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Atari Explorer Online Issue 1993 07
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:: Volume 2 - Issue 7 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE 3 April 1993 ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: ::
:: ATARI .............. News, reviews, & solutions ............ ATARI ::
:: EXPLORER ............ for the online Atari .......... EXPLORER ::
:: ONLINE ................. Community .............. ONLINE ::
:: ::
:: Published and Copyright (c) 1993 by Atari Corporation ::
:: """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: Editor .................................. Travis Guy AEO.MAG ::
:: Assistant Editor GEnie................ Ron Robinson EXPLORER.1 ::
:: Assistant Editor CompuServe.......... Albert Dayes AEO.1 ::
:: Assistant Editor Delphi......... Andreas Barbiero AEO.2 ::
:: News Editor ............................... Lyre AEO.3 ::
:: Editor-at-Large ..................... Ed Krimen AEO.5 ::
:: Hardware Editor .............. Britton Robbins AEO.4 ::
:: Internet Editor .................. Tim Wilson AEO.8 ::
:: Atari Artist ..... Peter Donoso & Fadi Hayek EXPLORER.2 ::
:: ::
:: Contributors ::
:: """""""""""" ::
:: Gregg Anderson Ralf Doewich Rob Schilling ::
:: ::
:: ::
:: Editorial Advisory Board ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: President, Atari Corporation........................Sam Tramiel ::
:: Director of Application Software...................Bill Rehbock ::
:: Director, Computer Marketing ........................Don Thomas ::
:: Director of Communications...........................Bob Brodie ::
:: Corporate Director, International Music Markets....James Grunke ::
:: Atari Explorer Magazine............................Mike Lindsay ::
:: ::
:: Telecommunicated to you via: ::
:: """""""""""""""""""""""""""" ::
:: GEnie: AEO.MAG ::
:: CompuServe: 70007,3615 ::
:: Delphi: AEO_MAG ::
:: Fnet: AEO Conference, Node 706 ::
:: AtariNet: AEO Conference, Node 51:1/10 ::
:: ::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Table of Contents
* From the Editors .......................................... Busy, busy.
* DevNotes ......................... CyReL SUNRISE M16-1280 Graphics Card.
* Andreas' Den .......................... Setting up Alexander's baby bed.
* DriveZilla Lives! .................. Joys and woes of living with a 520
meg Fujitsu hard drive.
* Atari Explorer Reviewed ........ The MiGraph PS-400 scanner and TouchUp.
* Krimen on GEnie ............................. Ed serves up some topical
messages found on GEnie.
* Street Fighter II ................ Andreas reviews the arcade super-hit
now appearing on the ST!
* Club Dominoes ............. Not just for old guys sitting around tables.
* Internet Qs & As .............................. Internet QuizMaster Tim
gets to some mail.
* GEnie News .......................... New files & happenings on Atari's
Official Online Resource.
* AEO Calendar of Events ........ Atari shows & RTCs for the rest of 1993.
* Developing News! .................................... IAAD Piracy Watch
Spelling Sentry 1.20
Flash II 2.10
AtariUser Invoice Error
Informer II 3.0
Cyber Color
Colorscan II 2.0
Berthold Fonts for Calamus
GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE
Kidprgs
Shutdown ............................................ The wonder of life.
--==--==--==--==--
||| From the Editors ....... Atari Explorer Online: The Next Generation
||| Travis Guy
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.MAG Delphi: AEO_MAG
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite what some would have you believe, there is excitement and a
busy "buzz" at Atari Corp. lately. Bill Rehbock and Jay Patton
returned late this week from CEBIT to friends full of questions. Bill
could only manage an hour in the offices on Friday, but the word is
that he was, "jazzed and pumped up" over the show. Atari Corp. CEO
Jack Tramiel and Atari Corp. President Sam Tramiel were likewise
excited by Atari's showing.
While we couldn't learn of any CEBIT particulars from Bill, we're sure
that he will have plenty to talk about at this Wednesday's special
Real Time Conference on the GEnie ST RoundTable. For those of you who
are unable to attend, AEO will have the official RTC transcript in our
next issue.
Atari US President Garry Tramiel is wrapping up the final touches on
his marketing plans for the Atari Lynx before the marketing of the
Atari Falcon030 takes center stage. Several employees were seconded
recently to finish the preparations for a 900- hints and tips phone
line for the Lynx. A full color, 8 page Lynx brochure is finished, and
will be widely distributed, as well as made available to gaming
magazines. More information on Lynx marketing as it becomes available.
As to marketing for the Atari Falcon030.... "No comment." Oh well, we
tried!
Director of Communications Bob Brodie has been unbelievably busy of
late. One item of note, Bob asked me to enlist as many of AEO's
readers as possible to get this word out: Any dealer who plans on
selling Atari Falcon030s MUST turn in a signed Authorized Dealer
Agreement to Atari. So if your dealer was planning on getting
Falcon030s from a distributor, and felt that they didn't have to sign
the Dealer Agreement - they (and you) will be in for a great
disappointment. Please pass this around.
Enough about disappointments... welcome to this week in the World
Atari.
--==--==--==--==--
||| DevNotes: The CyReL SUNRISE M16-1280 Graphics Card
||| By: Ralf Doewich
/ | \ Courtesy: CyberCube Research Limited
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Cybercube is a young R&D company with a particular focus in the
multimedia, networking and telecommunication system markets. We
specialize in custom system configuration and development as well as
custom programming and a sincere commitment to service and
satisfaction.
Let me take this opportunity to introduce you to our latest product,
the CyReL SUNRISE M16-1280 True Color High Resolution Graphics Card
for the Atari TT030 and Mega STe.
The CyReL SUNRISE M16-1280 combines a sophisticated graphics
controller with 2 MB of fast video RAM and a top of the line video DAC
(digital to analogue converter) to form a very flexible graphics
system.
By employing the latest technologies, custom designed components and
more than 70 video clock frequencies up to 120 MHz, the CyReL SUNRISE
M16-1280 cards achieve a new level of performance and integration.
The CyReL SUNRISE M16-1280 offers a wide range of operating modes from
economic Monochrome displays to dazzling True Color imaging
capabilities.
The CyReL SUNRISE M16-1280 can be operated with any industry
standard analog monitor, ranging from small 12" analog greyscale
to 17" VGA monitors and even to high end multi-sync monitors up
to 37".
Due to the versatile video timing generator, resolutions up to 3400
(horizontal) and 2048 (vertical) can be programmed.
Every M16-1280 card supports multiple frame buffers in 32/24bit (True
Color), 8bit (256 colors), 4bit (16 colors), 2bit (4 colors) and
1bit/pixel (monochrome) modes, allowing up to 262 frame buffers
simultaneously.
On-board hardware assisted blit and drawing functions accelerate the
graphics output and screen updates.
The built-in expansion connectors provide further opportunities for
enhancements and a represent a flexible way for future upgrades.
Multi-media applications can take advantage of the new and exciting
CyReL VidiMix8 Desktop Video expansion module. It allows every SUNRISE
card to record live video clips, instantly resize and capture True
Color video images in real-time. The VidiMix8 encodes computer
generated pictures, animations and images in 12 different
international TV standards while providing a host of special effects.
All colors can be selected from a range of 16,777,216 shades. Pseudo
Color and True Color modes (with gamma correction) are available. The
True Color modes support an 8-bit alpha channel and in conjunction
with the VIDIMIX8 module it assists professional real-time
superimposing of live video images, graphics and templates.
Smooth scrolling and panning allows virtual screen sizes beyond the
normal monitor resolution. Interlaced or non-interlaced modes with
various refresh rates up to 260 Hz are programmable.
The CyReL SUNRISE M16-1280 comes complete with its own custom True
Color capable VDI drivers, offering compatibility with almost all GEM
applications available. A number of system accessories increase the
comfort and ease of configuring the various features of the cards.
The CyReL M16-1280 cards are being distributed by DMC Publishing Inc.
and have a SRP of US $1,495 (Cdn $1,795).
The boards feature a separate 2MB Video RAM frame buffer to maximise
the use of the internal Atari RAM and thus eliminating the necessity
to expand the ST/TT RAM in order to operate the cards.
The reason why we used the more expensive video RAMs instead of normal
DRAMS is rather obvious. Conventional DRAMs only allow either the CPU
or the video logic to access the memory. Since the user certainly
wants a flicker-free and stable picture, the video logic has a higher
priority over the CPU. This results in sometimes large bus bandwidth
losses easily exceeding 50%. The CPU is being put 'on-hold' every time
the video logic reads the memory. Since this is a constant process,
there are only small portions of time in which the CPU can do
something useful.
On the other hand, VRAM update cycles on the M16-1280 take a maximum
of 5% bus bandwidth depending on the selected resolution, mode and
controller settings. Most of the time it is even less. This results in
a very high bus bandwidth for CPU cycles and blit speeds of 60 million
pixels per second can be achieved.
Up to four CyReL M16-1280 cards can be present in a single Atari
TT030 system. This allows multiple-monitor operation (e.g., for video
walls, large presentations or show attractions).
In the Mega STe, only one CyReL M16-1280 card can be installed. This
is due to the fact that only 4 MB of address space are reserved for
the VME bus as opposed to the 16 MB in the TT030. The Mega STe is
based on the 68000 CPU and can only address a maximum of 16 MB of
memory. Considering this, the VME bus already utilizes an astonishing
25% of that address space.
Here is a list of the utilities and drivers that are shipped with the
card:
1 CyReL RUN-ME-FIRST GEM-based Interactive Installation Program
1 CyReL CM16_VIP Init & Diagnostic Driver
1 CyReL VDI Driver for 256 Colors Mode Driver
1 CyReL VDI Driver for True Color Mode Driver
1 CyReL M16 Palette Master Utility
1 CyReL M16 VDI Configuration Utility
1 CyReL Serial Mouse Manager Utility
1 CyReL XCHANGE Resolution Changer Utility
1 CyReL CONFDISP Display Parameter Editor Utility
1 CyReL VIEW_GIF GIF Viewer Utility
1 CyReL VIEW_PCX PCX Viewer Utility
1 CyReL VIEW_TGA TGA Viewer Utility
1 CyReL VIEW_JPG JPEG Viewer Utility
10+ On-line Help and Documentation Files
30+ predefined custom color palettes
80+ predefined Modes & Resolutions
500+ Monitor Specifications
...and more
We are also planning of including a free PD and shareware disk
containing such excellent programs like GEMView. All programs have
been tested and are fully compatible with the CyReL M16-1280 graphics
cards.
All the CyReL M16-1280 software products support device sharing and
multi-tasking environments. The software has been tested and is
compatible with MultiTOS.
