available and if he/she doesn't
ask them to join. Here's a list of some of the BBS systems where you
can find AtariNet.
BBS Name Location Phone #
------------ -------------- -------------
Twilight Zone Longwood FL 1-407-831-1613
MySTery BBS Charleston SC 1-803-571-1384
FlightLine BBS Minneapolis MN 1-612-544-5118
The Round Table BBS Shamong NJ 1-609-268-7524
InnerCore Orlando Fl 1-407-294-5183
StarBase 1 Orlando FL 1-407-381-2610
The Final Frontier Drummonds TN 1-901-835-4136
CHOAS BBS Lansing MI 1-517-394-6852
Top Gun BBS Orlando Fl 1-407-381-5403
Dragon's Domain Jacksonville Fl 1-904-268-9203
L/S Midi BBS Orlando FL 1-407-786-0239
MASATEK Torrance CA 1-310-518-9524
TJ's BBS Casselberry FL 1-407-695-9483
Steal Your Face Brick NJ 1-908-920-7981
Leif's World BBS Jacksonville FL 1-904-573-0734
TriAxel Lowell MA 1-508-458-2758
Michael's Wonderland Dix Hills NY 1-516-667-3630
Hologram Computing Old Bridge NJ 1-908-727-1914
BackYard BBS Hamilton NY 1-315-684-7287
The Blue Oyster Utica NY 1-315-732-8598
The Rebel BBS Las Vegas NV 1-702-435-0786
Midnite's Rose Las Vegas NV 1-702-870-6365
SEVAC Tempe AZ 1-602-968-5165
Dwarven Underground Empire Houston TX 1-713-944-7861
La Cueva BBS Mexico City DF 525-659-5672
Thunder Hold American Fork UT 1-801-756-2901
The Process BBS Claremont CA 1-909-621-3737
Praise OutReach BBS Salt Lake City UT 1-801-364-2522
The River STyx II Highland Park IL 1-708-432-2659
Wylie Connection Wylie TX 1-214-442-0388
House Atreides Garland TX 1-214-494-3702
Aaron's Beard Dallas TX 1-214-557-2642
Psychlo Empire Irving TX 1-214-251-1175
The Music Station Webb City MO 1-417-673-7339
AtarIowa BBS Des Moines IA 1-515-265-1005
The Crawly Crypt Joplin MO 1-417-624-1887
X UNKNOWN Joplin MO 1-417-781-3296
The Silicon Dragon BBS Columbus OH 1-614-436-3137
Inside Ok! Joplin MO 1-417-624-0000
Xest Kentwood MI 1-616-554-1679
The Jewel Of The Night Danville IL 1-217-446-9294
Akron Connection Akron OH 1-216-253-9247
Crossroads Broadcast Trafalgar IN 1-317-878-4069
STar Fleet HQ Copley OH 1-216-434-5431
Rubber City Atari Akron OH 1-216-376-0885
USS Paramount North Canton OH 1-216-494-6340
The Realm of Thought BBS Wooster OH 1-216-345-6995
Akron Information Service Akron OH 1-216-678-5705
Point 5 Gresham OR 1-503-665-4454
Puddle City Portland OR 1-503-289-9429
Alternate Eternities Aloha OR 1-503-649-7915
Adventurers Inn Beaverton OR 1-503-626-8953
Strobe II Hotline Baton Rouge LA 1-504-751-3695
The Conqueror Connection Fort Hood TX 1-817-539-8228
The FirST Ark New Llano LA 1-318-238-5089
Level 42 Lake Charles LA 1-318-478-3960
Dateline: Atari New York NY 1-718-833-0828
Byte Line BBS Medeir Beach FL 1-813-391-4345
The Mind Keep Citrus Heights CA 1-916-723-1657
ST-Keep Citrus Heights CA 1-916-729-2968
STar Fleet HQ Copley OH 1-216-665-5983
Star Tours II Rancho Cucamonga CA 1-909-989-7745
PC Widowmaker BBS Riverside CA 1-909-688-8427
PC Online Ajax On Canada 1-905-683-3089
Gateway BBS Windsor On Canada 1-519-255-7834
TAF Online BBS Toronto On Canada 1-416-421-8999
Leftover Hippies Toronto On Canada 1-416-466-8931
Zaphod's Playground, Burlington On Canada 1-905-632-7984
My Little Slaughterhouse Toronto On Canada 1-416-225-4351
Space STation SST Montreal Qu Canada 1-514-333-1683
Multimedia Connexion Montreal Qu Canada 1-514-674-8297
Matrix BBS St Laurent Qu Canada 1-514-747-9644