The CyReL SUNRISE M16-1280 Graphics Cards come with a truly unique
installation program: the RUN-ME-FIRST package.
And here is why: Whenever a system is upgraded or expanded, people are
concerned about two major issues:
the 'installation blues'
and the compatibility....
After considering all the factors we came up with these solutions:
1) Cybercube provides a interactive GEM-based installation program
that guides the user through every step of the installation. The
benefit: through the extensive use of detailed animations and on-line
help functions and after seeing these simple steps right on the
screen, the actual process of installing the card can be completed in
approximately five minutes (!). No hassle, no special expertise, no
technical skills are required!
2) We have put in our best efforts to make the existing software
drivers as stable and reliable as possible. We've put them through
very though tests. And after proving their compatibility, we now trust
them our day-to-day business operations.
Flexibility was one of our major design goals. There is absolutely no
need to exchange or replace crystals or oscillators. No modifications
or hardware changes are necessary to install or operate a M16-1280
board.
The M16-1280 cards have an 'automatic configuration' feature. Every
card is equipped with non-volatile memory which stores all the
configuration parameters and can therefore completely restore the last
used graphics mode, resolution, display and operational mode. This
innovative and batteryless solution features up to one million
programming cycles and 10 years data retention (guaranteed).
This new feature allowed us to design the CM16_VIP.PRG, the CyReL M16
Versatile Installation Program. This small program resides in the AUTO
folder of the boot drive and performs a number of very important
tasks. During every boot up procedure:
- it automatically locates all installed CyReL M16-1280 boards.
BENEFIT: the user does not have to tell the system where to find
the boards, the CM16_VIP locates them automatically.
- it performs a complete diagnostic on each board.
BENEFIT: prevents malfunctions, system crashes and protects any
attached monitor/equipment against potentially harmful
situations.
- it initializes every function block according to the
configuration stored on each board.
BENEFIT: the cards will be initialized in exactly the same way
the user configured them during the last session. Reduces the
number of files that must be stored on the hard disk and that are
prone to accidential erasure.
To further increase the security offered by the CyReL M16-1280 boards,
we also included a specially designed VIDEO-GUARD circuit that
protects all components against accidential damage or destruction.
The SUNRISE cards achieve a high level of integration and reliability
by employing the latest processing and manufacturing technologies.
Custom designed components further reduce the chip count. Every
production step is being followed by a number of inspections and
quality control procedures. The cards have been tested under extreme
temperature conditions and we use the same highest grade ICs and
components that we have employed in the manufacture of our industrial
range products.
More than 70 frequencies ranging form 5 to 120 MHz are software
selectable. This allows the use of ALMOST ANY monitor with the card.
Recent ad campaigns have been rather misleading as they try to suggest
that the size of the monitor's tube is the only factor determining the
monitor's performance. Most of the time a very important fact is being
overlooked: The dot pitch. This number indicates the distance between
two R,G,B triplets (the smallest possible display element) on the
surface of the monitor tube. The lower the resolution, the bigger the
dot pitch. The higher the resolution, the smaller the dot pitch.
Older monitors usually had something like a dot pitch ranging from .43
mm to .32 mm, good monitors offer .28 mm, and top of the line monitors
can go as low as .26 mm.
Especially on small monitors this number is vital. The dot pitch must
be in a certain ratio to the overall tube size, otherwise images will
be blurred and fuzzy if displayed in the higher resolutions.
Another side effect is the appearance of those annoying moire patterns
when using interlaced modes that go into the 'critical' upper range of
the monitor's capabilities.
But there are still applications and situations that require an
interlaced display. The M16-1280 cards can easily be switched from
non-interlaced to interlaced modes, depending on the user's
requirements. Interlaced modes are often the only way to display
higher resolutions on certain monitors. The drawback is the flickering
that is inherent to all interlaced modes. Through various programming
features of the CyReL M16-1280 boards, this effect can be minimized.
Here are some examples listing the on-screen resolution and the
corresponding refresh rates of the CyReL SUNRISE M16-1280:
RESOLUTION REFRESH RATE
512 x 512 120 Hz, NI
640 x 400 112 Hz, NI
640 x 480 86.1 Hz, NI
720 x 512 74 Hz, NI
768 x 512 74 Hz, NI
800 x 512 77 Hz, NI
800 x 608 74 Hz, NI
960 x 608 74.8 Hz, NI
1024 x 768 86.9 Hz, NI
1024 x 1024 75 Hz, NI
1600 x 1024 103 Hz, I
2048 x 960 90 Hz, NI
2048 x 1024 100.3 Hz, I
Higher and lower rates are programmable, depending on the monitor's
abilities and limits.
High ergonomic refresh rates of up to 120 Hz (depending on the
attached monitor) increase the quality of the display and avoid
eye-strain. We have tried to offer every mode with refresh rates above
60 Hz to avoid the annoying flicker of the display. Most of the time
users will be able to work with refresh rates higher than 70 Hz, which
is widely accepted as a safe and relaxing level. The hardware supports
refresh rates of up to 260 Hz.
The cards feature a standard DB-15 (fifteen pin D-SUB connector)
compatible with the VGA industry standard. Most monitors interface
directly or through provided adapters. In special cases, or in case of
any difficulties locating the necessary cable, contact Cybercube for
more informations about custom made interface cables.
With the VidiMix8, PAL and NTSC compatible signals can be generated
supporting 12 international TV standards. Video signals can be output
in either standard formats or professional formats for industrial or
TV studio applications. Video output is CCIR and EIA343-A compatible.
Hardware smooth-scrolling & panning allows virtual screen size
management for screen sizes up to 4096 x 4096 pixels. Virtual
resolutions use a smaller physical resolution, e.g., 640x480 or
800x600 on-screen. The real frame buffer or display resolution can be
a lot higher. We provide a mouse driver that allows the user to scroll
and pan through the entire frame buffer and select the 640x480 or
800x600 (as an example) "window" to be display on-screen. Therefore
even small or inexpensive monitors can be used to work with high
resolutions like 2048x1024.
The cards can be ordered with an optionally populated high-speed LAN
port and offer software selectable transmission speed of 10 Mb/second
or 20 Megabit/second. The LAN port allows an easy and efficient way to
connect up to 32 CyReL M16-1280 graphic workstations per network.
We have decided to offer the networking capability as an option in an
effort to reduce the price of the boards and to await the wide spread
availability of a multi-tasking operating system such as MultiTOS.
The CyReL Serial Mouse Manager and Mouse Drivers for 2 & 3 button
serial AT mice and Summagraphics Graphic digitizer tablets are
included free of charge, providing the user with a comfortable
operation even in higher resolutions. Both drivers can be dynamically
adjusted and feature a build-in screen saver. Buttons/keys can be
swapped if desired. Both mice, the original and the serial mouse, can
be used at the same time. There is no interference with the operation
of the original mouse. Here are some examples of what can be used with
the CyReL Mouse Manager:
Appoint MousePen Pro, Appoint Thumbelina, Honeywell Mouse, IMSI PC
Stylus, Logitech Mouseman, Logitech TrackMan, Microsoft BallPoint,
MicroSpeed MicroTRAC, MicroSpeed PC-TRAC, MicroTouch PC UnMouse, Mouse
Systems NewMouse, Mouse Systems NewPoint, Mouse SystemsPC Trackball
II, SunCom Technology ICONtroller...
Through a close cooperation with Dieter Fiebelkorn, we have made sure
that the excellent GEMView package is fully compatible with the CyReL
SUNRISE M16-1280. Here are a few of the formats that can be displayed
in all of their brilliance:
GIF, TIFF, ImageLab B&W, IFF, OS/2 BMP, GEM, ART, TN1, TN2, TN3, TNY,
SPU, SPC, MAC, TGA, XBM, 1st Word DOC, JPG, Sun Rasterfiles SUN, PAC,
Windows BMP, Windows RLE, IMG, NEO, PI1, PI2, PI3, PC1, PC2, PC3, DOO,
PCX, Vidas IMG, Resource RSC and others.
We would also like to invite everybody to stop by in the new CyReL
topic on GEnie. We certainly welcome your contributions to our SUNRISE
M16-1280 discussions in the Atari Conference, DMC Product Support
area, Category 16, Topic 12.
It is our intention to convince our users that the QUALITY of the
TOOLS they use directly influences the QUALITY of the WORK they
produce.
The CyReL SUNRISE M16-1280 architecture reflects innovation and the
determination to establish a high standard of quality software and
hardware on this promising platform.
Please join us to turn this vision into a benefit for all.
HARDWARE PRICELIST
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Order Code Description Quantity Canada U.S./Foreign
----------------------------------------------------------------------
CRL16002 CyReL SUNRISE 1- Cdn $1,795.00 US $1,495.00
M16-1280
FOR ORDERS OR INFORMATION CONTACT
----------------------------------------------------------------------
DMC Publishing Inc.
2800 John Street, Suite 10
Markham, ON, L3R 0E2, Canada
Tel. (416) 479 1880
Fax (416) 479 1882
Dealer enquiries welcome
----------------------------------------------------------------------
SOFTWARE PRICELIST
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Order Code Description Quantity Canada U.S./Foreign
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ACSM12 CyReL Serial Mouse
Manager & Driver 1- Cdn $15.00 US $13.00
Release 1.02
ACPM36 CyReL Palette Master 1- Cdn $20.00 US $17.00
Release 3.6e
SHIPPING & HANDLING CHARGES
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Quantity U.S. / Canada Foreign
US $ / Cdn $ US $
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1 $1.00 $2.50
2-5 $2.50 $5.00
5-10 $5.50 $10.00
10-over++ $10.00 $20.00
++= Contact Cybercube for more information.
Payments: All orders must be prepaid. Check/Money Order in Canadian
or U.S. funds only.
FOR ORDERS OR INFORMATION CONTACT
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cybercube Research Limited
126 Grenadier Crescent
Thornhill, ON, L4J 7V7, Canada
Tel. (416) 882 0294
Fax (416) 886 3261
--==--==--==--==--
||| Andreas' Den
||| By: Andreas Barbiero
/ | \ Delphi: ABARBIERO GEnie: AEO.2
---------------------------------------------------------------------
CEBIT is over, and things are busier than ever. There were a few
interesting announcements made at the show including an accelerator
board from GEsoft which includes a 32MHz '030 CPU and up to 128 megs
of 32bit fast RAM, and provisions for a VME card. This board was shown
in prototype, and is 'IMPOSSIBLE' according to US accelerator guru,
Jim Allen. The only way I can see this board working is having it
replace the 68030 chip on board the Atari Falcon030, and having
everything plug into the board, bypassing the Atari Falcon030's own
bus. That's my guess.
The addition of a VME could answer everyone's questions as to
the viability of the VME graphics cards available today for the Mega
STe and the TT030. Not only are the excellent AlberTT, Matrix, and
CyRel cards available, but the Crazy Dots cards from Germany have been
upgraded to a new version, with 16 million colors available, for the
same price as the old cards.
On the software front, many programs were shown off, including one
that was a late addition and might have been overlooked by anyone
reading the messages posted from Germany. Infogrammes is porting a
game, "Alone in the Dark" to the Falcon030. In the February 1993
issue of Computer Gaming World, this game was given a preview. This
game is produced by a French group and presents polygon technology in
a radically new fashion.
Alone in the Dark is a horror game, and the characters are presented
in a visually stunning 3D fashion. All the animated figures are made
up of polygons, much like they were made from blocks, allowing for
some fluid 3D animations. Close-ups of these characters might be
called a bit blocky when compared beside the new standard of live
action video present on the newer CD-ROM games, but it is still is
fascinating to watch. I had the chance to preview the PC version of
this game at a local computer dealer, and the manner in which you can
control your character around this unique 3D universe and manipulate
objects is fascinating.
The angles of view in this game swap around, giving players the
feeling that they are IN a movie, and while some of the sound effects
have been called amazing, they can only improve on the Atari
Falcon030.
This game gives the player a CDROM quality game without the added
expense, and with the clever usage of the DSP and DMA audio, this
game is bound to be a major hit.
Sid Meier's Civilization has been effectively ported to the ST, and
from all accounts is appears to be better than the PC version!! Many
reviewers have stated the Amiga version of the game is better than the
PC, and one player who has used it on both the ST and Amiga, as well
as the PC claims it to play on the ST better than the rest! Your
editor, Travis Guy, will be reviewing this game, IF he can pry it out
of my hands. <Editor: "Crowbar."> All this is due to the kindness and
generosity of STeve's Software (1-800-487-7753) who has lent us the
software for free. <Editor: "Pliers."> We will have to return it,
albeit reluctantly! <Editor: "Blowtorch.">
There are many other games and SERIOUS software offerings in the
making for the Falcon030, and I am looking forward to them with
anticipation. But the most interesting side of things are the
graphics, and while they may be pretty to look at, I like making these
pixels do things, like blow other things up!
"Humans" by Gametek is another exciting new game. This one takes
Lemmings and makes it look like Pong! It will be available on the
Atari. I feel that we can easily expect close to 20 new games to be
shipping by Summer CES.
With these MAJOR titles available all the rest of the best ones should
be coming along as well. The Atari userbase may be smaller than the PC
one, but we are FAR more discerning!
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Console Update
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rumor has it that the graphics chip add-on for the Super NES is
nothing more than a math co-processor, and some of the more
interesting games actually contain a CHEAP version of the DSP chip we
have in the Atari Falcon030. This chip is held in the game cart, and
is FAR less powerful than the Motoroloa 56001. This means to us that
the "special" features of the SNES can be done on the Atari Falcon030
with only a fraction of the processor power of the computer being
used. Now if someone could only invent a software emulator, and a
hardware cart adaptor; stand by Nintendo!
In conclusion, it is nice to note that Amberstar is going to be PORTED
TO the DOS platform soon. Well after most Atari owners have managed to
finish it on their modest 520STs! I have seen the graphics on the 256
color version, and the ST version is nothing to sneeze at! So in the
world, someone, someplace is waiting for Atari programmers to get
around to programming a game to the DOS machines!
--==--==--==--==--
||| DriveZilla Lives!
||| By: Gregg Anderson
/ | \ GEnie: G.ANDERSON
--------------------------------------------------------------------
It's monstrous, larger than life and faster than a bolt of lightning.
It consumes vast amounts of data and demands more. Worse yet, it
emerged from the Pacific with a reputation for invulnerability and
defied the world to defeat it. What is it? It's DriveZilla, Fujitsu's
M2624-FA 520 Megabyte SCSI hard drive.
Last October it was brought to my attention that, once again, I'd
exceeded my hard drive storage limits. You know the feeling, where
the jaws clench and the stomach tightens as a 'Drive Full' message
appears in the middle of a save? And always on that vital file you
just can't afford to lose? Well, after six years of constant upgrades
(20 to 42 to 84 to 128 Meg at last count) I'd had enough and started
looking around for something larger, something MUCH larger.
When I started looking I had three requirements. It had to: 1) be a
1/2 or 1/3rd height unit to share a shoebox with my SyQuest, 2) offer
at least twice the storage room and speed of the SeaGate ST296N it
was replacing, and finally, 3) have the best cost-per-megabyte ratio I
could afford. After asking asking on GEnie what drives had the best
reputations for performance and reliability I started shopping
around. Since there were NO Atari dealers closer than Okinawa (a
three hour flight), and the Japanese market is hideously expensive, I
was forced to shop mail order via an old issue of 'Computer Shopper'.
At that time the great 'hard drive drought' was still on and prices
were high. Costs of mid-sized units like Maxtor's 340 ($720) and
Quantum's 240 ($570) hadn't dropped at all. In fact only the smaller
(under 100 Meg) units and huge (400 Meg and up) monsters had seen a
price cut. Though expensive, three monsters caught my eye; Maxtor's
535 Meg ($1200), Fujitsu's 420/520 Meg pair ($940/$1050), and the 425
Meg Quantum ($900). In other words, for a few hundred bucks more than
the price of a 340 Meg I could get a 520 Meg unit. That got me
thinking of going for broke and blowing some serious money.
But what size did I really need? I'd obviously outgrown my current 124
Megs so anything less than 240 to 340 Meg wouldn't be cost effective.
The 400 to 500 Meg drives were appealing but expensive. Gigabyte
drives? Forget it, they cost too large a percentage of the national
debt. Finally, and only after making a LOT of phone calls, I found a
"deal" on the Fujitsu 520 from Hard Drive Super Source. What can I
say? For $945 I was hooked.
So what's a 520 Meg Fujitsu like? The first thing that struck me when
I opened the box was its size. The Fujitsu M2624FA is only about two
thirds the size of a standard 5 1/4" drive and, at 11 watts, draws far
less power (your power supply will thank you). It has a built in 256k
Data Cache and combines a 12 Msec access speed with a 1.5 Meg/Sec data
transfer rate. In SCSI-2 mode it can transfer up to 10 Meg/Sec.
SCSI-2? That's right, for those looking to upgrade to a Falcon030 this
beast is SCSI-2 compatible. Using it as SCSI-2 requires a 50 to 25 pin
adapter though and the removal of the CNH1 3-4 jumper. The what?
Don't worry, there'll be more on that in part two. It has 11 heads,
1429 Cylinders, four zones with 56 to 70 sectors per track, and an
Interleave of 1 to 1. There's also a five year factory warranty and,
like Maxtor and Quantum, a bulletproof reputation for reliability.
Since it is a 3 1/2" mechanism you'll need a $15 adapter to use it in
the 5 1/4" slot used by most ST hard drive enclosures. It will,
however, fit the MegaSTE and TT030 internal drive enclosure perfectly.
What about noise? A lot of folks complain about noisy hard drives, I
know I do. The Fujitsu does quite well here, especially when compared
to the SeaGate ST296N and SyQuest's SQ555. My SeaGate was an older
design and could sound like a Diesel struggling uphill while the newer
SyQuest rattles like a can of marbles when pushed hard. The Fujitsu,
on the other hand, is almost inaudible. Even during massive data
transfers the loudest sounds I'm able to hear is an occasional soft
click and faint metallic whirr. This is far and away the quietest hard
drive I've ever used.
So how's customer support? Despite an automated phone system from
Hell, customer and technical support is outstanding. Fujitsu even
offers a Toll-Free number (1-800-826-6112) so any delay in reaching
technical support costs you only time. If you're calling about an ST
or TT030 application be sure to ask for Matt Woolsey, Matt helped me a
lot in understanding the Fujitsu's rather odd-ball jumper system.
How do you partition something this large? I'll go into detail on this
later but let's just say I went with ten 52 Megabyte partitions.
Is it faster? Yes, in some tests the Fujitsu transfers data at more
than twice what the SeaGate or SyQuest can manage. Program loading is
also faster, though once loaded many programs do not enjoy similar
gains in loading or saving their data files. Why? Two causes; One is
that programs have an 'overhead' that slows the loading and/or saving
of data files. The primary cause, however, is that I've finally found
a hard drive faster than my poor old Mega ST's CPU and data bus can
handle. Using a slightly slower drive, a Computer STudio TT030 loaded
Battle of Britain in 10.2 seconds. As a result it's safe to assume
that a Falcon030 (or Turbo030/SST board) will benefit more from the
Fujitsu's speed than my ST and that a TT030 can take full advantage of
it.
Is it cost effective? Yes, but only if you take the "long term"
approach. As a rule the larger the drive the better the cost/benefit
ratio. This means a large drive costs less per megabyte of storage
than a smaller one. With the recent drop in drive prices this aspect
has become less important and has opened up a wider selection of
drives for Atari owners. In my case, I picked the Fujitsu based on its
(then) low price and reputation for reliability. Needless to say it
will be transferred it to my next system (Atari of course) when the
time comes.