<Fortress> Plumstead London 44-181-244-9825
Project: STarlight Bradford 44-1274-606670
Magnum BBS Bradford West Yorkshire UK 44-1274-547006
SMS2 NE Newcastle On Tyne UK 44-1191-4775472
Sounds Good BBS Nottingham UK 44-115-955-4915
Desktop BBS Stoke On Trent UK 44-1782-541305
Ad.Lib(Line 1) Chester Le Street UK 44-191-370-2659
Ad.Lib(Line 2) Chester Le Street UK 44-191-370-2885
BlackCat BBS Penarth Wales UK 44-1222-707359
Penske BBS Kidderminster Worcester UK 44-1562-744858
AtariNet South West Penarth Wales UK 44-1222-711820
Lynx BBS Dagenham 44-181-599-0869
The South Suffolk Hub Ipswich UK 44-1473-692882
The Dog House BBS Royston UK 44-1763-230043
STandard ProBBS Felixstowe UK 44-1394-271550
Keith's Point Derby 44-1332-662988
680+ BBS Hull NorthHumberside 44-1482-222303
The Tavern London 44-81-445-6514
All At Sea BBS UK 44-1203-601-448
The Chameleon Yate Uk 44-1454-881-095
The Holodeck SbbS Yate Avon, 44-1454-880-267
Speedy Mail Yate Uk 44-1454-317-047
Server Yate Avon 44-1454-880-267
42BBS Hants UK 44-1256-895106
Powder Champfer 41-82-20431
PARADIZE Lucerne 41-41-329517
SPACER Koeln Germany 49-2236-942080
H.acker B.ox Koeln Port 1 Cologne 49-221-512640
H.B.K.-C.S.P. ISDN [EL301] Koeln 49-221-9511228
Lone STar Mailsystems Duesseldorf 49-211-294-251
NightLife Koblenz 49-261-408010
HeadQuarter BBS Duisburg 49-2066-10242
Apolonia Essen 49-201-2786111
BusyBox Dudelange Luxembourg 352-52-3004
The Lone Star Vianden Luxembourg 352-84-9124
MIDICOM BBS Oldenburg 49-441-74563
Raptor's Inn Fuerth 49-6253-22933
Raptor's Inn [ISDN] Fuerth 49-6253-931017
Apolonia [ISDN] Essen 49-201-2786222
Atari Box NRW Cologne 49-221-427437
Dao-Lin-H'ay Luegde 49-5281-97505
Dune Nuernberg 49-911-2448701
MIDICOM BBS Oldenburg 49-441-74563
MIDICOM BBS ISDN Oldenburg 49-441-9729968
DreamScape BBS Maisach 49-8141-30175
DreamScape BBS II Maisach 49-8141-39172
Far Point Station Binswangen 49-8272-9227
Far Point Station Binswangen 49-8272-9156
Temple of Doom Edmonton Alta Canada 1-403-436-0328
S T U G BBS Winnipeg MB Canada 1-204-772-7349
The Northern Depot Kitimat BC Canada 1-604-632-2065
Peace Country Computers Fort ST John BC Canada 1-604-785-9512
Prime BBS Fort St John BC 1-604-785-7098
Miramax BBS Vancouver BC 1-604-323-9698
Purple Frustration Vancouver BC 1-604-322-7533
ACE BBS Rydalmere NSW 61-2-898-0873
OGRE BBS Mercy College Koondoola WA 61-9-445-2075
That Which is Not Adelaide Sth Aust 61-8-276-4415
Closer To Home BBS Godwin Beach Qld Aust 61-74-976-293
TheBBS Paris France 33-1-42511135
68000 Data Server Atari Enschede NL 31-53-777522
Q Telf In Wolvega NL 31-5610-15121
Willie's Atari ST(e) & TT BBS Oude Pekela NL 31-5978-18087
Atari GG BBS Almere NL 31-36-5333981
Bearboard ST BBS Rotterdam NL 31-10-4840224
COZMIC BBS Amterdam NL 31-20-6106164
--==--==--==--==--
||| Rare Gems
||| Compiled by: David A. Wright
/ | \ Internet: sf-centaur@genie.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
The following are the "Rare Gems (sm)" selections for July 16 to 22,
1995. "Rare Gems" is a service mark (sm) of Rare Breed Noninc. and
David Alan Wright. (Internet: SF-CENTAUR@GENIE.COM) Compilation
copyright 1995 by same. All Wright's rights reserved. Each weekly
collection may be distributed freely as long as this notice is
retained. No other format may be distributed without further
authorization. All quotes covered by "fair use" of copyright law.