Compared Drives: SyQuest SQ555, 44 Meg SCSI 1 (removable Cartridge)
SeaGate ST296N, 84 Meg SCSI 1
Fujitsu M2624FA, 520 Meg SCSI 1&2
Note: 100% indicates tested time/rate is twice the base unit's
50% indicates tested time/rate is half again the base unit's
Test SyQuest SeaGate Fujitsu % Faster
Time Time Time SQ SG
ICD RATE HD
-----------
Data Rate: 497 k/s 409 k/s 1190 k/s 139% 191%
Average Access: 33 ms 28 ms 15 ms 120% 86%
Desktop 'Show Info'
-------------------
Data Rate: 3.48Meg/Sec 3.16Meg/Sec 5.47Meg/Sec 57% 73%
Spinup Time 17.4 sec 23.3 sec 10.1 sec 72% 131%
Boot Time 29.2 sec N/A 25.0 sec 17% ---
Partition To Partition Copy (same Drive)
----------------------------------------
451k File 8.5 sec 6.9 sec 4.4 sec 93% 57%
Nested Folder 28.7 sec 25.5 sec 13.7 sec 109% 86%
Partition To Partition Copy (different Drives)
----------------------------------------------
SyQst/SGate SGate/SyQst SyQst/Fuji Fuji/SyQst
451k File 8.0 sec 9.1 sec 4.0 sec 5.6 sec
Nested Folder 16.1 sec 26.4 sec 12.5 sec 14.6 sec
Note: Nested Folder: 5 Subfolders, 50 files, 575k total
Test SyQuest SeaGate Fujitsu Gain%
Time Time Time SQ SG
Load Calamus 1.09: ---- 6.2 sec 4.3 sec --- 44%
load 520k Calamus file: 10.1 sec 9.3 sec 4.0 sec 153% 133%
save 520k Calamus file: 21.5 sec 20.0 sec 20.0 sec 8% ---
Load PageStream 2.2: ---- 6.3 sec 4.5 sec --- 40%
load 181k PS file: 3.3 sec 3.2 sec 1.3 sec 154% 146%
save 181k PS file: 6.4 sec 7.3 sec 6.2 sec 3% 18%
Load TouchUp: ---- 9.6 sec 7.8 sec --- 23%
load 147k IMG file: 39.9 sec 40.1 sec 39.2 sec 2% 2%
save 147k IMG file: 19.4 sec 19.6 sec 17.8 sec 9% 10%
Load UltraScript: ---- 2.4 sec 1.8 sec --- 33%
Print 13.8k file: 171.6 sec 164.2 sec 157.0 sec 10% 05%
Load ArcShell 3.1: ---- 1.2 sec 1.2 sec --- N/A
DeARC 595k file: 71.2 sec 68.1 sec 58.3 sec 22% 17%
Load TimeWorks DTP: ---- 9.2 sec 7.5 sec --- 23%
load 49k file: 9.7 sec 9.2 sec 9.7 sec N/A -5%
save 49k file: 8.8 sec 8.2 sec 7.8 sec 13% 05%
Load EasyDraw: 5.5 sec ---- 3.8 sec 45% ---
load 203k file: 49.1 sec 51.1 sec 49.0 sec --- 4%
save 203k file: 96.2 sec 93.0 sec 92.1 sec 4% 1%
Load Degas Elite: 3.7 sec ---- 2.8 sec 32% ---
load 32k file: instant instant instant --- ---
save 32k file: 16.1 sec 15.8 15.2 sec 6% 4%
Load Battle of Britain: 17.6 sec 17.2 16.4 sec 7% 5%
Load WordWriter II: 2.2 sec 1.9 1.5 sec 47% 27%
load 36.7k file: 6.5 sec 6.1 5.8 sec 12% 5%
save 36.7k file: 5.4 sec 5.0 4.4 sec 23% 14%
NOTE: Since ordering my Fujitsu back in November '92 there's been an
industry wide drop in hard drive prices. Though it still has an
impressive cost/megabyte ratio the Fujitsu 520 no longer enjoys the
huge advantage it once did. What follows is a breakdown of RECENT
prices and ratios. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
Cost/Benefit Analysis on 3 1/2" SCSI drives
(based on averaged Feb 1993 Mail Order prices)
Brand Size Cost $/Meg Brand Size Cost $/Meg
SeaGate: 94M $289 $3.07 Maxtor: 130M $280 $2.15
245M $480 $1.96 213M $390 $1.83
1200M $1550 $1.29 340M $630 $1.85
535M $930 $1.74
Fujitsu: 330M $650 $1.97 Quantum: 122M $300 $2.45
420M $890 $2.12 240M $500 $2.08
520M $900 $1.73 425M $870 $2.04
Micropolis: 660M $1100 $1.67 SyQuest: 44M $450 $5.11
1200M* $1500 $1.25 (& 1 Cart) 88M $350 $7.91
Test Equiptment: Mega4ST, 16Mhz CPU (FastTech T-16), TOS 1.4 &
associated utilities, numerous autoload & .ACC utilities, SLM-804, ICD
Advantage+ Host Adapter & Software with Write Verify active.
Suggestions? Prices are good right now and getting better every day.
If you're running into storage problems, or if you expect to soon,
then now is a good time to upgrade. Be warned though, unless you're
using a TT030, Falcon030, or an '030 based ST you won't see a huge
speed increase within some of your software with a monster drive. What
you will gain is a massive increase in storage space, a more modern
and efficient drive, faster booting, much faster partition to
partition transfers, and a mechanism that will most likely outlast
your current computer system.
Would I do it again? Yes, without question. Would I go with the same
Fujitsu drive? Again yes, though I'd try for a better deal. Remember,
most dealers and mail order houses will work a little with you if it
means closing a sale. In ALL situations check with your local Atari
dealer before going Mail Order. Having someone there to help you with
problems, install the unit, and give you support after the sale can
be worth a lot of money. Trying to repair, replace, or even adjust
something through a mail order company is often a serious source of
pain. Before you mail that check or pass out that VISA number on the
phone give your local Atari dealer a chance to help you.
Companies mentioned in this review & Major Hard Drive makers:
Fujitsu: 1-800-826-6112 Conner: 1-408-433-3340
SeaGate: 1-800-468-3472 Micropolis: 1-818-709-3325
SyQuest: 1-510-226-4000 Toshiba: 1-800-334-3445
ICD: 1-815-968-2228 HDSS: 1-800-252-9777
Atari: 1-408-745-2000 Quantum: 1-800-345-3377
Maxtor: 1-800-356-5333 H.D.I.: 1-800-755-9635
Retired after 20 years in the Air Force, Gregg Anderson is a long time
Atari fan, beta tester, and reviewer. With over 25 articles in various
Atari magazines he's been absent from the review scene for a while due
to an overseas assignment. Don't look now but he's back ;>
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||| Atari Explorer Review ...... MiGraph PS-400 / Touch Up, version 1.84.
||| By: Rob Schilling
/ | \ Courtesy: Atari Explorer Magazine
---------------------------------------------------------------------
//// The following article originally appeared in the November/
//// December 1992 issue of Atari Explorer Magazine. This article is
//// Copyright ½ 1992, Atari Explorer Magazine. Look for an Atari
//// Explorer subscription form following the review!
I have been using the Migraph Hand Scanner and Touch Up (V1.84) for
several years now in my graphic design business, and have found them
to be solid and reliable. Users of the above products, however, have
been anxiously awaiting the release of the next generation scanning
hardware and software from Migraph. I'm happy to report that it has
arrived in fine form.
In this review, we will cover three new products. First, the PS-400
Wand scanner, a full-page width, hand-held scanner. Next, the
sheet-feeder/cradle hardware option for the Wand. Finally, we will
take a brief look at the latest release of Touch Up, version 1.84,
Migraph's high-resolution monochrome image editor.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// The Wand
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I caught my first glimpse of the PS-400 Wand in September at the
Glendale, California Atari show. The Migraph booth was surrounded
three deep for most of the day by people trying to get a close-up look
at the Wand. The Migraph representative was fielding non-stop
questions from the crowd all weekend.
Physically, the Wand bears almost no resemblance to the original hand
scanner. It is 9 3/4" wide, 4" deep and 2 1/4" highroughly similar in
form to a sleek hand-held cordless telephone, but slightly heavier and
more substantial. The controls are familiar, but the level of
precision of some scanning parameters have been increased
significantly.
As on the hand scanner, there is a start button to initiate the
scanning process. This is located directly on top of the Wand. On the
side, you will find the light/dark contrast dial. This control adjusts
the contrast of each scan and is infinitely adjustable from zero
contrast (white/light) to full contrast (black/dark).
The dither selector, also positioned on the top of the Wand, has been
upgraded from that of the hand scanner. It now includes four pre-set
dot sizes instead of three, in addition to a letter or line-art
setting. There are five LEDs, one above each setting, to readily
indicate the current mode.
Adjacent to the dither control is the resolution/dpi adjustor. This
sets the hardware scanning resolution (software resolution is set
separately within Touch Up) to the desired number of dots per inch.
Resolution may be defined anywhere between 100 and 400 dpi in
increments of 10 dpi. This allows a great degree of flexibility in
scanning for different applications. A nice touch is the inclusion of
a digital readout on the top of the Wand indicating the current
resolution setting. This display lights automatically during
initiation of any scan and turns off upon completion of the scan.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// The Sheet Feeder
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The sheet feeder (or cradle) is an absolutely wonderful addition to
the PS-400 Wand. At 13" wide, 7 3/4" deep and 10" high (with feed-tray
fully extended), its footprint is relatively small, allowing a nice
fit on most desks.
The design of the cradle has a very sleek European look. All edges
are softly rounded, lending a very simple, uncluttered look to the
unit. It is housed in a sturdy, light-grey plastic case.
There are only two controls on the feeder. On the left side, toward
the front of the cradle, is the power switch. At the top and front of
the feeder is the stop/eject control. This will interrupt a scan in
process or eject a document from the scanner at the conclusion of the
scanning procedure. At the back of the sheet feeder is a paper tray
with a sliding, adjustable paper guide to hold documents of various
widths (letter, A4, A5, B6, etc.) steady while being fed to the
scanner. The tray folds down while not in use, to further reduce the
space requirements of the hardware.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Touch Up 1.84
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Perhaps the most anticipated upgrade to my current software library
was Touch Up 1.84. This program works as a software interface to the
Migraph and Golden Image hand scanners as well as the PS-400 Wand.
Touch Up allows selection of scanning parameters such as page/clip
size, software scanning resolution, scan length, etc., as well as
providing image editing and manipulation with various tools.
This new version boasts many significant improvements over older
versions. Of immediate concern to many current Touch Up users is the
speed of program operation. Version 1.84 has improved speed in
several areas.
First, the loading of IMG files was always a bit slow. Speed here has
been increased about four times. While never a major drawback for me,
it is very nice to have the newly loaded image on screen that much
faster.
Another area of speed increase is in the rotation of images. I
remember working on an old 1040 ST with only 1 meg and having to wait
overnight for a large clip to be rotated with version 1.5. This was
incredibly frustrating and proved to be a major weakness in the
program. I was quite happy to see that the rotation speed has been
increased forty times over previous versions. Rotating 90, 180 or 270
degrees is almost instantaneous. Rotating in increments between those
settings is dramatically improved.
Zooming in on an image at the 2X and 4X modes is also much faster
now. This makes moving in for detailed work far less time consuming
and thus more practical.
Touch Up's screen interface has also undergone a minor face lift.
Gone is the "Lightning" mode; having been replaced by the "Paint"
mode. This appears to be a change primarily in icon design and
designation. Several other icons have been slightly redesigned or
repositioned to increase the program's functionality.
When performing program operations such as loading and rotation,
prior versions of Touch Up have shown a bar-graph representation on
screen to give the user an indication of how long the operation was
going to take. This has been supplemented in the current version with
a numeric percentage figure superimposed over the bar graph. This is
a tremendous improvement over the standard Atari "busy bee." I would
love to see other programs implement this feature.
The dialog box for scan settings has also been redesigned. Many
features now have slider controls for adjustments. In addition, there
is a "start scan" button directly inside the box very handy.
Scanning now displays directly to screen in realtime, in most
resolutions. This allows the user to see the scan as it is being
created, and abort the process if the initial results are
unsatisfactory. An exception to this is scanning at 320 dpi or
greater, which may not display the image on screen until the scan is
completed, depending upon the speed of your computer.
One of the most useful new features for desktop publishers is the
enhanced Greyscale TIFF support. This enables the user to export near
photographic quality scans to desktop publishing programs like
PageStream 2.2 or Calamus SL. Migraph hand-scanner users can save
scans in 128 level greyscale TIFF files, while Golden Image
hand-scanner and PS-400 Wand scanner users can save in 256 level
greyscale files.
The greyscale save feature will "halftone" scanned photos so that
they may be output on high-end image processing equipment like the
Linotronic imagesetter, and then reproduced in printed material with
astonishing results.
To test the quality of the "save as greyscale" feature of Touch Up,
I imported several 256 level greyscale TIFF's, scanned using the Wand,
into PageStream. I resized the photos to fit the needs of my client,
set the lines per inch or "frequency" within PageStream, and printed
a PostScript file to disk. I then dropped the disk off at my local
service bureau for Linotronic output at 1200 dots per inch.
The results of this test were amazing. The greyscale files, although
resized, were a nearly perfect reproduction of the original
photograph. This process can save some desktop publishers the expense
of paying print shops to screen or halftone photos prior to
reproducing them in a printed document.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Putting It All Together
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Now that we have looked at the PS-400 Wand, the sheet feeder, and
Touch Up 1.84 individually, let's look at how they work in conjunction
with each other.
Primarily, the Wand is wide enough to scan an 8.5 inch page full
width. No longer will you have to scan 2 half-pages and then merge
them together using Merge-It or Coalesce. For Migraph OCR users this
feature alone is worth the price of admission. (Migraph OCR was
reviewed in the May/June '92 issue. The latest version offers support
for the Wand.) Also of interest to current hand-scanner users is the
increased stability of the Wand. Being wider and heavier than the
hand-scanner, the Wand can perform almost perfectly straight scans on
any smooth surface. Adding to the stability of the unit are four
rubber-like rollers on the underside of the scanner. These rollers
make it very difficult for the Wand to slide off-course during a scan.
As rock-solid as the Wand scanner is on its own, the sheet feeder
option must be experienced to be believed. The Wand snaps gently into
a recessed area on the top of the cradle and locks solidly into place.
From this point on, the two pieces operate as a seamless unit.
To perform a scan using the feeder/Wand combination from within Touch
Up, first the scanning resolution of hardware and software must be
set. Touch Up makes this part easy from a software perspective. Simply
call the scan settings dialog and make the necessary adjustments.
Changing the Wand, however, is a little more time consuming. The
scanner must first be removed from the cradle, then "Set DPI" must
be selected from the program's dialog box. Next, using the hardware
control pad, the scanner's internal settings must be changed. Finally,
the Wand must then be moved a short distance in a mock scan, to
confirm the new resolution. This procedure is a little inconvenient,
but the typical user probably won't change resolutions often enough
for this to be a major drawback.
Next, position the page to be scanned in the paper feeder and adjust
the width guides to the edges of the page. This will insure a
straighter scan.
After adjusting the resolution, page length, dither settings, and
placing the page in the feeder, press "OK" and the scan will start
automatically. The feed motor is so quiet as to be inaudible over the
din of a hard drive. The mechanism gently, but firmly draws the
document into the feeder and under the scan head. At the conclusion
of the scan, approximately one inch of the page is retained underneath
the scanner. The page must be manually ejected from the cradle using
the Stop/Eject button on top of the unit.
Once an image has been scanned into the computer's memory, it can be
further manipulated or cleaned up using Touch Up's paint and clip
tools. Masks can be applied to lighten or darken scanned images. Stray
pixels, either black or white, or both, can be cleaned up. Line art
can be processed to produce an outline of the original scan, then
refilled with a pattern of the user's choice. Images can be mixed
with text from one or more of Touch Up's ten included fonts. These
features are supplemented by many others in the program, allowing
images to be processed to the needs of the user.
When the image has been refined to the point where it can be saved,
Touch Up offers several bitmap formats which allow broad compatibility
across platforms. Obviously, the .IMG format is supported, as well as
.GIF, .PCX, .TIF (greyscale), Degas, IFF-ILBM, and MacPaint.
Touch Up allows the user to save a full page, or to save a defined
clip area. The latter option is very useful for most scans, where
saving the whole page would be a needless waste of disk space.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Disks, Docs and Requirements
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The PS-400 Wand scanner comes with 20 page, 6x8", soft-cover manual.
All functions and features of the Wand and sheet feeder are covered
thoroughly in an easy to understand tutorial style. For all that it
can do, the Wand/feeder combination has a very flat learning curve.
After having read the manual once or twice and using the hardware a
few times, you're unlikely to need the documentation again.
Touch Up v1.84 comes on 2 double-sided, double-density disks. A 233
page revised hard-cover manual accompanies the disks. Revisions and
changes include a new section on understanding greyscales and the
greyscale mode, plus information on the new icons and interface
features. The manual for version 1.84 is a significant improvement
over the prior manual. While still a little ambiguous in some areas,
the documentation is very good overall. Just be prepared to do a
little digging through the various chapters.
Touch Up runs on all Atari 16 and 32-bit computers with at least 1
megabyte of memory. The program supports hard drive caching, allowing
a hard drive to supplement system RAM. This process slows the computer
way down and most users will not not want to rely on hard drive
caching too often. While a hard disk is not required to run Touch Up,
it is strongly recommended by Migraph. The program will run in all ST
and TT resolutions, however, ST low or high, or TT medium resolutions
are recommended by the manufacturer due to the screen pixel aspect
ratio.
If you wish to print from within Touch Up, you must use GDOS or its
equivalent and the Outprint shell program supplied on the master
program disks. This will slow the program down and is not really a
very efficient method of printing. Users may prefer to export images
to their favorite DTP program and print out directly from there.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Tech Support and Upgrade Policy
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
On the few occasions I needed some questions answered, Migraph's
support staff was available during normal business hours. In addition
to being very courteous, the people in tech support seem to have a
very good working knowledge of their products. Unlimited support is
provided free of charge for registered Migraph owners.
Minor upgrades (usually bug-fixes) are typically offered at no cost
to current users. Major upgrades are priced commensurate with the
level of new features added to the hardware or software. Migraph takes
good care of their client base in offering an upgrade path for their
hardware, as well as software products.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Conclusions
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
After using the PS-400 Wand scanner and sheet feeder, I'm going to
find it very hard to go back to my hand scanner. This equipment is
just so easy to use, that I've become spoiled by it. The sheet feeder
performed flawlessly, with a couple of minor exceptions. When
scanning photographs smaller than the paper guides would adjust to
accommodate, some scans were slightly crooked. Also, the sheet feeder
had a little trouble with the thick-backed photography paper on some
of the photos I scanned. The mechanism fed the photos properly, but
there was some audible noise as the photo went through the feeder, and
a few striations and glitches appeared in the resulting scan.
Rescanning the same photo several times would eventually yield an
acceptable image. Touch Up 1.84 appears to be a very stable product.
I did not discover any bugs in my run-through of the program. The
128/256 greyscale save feature is outstanding, as are the speed
improvements. The updated interface is also a welcome change. I would
like to see more flexibility in the processing of images ala'
Retouche, or Photoshop on the Mac. Color support would be nice for a
future high-end version of Touch Up.
The manual is really pretty good, but it could benefit from some
tightening up. A lot of the same functions are covered in several
different chapters, in varying degrees of complexity. This is a little
confusing when trying to ascertain the operation of a certain function
and not knowing exactly where to turn for complete information.
Overall, these are top-rate, quality products. I highly recommend the
Wand/feeder combination to serious DTP'ers and hobbyists alike. As for
Touch Up, a very good program gets much better. If you are using an
older version of the program, it is well worth the upgrade to take
advantage of the wonderful new features of version 1.84. If you want
to get into desktop publishing and/or image scanning/manipulation,
you will be well served by purchasing these three fine products from
Migraph.
A T A R I E X P L O R E R M A G A Z I N E
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||| Krimen on GEnie
||| By: Ed Krimen - Messages reprinted courtesy of GEnie
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.5
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Photography RoundTable
Category 18: Photographic Equipment and Supplies: Kodak
Topic 23: Kodak PhotoCD(tm)--The Next Frontier?
Message 269 Fri Mar 05, 1993
T.HALFHILL [Tom] at 02:01 EST
The Atari Falcon030 is indeed an amazing computer at an amazing
price. I tested one a couple of months ago and had lots of fun. It
lends itself to several applications, including Photo CD, video, and
digital audio. It's also the first personal computer with a built-in
DSP (digital signal processor) chip, which means it's ideal for
image-editing programs that have complex image filters. You can buy
add-on DSP boards for Macs and PCs, but they cost $$$. By the end of
this year, we'll see built-in DSPs on several other computers besides
the Falcon. But Atari did it first.
Tom H.
----------
Message 272 Sat Mar 06, 1993
N.BARRETT [NORM] at 11:35 EST
Kodak is reluctant to support the Amiga.
They say it is due to lack of installed base.
There was a roomer (started by me) that Phillips was mad at CBM for
pushing CDTV to market at a low price and forcing their hand.
Since Phillips polices the licensing for CD-I (Photo CD), they would
not allow CBM a licence.
Most of the Amiga mags are encouraging users to write LOUD letters to
Kodak demanding support. This is the best course.
There is also a roomer that the next version of Amiga (Maybe CDTV)
will support Photo CD. However there was not announcement at PMA in
Atlanta by Kodak. This major show in Photofinishing is the place were
most Kodak announcements are made.
The general feeling in Rochester is that Photo CD will bomb in the
consumer market. Since this was the first target market and Kodak is
shedding itself of losers, in my opinion Photo CD may be history if
something exciting does not happen soon.
Norm Barrett
Pro-Vision Photofinishing Equipment, Rochester NY
----------
Message 273 Sat Mar 06, 1993
JOHN.DENNING at 13:18 EST
Why should Kodak support the Amiga. Are there NO 3rd party developers
out there interested in this technology? If not then that sasy
something right there for the Amiga. Same with the Atari.
Just because Kodak doesn't come out with software for these platforms
doesn't mean that someone else can't. It just means that there isn't
enough interest in the small markets to do so.