Underaged sale prohibited. --:Dave
Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is
essential to your own. --Robert A. Heinlein
*@#! environmentalists... --Logger seeing trees spiked with
American flags, cartoon by Rogers
Organic chemistry is the chemistry of carbon compounds. Biochemisury
is the study of carbon compounds that crawl. --Mike Adams
The American government is making nuclear weapons like there's no
tomorrow. --Emo Philips
Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot; others transform a
yellow spot into the sun. --Pablo Picasso
Hey, this is -my- resume... Oh! Very Good! --CIA personnel to job
applicant, cartoon by Bunny Hoest and John Reiner
In the dust where we have buried the silent races and their
abominations we have buried so much of the delicate magic of life.
--D. H. Lawrence
===
The following are the "Rare Gems (sm)" selections for July 23 to 29,
1995. "Rare Gems" is a service mark (sm) of Rare Breed Noninc. and
David Alan Wright. (Internet: SF-CENTAUR@GENIE.COM) Compilation
copyright 1995 by same. All Wright's rights reserved. Each weekly
collection may be distributed freely as long as this notice is
retained. No other format may be distributed without further
authorization. All quotes covered by "fair use" of copyright law.
You need to be this high to go on this ride. --:Dave
The Irish believe that fairies are extremely fond of good wine. The
proof of the assertion is that in the olden days royalty would leave a
keg of wine out for them at night. Sure enough, it was always gone in
the morning. --Irish Folklore
If some roads are paved with good intentions, where might bad
intentions lead? --Angel of Hope, "Hopes and Fears" (1994 Marvel
Holiday Special) by Steven Grant and Pat Broderick
Never follow somebody else's path; it doesn't work the same way twice
for anyone... the path follows you and rolls up behind you as you
walk, forcing the next person to find their own way.
--J. Michael Straczynski
It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the
situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh
thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be
deprived of the right to think their own thoughts. --Boris Yeltsin
Have you ever gotten tired of hearing those ridiculous AT&T
commercials claiming credit for things that don't even exist yet? You
will. --Emmanuel Goldstein
Only in a police state is the job of a policeman easy. --Orson Welles
Did you learn how to think or how to believe? --Ralph Nader's father
asking what he learned in school one day
===
The following are the "Rare Gems (sm)" selections for July 30 to
August 1, 1995. "Rare Gems" is a service mark (sm) of Rare Breed
Noninc. and David Alan Wright. (Internet: SF-CENTAUR@GENIE.COM)
Compilation copyright 1995 by same. All Wright's rights reserved.
Each weekly collection may be distributed freely as long as this
notice is retained. No other format may be distributed without further
authorization. All quotes covered by "fair use" of copyright law.
Extinguish all smoking materials, including monitor. --:Dave
Christian Fundamentalism: the doctrine that there is an absolutely
powerful, infinitely knowledgeable, universe-spanning entity that is
deeply and personally concerned about my sex life. --Unknown
We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize
truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand.
--Pablo Picasso
Frown. --Business photographer, "Biz-Wit" cartoon by Richter
Don't lose your head
Not for a minute
You need your head
Your brains are in it. --Burma Shave
Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to
give it to others. --William Allen White
Today I'm going to share with others! As soon as I find others with
things I want. --Garfield, "Garfield" strip by Jim Davis
Why build these cities glorious
If man unbuilded goes?
In vain we build the world, unless
The builder also grows. --Edwin Markham
--==--==--==--==--
|||
||| Shutdown ........................... Power off, EXIT, BYE, Logoff
/ | \ -----------------------------------------------------------------
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Until the next issue of AEO, I remain,
Your Editor
Travis Guy
--==--==--==--==--
(This issue printed on recycled photons)
--==--==--==--==--
DNFTEC
--==--==--==--==--
No Inflation Necessary
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Sweet As Sugar
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Atari Explorer Online Magazine is a monthly publication covering the
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Opinions presented herein are those of the individual authors and do
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material herein is believed accurate at the time of publishing.
--==--==--==--==--
Atari, ST, Mega ST, STE, Mega STE, TT030, Atari Falcon030, TOS,
MultiTOS, NewDesk, BLiTTER, Atari Lynx, ComLynx, Atari Jaguar, Atari
Portfolio, and the Atari Fuji Symbol are all trademarks or registered
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marks mentioned in this issue belong to their respective owners.
--==--==--==--==--
Atari Explorer Online Magazine
"Your Source for Atari News"
Copyright (c) 1993-1995, Subspace Publishers
* * *
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:: Volume 4, Issue 6 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE August 21, 1995 ::
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