-JD-
----------
Message 274 Sat Mar 06, 1993
GREG at 16:30 EST
JOHN.DENNING
Check your facts before you post a message. Not only will Photo CD be
supported on the Atari line, you will find the support and quality of
programming to be superior to that found for the PC and Mac.
For desktop publishing, Calamus will be offering state of the art
color publishing with Photo CD. Our Virtual BookMaker will have all
the features of our PC version with the added benefit of the built in
true-color, RF out for viewing or recording on a video deck, and CD
quality sound of the machine. No need to buy extra cards to make full
use of the program. If you've been using Virtual BookMaker on the PC,
you can see the advantage Atari has with all the needed extras built
into the basic machine.
Greg It's All Relative
----------
Message 276 Sat Mar 06, 1993
JOHN.DENNING at 19:24 EST
Greg -- I didn't state any facts I need to check. There has been lots
of discussion by folks asking "where is PCD for the Atari, and Amiga
platforms." OK something is in development, that's great. And it isn't
by Kodak is it? So See others can develop besides Kodak.
As far as it being better than what is available for the PC and or
Mac I really doubt it. Maybe that's wishful thinking on your part.
-JD-
----------
Message 277 Sun Mar 07, 1993
GREG at 00:05 EST
JOHN.DENNING:
Check your facts before you post again. All Photo CD development and
use on computer systems must be done through a license with Kodak for
the technology.
If you're going to be at CEBIT, be sure to take a look at the Atari
booth.
As a developer on both platforms, I feel I am a better judge of the
features of the program than someone whose only experience is posting
without checking facts.
----------
Message 278 Sun Mar 07, 1993
P.LIEBERMAN3 [Paula] at 00:45 EST
JOHN.DENNING Kodak has played the "If you put out PhotoCD decoding
software without a Kodak license, we will sue out your eyeballs" game.
----------
Message 280 Sun Mar 07, 1993
GREG at 01:59 EST
JOHN.DENNING:
I apologize for being harsh in my previous message. The point I was
trying to make in my previous posts was that the Falcon from Atari is
Photo-CD ready right out of the box. Just add a CD rom drive.
Our Virtual BookMaker for the PC can run on a 4 meg machine with a
16 color card. To make full use of the program on the PC requires
add-on hardware.
Want to see true-color, Virtual BookMaker PC supports true-color on
machines with a true-color card ($200)
Want to tack voice-overs or narrations, Virtual BookMaker PC supports
voice- over on machines with a sound card ($100)
Want quality music in the background, Virtual BookMaker PC supports
MIDI on machines with a MIDI card ($100)
Want to record a sequence of photos to tape, Virtual BookMaker PC can
record to video tape on machines with a video out card ($200)
Want to overlay live video on a picture, on a PC you can with a video
in card ($400)
Want to see your Photo CD show on a 27 inch broadcast monitor, Virtual
BookMaker PC can with an RF out card ($100)
Need to end this message, I think I just ran out of slots and
interrupts.
At $25.00, our Virtual BookMaker PC is an outstanding value. With all
the above features built into a stock Falcon out of the box, the
Falcon is also an outstanding value.
Truce.
Greg - It's All Relative
----------
Message 281 Mon Mar 08, 1993
STEVE-J [FunkPopARoll] at 02:52 EST
JOHN.DENNING - But Kodak IS supporting the Atari platform (and yes,
KODAK ITSELF!)! Kodak is a registered Atari Falcon developer. That's
what the Amiga users are bitching about.
----------
Message 282 Mon Mar 08, 1993
JOHN.DENNING at 16:18 EST
OK great news for ST users.
Will the Atari software run on any ST? Are there many options for 24
bit color on the Atari?
-JD-
----------
Message 283 Tue Mar 09, 1993
T.HALFHILL [Tom] at 02:00 EST
To my knowledge, no one has "reverse-engineered" the Kodak Photo CD
codec. That means Kodak must license the codec to anyone who wants to
support Photo CD. If Kodak decides not to support a particular
platform for some reason, it is highly unlikely that a third party
will be able to provide that support without exposing itself to legal
troubles.
The Amiga has a sufficiently large installed base (worldwide) to
justify Photo CD support. That probably explains the speculation that
other reasons are behind Kodak's lack of Photo CD support on the
Amiga.
Tom H.
----------
Message 284 Tue Mar 09, 1993
JOHN.DENNING at 18:39 EST
Tom -- I know that the code has to be licensed from Kodak. I guess I
just don't agree that there is some plot on Kodak's part to keep PCD
from the Amiga. I see it as more a point that the code hasn't been
licensed by anyone to develope on the Amiga. I can't see why Kodak
would have it in for the Amiga. But maybe I don't know all the facts.
-JD-
----------
Message 285 Tue Mar 09, 1993
R.LOVE10 [Royce] at 22:45 EST
Sometimes I get the impression that Commodore is the one that has it
in for the Amiga.
Royce
----------
Message 286 Wed Mar 10, 1993
STEVE-J [FunkPopARoll] at 02:37 EST
Commodore has tended to rub other companies the wrong way lately. I
don't quite know why, but this is what I've heard.
----------
Message 287 Wed Mar 10, 1993
B.REHBOCK [BILL@ATARI] at 12:27 EST
The majority of the PhotoCD port was done by our programmer at
Kodak's R&D offices in Rochester. The Atari implementation is
definitely not a hack. Various products supporting Kodak PhotoCD will
be announced by third-pary Atari developers at CeBIT. Kodak has been
very cooperative and a pleasure to do business with.
-Bill Rehbock @ Atari Corp.
==========================================
Atari-ST RoundTable
Category 12: T.O.S. (The Other Stuff) ... Miscellaneous
Topic 3: A New Catalog for Atari
Message 27 Sat Mar 13, 1993
J.P.C. at 08:39 EST
I must say that I am quite impressed with the new Atari software
catalog.
One of my friends just spent three months writing a custom software
package (PeeCee-based) for a nearby ski-resort which allows them to
better predict when they need to "make snow". I don't know what value
he puts on his time but, there is a program "Wheather" in the Atari
catalog that would have done the same thing. He was amazed!
There are numerous other "niche" programs in the catalog that, given
_any_ marketing effort from Atari for its computer systems, could
easily be incorporated into professional turn-key solutions.
In any event, the people who put that catalog together deserve a
hearty round of applause!!
==========================================
Gadgets by Small RoundTable
Category 9: SST/68030 for the Atari ST
Topic 2: SST/68030
Message 313 Mon Mar 22, 1993
D.FLORY [ALERTsys*cop] at 08:10 EST
Bill Rehbock told me at the Sacramento show that they were making 350
Falcons a day. x20 working days a month comes to 7,000/month. They
should be showing up all over soon.
(-: Happy Bytes :-)
Dave Flory, ALERTsys*Cop
22:02 PST - 03/21/93
==========================================
MIDI/WorldMusic RT
Category 3: MIDI Software and Hardware - Atari (ST,TT)
Topic 7: Atari ST/STE/TT MIDI Users
Message 261 Sun Mar 07, 1993
R.SATTLER [Mr.X] at 18:51 EST
I found a very great way to keep things in order. I use 16 Atari
ST's (one for each MIDI channel) and a final one to just send MIDI
clock info to the other 16. Really keeps things organized this way!
----------
Message 262 Sun Mar 07, 1993
B.WILLIS3 [Bill] at 21:47 EST
...and the 34 monitors look really cool...!
----------
Message 263 Mon Mar 08, 1993
M.MURRAY18 [big mike] at 01:50 EST
Mr. X,
I used to use a set up like yours, but then I got the Unitor
box for Notator which gave me 48 midi channels so I had to buy 32 more
Ataris.
--Big mike
----------
Message 264 Mon Mar 08, 1993
R.SATTLER [Mr.X] at 03:07 EST
I've been getting real bad headaches lately...
==========================================
Atari-ST RoundTable
Category 28: The Atari TT
Topic 2: Atari's TT
Message 205 Tue Mar 23, 1993
L.TRAPANI [Lou][Machine] at 01:41 EST
Well I can't believe that I may be actually doing this, but I
will most likey be upgrading to the TT030. (I feel like a new user
again) Is there anything I should know about the machine? I have been
using a 1040 STE with 4 megs.
Any bugs? Advice? whatever? Will I find a lot of software
problems?
Thanks...
--Lou T.--
----------
Message 206 Tue Mar 23, 1993
G.FUHRMAN [gnox] at 05:47 EST
Lou,
Good for you! (In every sense!)
The TT is very solid and any software worth its bytes has been
updated to run on it. I'd recommend at least 4 meg ST + 4 TT ram. And
you'll have a couple of new flags to play with. :)
gnox
----------
Message 208 Tue Mar 23, 1993
A.FASOLDT [Al Fasoldt] at 07:09 EST
Lou,
Glad to welcome you to the TT club.
Most software runs just fine, although many programs need to be run
in their native ST resolutions. (The TT can emulate all ST resolutions
easily, by a menu item.)
RAMROMTT, here in the library, speeds up the TT by quite a bit. Warp
9 has a TT-specific version, and you'll need that. Art Gallery won't
run unless you get the latest revision; same for CodedRam.
NeoDesk flies on the TT, especially vers. 3.03, which makes use of
VDI calls.
Get a large-cap. hard drive, too.
(One of these days I'll try to put together a Secrets of the TT...)
Al
==========================================
Atari-ST RoundTable
Category 14: Atari Corporation Online
Topic 41: FALCON 030 - Help and Questions
Message 127 Thu Mar 25, 1993
S.WINICK at 06:17 EST
Steve,
SJ> Atari's getting out of the monitor (and laser printer, I
SJ> believe) business and hasn't even been shipping PTC1426's (TT
SJ> color), or even SM147's (and, from what I've recently heard,
SJ> SC1435's as well!!) for quite some time.
You're correct about the PTC1426 not shipping any more as that model
was discontinued over a year ago. But as far as Atari no longer
shipping their normal ST monitors, I don't know where you heard that.
Our March Atari resupply shipment included a dozen SM147's, eighteen
SC1224's and a couple of SC1435's. Oh, yes, and a bunch of TTM195's
as well.
And..... to go with those monitors we also got plenty of TT030's and
MegaSTe's. The SLM605's were restocked with our February order. I
hardly feel that sounds like they've stopped shipping all those
things. It sure seems like we've been selling SOMETHING this month.
;-]
Sheldon (Computer STudio - Asheville, NC)
==========================================
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--==--==--==--==--
||| Street Fighter II
||| By: Andreas Barbiero
/ | \ Delphi: ABARBIERO GEnie: AEO.2
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The newest, and most popular types of games in coin-op arcades are the
punching, kicking, fighting, beat-'em-up games. Dozens of new games
are being introduced to capitalize on the success and popularity of
these games. At the top of the list is Street Fighter. At the local
arcade, I have seen kids crowded around the game to watch and play the
original, and the successor - STREET FIGHTER II. Console systems have
been the quickest to capitalize on this popularity and system sales
seem to be determined by which one has the newest games available. The
Super Nintendo can give no small credit to Street Fighter II for its
current success, since it is the reason why many people buy the
console unit in the first place.
Capcom and US Gold have translated many arcade hits to the Atari
platform, and for many reasons, they have usually been unsatisfactory
playing versions of the original. A home computer is bad competition
for a specialized machine with twenty megabytes of RAM dedicated to
doing one game, and one game only. Strider was one of my favorite
arcade games, and when a compilation package was available with it, I
purchased it immediately, only to be mostly disappointed with the
results.
I must confess that I am not really into the fighting game genre, but
Street Fighter II is a viable, good looking conversion. Since there
is a predominance of the PC clone platform around the world, the least
common denominator is prevalent with conversions programs. A generic
program code is written, and ported over to all the platforms, with
little regard for the native abilities of the computer. This has
usually hurt the ST line, since the specific capabilities of the
computer are ignored, and a stilted program results.
Street Fighter II beats this with sheer gameplay. The game may not be
as great as it could if it had been coded specifically for the ST, but
it is still a highly playable game nonetheless.
The basic plot of Street Fighter II is to use a character, with their
innate combat skills to stand up against all comers from around the
world. Many nationalities are represented by characters, and you can
choose from one of nine possible countries to represent. The trick to
the game is to find the best fighting style for the character you have
chosen and figure out which move gives you the most powerful hit, at
the quickest speeds. A death-blow is useless if it takes so long that
your opponent can evade or strike you before you can hit him!
Not only are the usual kicks and punches available, but close attacks
and special moves related to the specific character make the fight
more interesting. For instance, some semi-magical attacks are possible
using combinations of key and joystick moves. One character, Blanka, a
bizarre fighter from the jungles of Brazil, has the ability to perform
a head bite, double knee, and a head butt. You can also cause him to
become electrically charged by pressing the punch button repeatedly,
making you untouchable for a period of time.
Not all the special attacks are easy to perform, Guile, an ex-Special
Forces type, can cause a momentary wall of energy to appear by doing
the following: pressing down on the joystick and holding it there for
two seconds, and then pressing up on the joystick while pressing the
kick button. In the heat of the battle, this is not easy to perform!
I have been able to play the game at level 3 (0-9 possible difficulty
levels) and beat most of the opponents enough to win the game. The
graphics are nice, but they look like they were draw originally for a
256 color mode, and then converted over directly to ST Low.
Many new games from Germany and the UK are written specifically for
the ST, and are able to show 32 colors in game operation, without much
trouble. In Street Fighter II, with the limited palette, things
sometimes get a little to hard to see, but it is usually just with
backgrounds and text information. The actual players are well defined
and easy to see. The only negative aspect about them is that they are
a bit rough in animation. This is more of a limitation of being floppy
based, than a limitation of the computer.
The game is on four disks, and it would be REALLY nice to be able to
load them on a hard drive. With the added storage of a hard drive,
extra images could have been loaded to increase the fluidity of the
game. When you get REALLY good at this game you could find yourself
spending more time swapping disks than playing.
Audio is the same, usual, Yamaha based sound and music. Once again the
excellent DMA stereo audio of the STe is ignored. This game does not
load on a TT030, or on an Atari Falcon030. The inability to install
this program on a hard drive, or play it on a TT030 is a drawback, but
not a completely crippling one. I have had fun with this program, and
would recommend it to anyone who likes this type of game, especially
if you have one of the younger set to entertain. As new software goes,
it is nice to see these games come along for the ST, and will fill the
gap until the amazing crop of Atari Falcon030 games start arriving!
Ocean/US Gold-UK Import
ST/STe/MegaSTe only
Color monitor
Floppy disk only
512K RAM
Graphics: Fair - Good
Sound: Fair
Documents: N/A
Playability: Good
Overall: Good
Ratings are based on a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, Poor, Awful.
Overall is a subjective rating representative of the game as a whole.
The review copy of this game was kindly provided to AEO by a proud
Atari-only dealer, Steve Kipker of
STeve's Software Sales
5 West Street
Woodland, CA 95695
Info: 916-661-3328
GEnie: S.KIPKER
--==--==--==--==--
||| Overview: Club Dominoes
||| By: Andreas Barbiero
/ | \ Delphi: A.BARBIERO GEnie: AEO.2
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Dominoes is a game that exists all over the world, and can be traced
back to the 12th century BC. This game is played in many ways in most
every country in the world. This is the Western version of the game,
and should be recognizable to just about anyone. Transferring games
which we are used to playing with 'real' pieces into the digital
medium is sometimes a hit an miss affair. Games like chess have
succeeded, while board-games, even though they are ingeniously
re-created, seem to miss mass market appeal. In creating Club
Dominoes, John Hanly has done a marvelous job of presenting the
variations and game-play of dominoes effectively. Subtle details,
which are immediately apparent in the 'analog' form of the game, are
represented quite nicely in everything from the backdrops, and
automatic analysis that takes place after each hand to having the
tile layout accessible by the click of a mouse.
One would not expect flashy graphics and sound in a game like this,
and overdoing it would detract from the playability. Club Dominoes has
sound effects that give the game a bit of tangibility, and the
rendering of the game, while not overflowing with color, is sharp and
clear. This is not to say there is no color in the game, but
overlaying too many colors makes some games hard to play. This is not
the case with Club Dominoes. Even the incidental music is appropriate,
and does not try to entertain you with hours of repetitive jingles.
The game of dominoes is faithfully represented. Not only is there the
more complicated version of the game, Muggins, but the more common
rules game of Bergen and Domino are present. The computer is an
adequate player who will beat you if you aren't paying attention. If
you hanker for a human opponent, you can play via MIDI cable, null
modem, or dial up your brother in Manchuria for a head to head modem
game.
As you would with a set of physical dominoes, you have the ability to
modify the deck in many ways. The number of undrawable dominoes in
the boneyard, the hand size, and game point total are all changeable
options. The computer interface is selectable also, with different
backdrops, and the choice of keyboard or mouse play. The documentation
goes over all the options and gives you tips for play and a small
dictionary of the terms used in the game.
As with Cali-Co's Mah-jongg, this is a well written version of an age
old classic. If you think dominoes is a boring game, you need to play
this version! There is a fine demo version on Delphi and GEnie for you
to try out before you put any money down. It is well worth the
download, and the cost of the full program is well worth the money.
Graphics: Excellent
Sound: Good
Documents: Good
Playability: Excellent
Overall: Excellent
Club Dominoes
Info Works
PO Box 2881
Vancouver WA 98668-2881
ST/STe/TT/Falcon030
512K RAM
Color monitor
Hard drive installable
--==--==--==--==--
||| Internet Qs & As
||| By: Tim Wilson
/ | \ Internet: WILSONT@RAHUL.NET GEnie: AEO.8
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Some questions recieved over the past few months in response to my
series about the Internet.
=-=-=-=
//// Q: How do I get files from atari archive via e-mail?
=-=-=-=
A: A bunch of you seem to have 'mail only' accounts. And there is a
facillity that provides this service, its called BART. (Brode's
Archive Retrieval Thang)
BART lets people without FTP access to grab files from the main
internet Atari stores: atari.archive
A few things are needed before you can get most of the files though.
Remeber when I stated that e-mail is a 7-bit medium? (UUencode was the
solution created for this shortcoming.) From a local BBS or usergroup,
find a 'uudecode' program, and a good text editor. Then, send mail
to: atari@atari.archive.umich.edu No subject (it's ignored) Then in the
body, the following commands are availible. (one per line!)
help
Sends a small help file to you.
send path/filename
Sends the file "filename" to you, splitting it up as necessary
(30K chunks or so), and automatically 'uuencoding' if its binary.
Remember! Unix is case sensitive!
Example of send: send Falcon/super_78.zoo
You have a limit of 1 megabyte or 10 files, which ever comes
first, per day.
index
Sends a list of all files at A.A with a short description.
(I would't do this often, the list is pretty big)
path me@mymailadress
This should be used before any send commands, but only if
you want the results to go to another mail adress.
(e.g., Your 'From:' field has joe@bink.com , but your actual
adress is joe@sun.bink.com )
As each part comes in, you'll see how any more Kbytes or transfers
you have that day, as well as 'part xx of xx', in the subject and
mail header.
When all files are delivered, get them into your Atari, edit out
the mail headers, then merge all the parts.
You should only have lines that start with 'M', 'begin' 'table'
'end'. (but keep the lines between table and begin)
You should have one 'begin' at the top, a 'table' and an 'end' at the
bottom. All of the rest can go.
Save the resulting file (as a different name to have a backup!), and
run uudecode on it. Viola! Your file is ready. Run it, unarc it...
whatever it needs.
Some BBS'es or minor UUCP sites only send/receive mail once a day.
So you may see a considerable lag in your file request times.
=-=-=-=
//// Q: How do I get my aliases to 'stick'?
=-=-=-=
A: Saving one's configuration can be tricky, but not all that tough.
You'll have to know how to use one of the Unix editors. Open the file
'.login' (dot login) and move to the bottom. Once at the end, start
entering your aliases, or any other shell command for that matter. A
semicolon is used to separate multiple commands. When done, save the
file.
Example: alias toast 'echo "toasting file...";rm $1'
the $1 means "replace this with the first parameter"
The .login file is 'run' or interpreted each time you login. So you
could have all sorts of stuff happen, My .login sets up aliases,
checks other computers to see if my friends are on, and changes my
prompt.
There is also a .logout file, that is ran when you leave.
You could alias a 'del' command, that really is a 'mv $1 $home/trashcan'
after making a 'trashcan' folder, you could then have a way of
undeleting files (so to speak).
In your .logout the final line could be: 'rm $home/trashcan/*'
As long as you don't logout, your 'del'eted files are only moved to a
folder. To un'del'ete those files, go into the trashcan folder and
'mv' them out.
=-=-=-=
//// Q: Can I run my Atari programs on my unix account?
=-=-=-=
A: Nope, even if it was an account on a TT with ASV, the operating
system is still different. For the most part Unix machines run very
different CPUs (sometimes more than one CPU) than home computers.
If you wrote some very portable C code, and recompiled it on the
Unix system, then it would work, but otherwise...
=-=-=-=
//// Q: What types of files do I need for 'interneting'?
=-=-=-=
A: Usually, a good terminal program will suffice. Since vt100 is the
ANSI standard, try getting a terminal program that does a good job of
vt100. While you can use vt52, most programs in Unix are written with
vt100 in mind, and take advantage of its extra features.
Other files to get are the various decompression utilities:
lzh, arc, compress, zoo
7bit to 8bit coverter: UUdecode
Group file archiver: Tar
Most of the time, tar, compress, and uudecode are on the unix machine
you have an account at. Sometimes, arc, lzh and the rest are availible
online too.
----------------------------
Remember, if you have questions feel free to ask me at:
wilsont@rahul.net or AEO.8 on GEnie.
ram flags can be cha
--==--==--==--==--
|||
||| GEnie Atari ST RoundTable News
/ | \ Courtesy: GEnie
------------------------------
Atari Roundtable Weekly News 4.1
= ATARI RT NEW FEATURE =
= ATARI INTERNET IN THE ATARI ROUNDTABLE =
We thought that you may enjoy reading Atari news from the Internet
on a regular basis. We will be posting the messages regularly and
opening up a topic for messages you wish to have sent to the Internet.
We will be mailing out messages posted at a minimum of every other
day. If you do not wish to have your messages forwarded, please do
NOT post in this Category. This is a service that we are trying out
on a trial basis. We will decide if we will continue it after 90 days.
Please let us know what you think. Internet messages are being posted
in the new Category 24. These messages are quite lengthy and are being
uploaded in quantity to the new topics in 24. If you are not interested
in this Category, please cancel your participation in CAT 24 before
you begin downloading messages.
= DARLAH'S TREAT =
NEW DARLAH'S TREAT F2_DEMO.LZH Option 9 on PAGE 475!
FLASH II DEMO - version 2.1
You'll be able to test as many of Flash II's features as possible
in this demo version. Naturally, many features of the program are
either disabled or limited. Product support is available in the
Atari RT Bulletin Board Category 8, Topic 2. Uploaded by
Missionware Software.
= REALTIME CONFERENCES =
REAL TIME CONFERENCE SCHEDULE - All RTC's begin at 10:00 p.m.
---------------------------------------------------------------
April 2 - Dateline Atari! with Bob Brodie and James Grunke
Win a FREE SUBSCRIPTION to Atari Explorer
April 12 - Pradip Fatehpuria - author of Atari Works
April 19 - Nathan Potechin - Outline Art 3.0
Win a FREE COPY of OL3 or equal value fonts!
= Scheduled Wednesday RTC =
Have an idea for an Realtime Conference? Wish to promote a product,
show or service? Atari Roundtable Realtime Conference provides an
excellent platform for announcements and discussions. Contact RTC$,
for requirements and information on holding formal RTCs. We also
capture and edit the formal conferences and uploads them into the
Atari RT's Library for you.
= Monday Realtime Conference =
Stop in for Monday's Desktop Publishing Realtime Conferences. Hosted
by Lou Rocha with regular guests dealing with all aspects of DTP and
associated topics.
= Atari ST Help Desk =
Atari ST Roundtable holds a Sunday Help Desk to answer your questions
on GEnie, Atari ST Roundtable and the line of Atari computers. Stop in
and ask questions or just visit the Atari RT staff and users. The Help
Desk starts at 9:00 pm EST Sunday on page 475;2.
= RTC Transcripts =
--------------------------------------------------
28072 CYBER_CO.ARC X ST.LOU 930316 18048 54 13
Desc: Cybercube RTC Transcript
28067 TWS_RTC.ARC X BRIAN.H 930315 11904 44 13
Desc: TWO WORLDS SOFTWARE RTC 10Mar 93
27953 BRODIE6.ARC X ST.LOU 930306 22016 603 13
Desc: MultiTOS Preview, Falcon030 News
27777 CODEHEAD.ARC X BRIAN.H 930218 16640 217 13
Desc: CODEHEAD RTC dated 18 Feb'93
27614 BRODIE5.ARC X ST.LOU 930206 16896 539 13
Desc: Brodie RTC Transcript Feb 1993
--------------------------------------------------
For Realtime Conference inquires and comments contact: RTC$
= LIBRARY =
Last Month's Top Downloaded Programs/Utilities:
--------------------------------------------------
28021 PICSW101.LZH X JAKOB 930310 83072 679 28
Desc: PicSwitch 1.0.1
27934 LHA201.LZH X R.BURROWS1 930304 57472 296 40
Desc: LHA v2.01: LZH (de)archiver
28083 GEMBENC2.ZIP X GRMEYER 930316 37632 235 2
Desc: GEM Bench - test machine speed
28073 GEMVW220.ZIP X D.BOWMAN9 930316 290944 233 28
Desc: GemView 2.20
28015 MCGUN.LZH X TQUINN 930310 5120 208 21
Desc: Machine Gun Desk Accessory
28155 INVADERS.LZH X D.MUNSIE 930320 38912 206 8
Desc: Classic invaders updated!!
28025 COCKTAIL.LZH X LOTSABYTES 930311 42880 206 21
Desc: Over 600 mixed drinks, with details
28181 SPOFLT21.LZH X L.SMITH70 930321 33152 202 28
Desc: FAST extended palette GIF viewer!
28019 PTPLAY12.ZIP X L.SMITH70 930310 15360 191 29
Desc: SUPER new MOD player with 11bit!!
28084 GALAXIAN.LZH X GRMEYER 930316 159104 189 8
Desc: Galaxian by Sinister
--------------------------------------------------
Last Week's Top Downloaded Programs/Utilities:
---------------------------------------------------
28155 INVADERS.LZH X D.MUNSIE 930320 38912 197 8
Desc: Classic invaders updated!!
28181 SPOFLT21.LZH X L.SMITH70 930321 33152 192 28
Desc: FAST extended palette GIF viewer!
28156 DARKPERL.LZH X D.MUNSIE 930320 79360 169 8
Desc: Addicting bouncing ball game!!
28160 PLANETAR.ZIP X S.SCHAPER 930320 266496 141 9
Desc: Planetarium, now in English. Exclnt!
28222 TPDEMO.LZH X HISOFT 930325 99456 131 10
Desc: TruePaint Demo version
28199 GAMEREVW.LZH X KEBAUM 930323 18048 122 15
Desc: Ratings of over 290 ST games!
28221 NOSEY_II.LZH X F.VUOTTO 930325 24192 110 2
Desc: Multiple File Search Utility (V1.5)
28157 PC1QUENC.LZH X D.MUNSIE 930320 46080 93 28
Desc: A novice video titler!!
28188 BITCAMRA.LZH X S.WEBB7 930322 84736 83 10
Desc: ENLARGE, REDUCE, REPROPORTION IMAGES
28225 GSPOOL22.ZIP X J.KRZYSZTOW 930326 150912 80 2
Desc: Print Spooler that spools to disk
---------------------------------------------------
Last Month's New Demos:
---------------------------------------------------
28266 SMOUSE1D.LZH X CYBERCUBE 930330 84096 16 10
Desc: CyReL Serial Mouse Manager V1.0D
28253 PARAGON2.ARC X P.REEVES2 930329 119296 24 10
Desc: Falcon 3D graphics demo
28222 TPDEMO.LZH X HISOFT 930325 99456 145 10
Desc: TruePaint Demo version
28189 CS__DEMO.LZH X S.WEBB7 930322 18048 26 10
Desc: COLORSCAN II DEMO FOR FALCON030
28188 BITCAMRA.LZH X S.WEBB7 930322 84736 89 10
Desc: ENLARGE, REDUCE, REPROPORTION IMAGES
28068 HEIDDEMO.LZH X M.BURKLEY1 930316 62464 21 10
Desc: Heidi Seek v.2.06a file finder +
28054 ARTIS3.ASC X D.A.BRUMLEVE 930314 7296 48 10
Desc: Improved READ_ME for ARTIS 3 DEMO
28038 MSPYDEM2.LZH X J.EIDSVOOG1 930312 39168 80 10
Desc: New demo of MIDI Spy Sequencer
27995 ARTIS3.LZH X D.A.BRUMLEVE 930308 277632 58 10
Desc: Demo of ARTIS 3 for Graphics Design
27948 PF_DEMO.LZH X D.GEPPERT 930305 105856 136 10
Desc: Demo version of ProFlight Simulator
27935 MAILMNGR.LZH X J.FOUCH 930304 95488 63 10
Desc: DEMO of Mailing Manager ST
27906 BBSXDEMO.LZH X C.SANCHEZ2 930301 242432 21 10
Desc: BBS Express! ST DEMO v1.79c
---------------------------------------------------
Last Month's Press Releases in the Library
---------------------------------------------------
28257 KCINFO1.ASC X B.WELSCH 930329 1792 16 14
Desc: Kansas City Show Press Release
28241 DEALER.TXT X P.CURRY3 930328 2304 86 14
Desc: LETS GROW A NEW ATARI DEALER
28228 CIVILIZA.ASC X P.CURRY3 930326 6656 155 14
Desc: CIVILIZATION is HERE!! Check it OUT
28227 BLU_RIDG.TXT X S.WINICK 930326 2944 49 14
Desc: Blue Ridge AtariFest '93
28224 CNDEALER.ARC X JOE.WATERS 930325 2944 141 14
Desc: LIST of Atari Dealers w/CN.
28220 WILGATLK.TXT X D.FINCH7 930325 1920 62 14
Desc: Gribnif's Wilga in desktop seminar
28207 PMC_REP.TXT X PMC.INC 930324 2560 135 14
Desc: Become a PMC rep!
28194 BERTHOLD.PR X POTECHIN 930322 2944 36 14
Desc: BERTHOLD FONTS FOR CALAMUS PR
28108 SS120.TXT X P.COMEAU1 930319 3712 97 14
Desc: Spelling Sentry 1.20 Announcement
28061 MIST5.TXT X W.JONES43 930315 2688 69 14
Desc: MIST AtariFest V (Indianapolis show)
28055 FLASH_21.TXT X J.TRAUTSCHOL 930314 5504 201 14
Desc: Flash 2.1 Press Release
28051 1SHOW4.ASC X B.WELSCH 930313 1664 56 14
Desc: KANSAS CITY ATARIFEST LIST OF VENDOR
28007 PROCDIRE.DOC X S.DOUGHERTY1 930309 3712 212 14
Desc: Info on new Falcon magazine
28001 OL3_PRES.TXT X POTECHIN 930309 2176 139 14
Desc: Press Release for Outline Art 3.0
27938 SST_NEWS.LZH X N.LANGDON4 930304 90752 60 14
Desc: SST Newsdisk/Sac Atari Expo Info
27936 COMPUNWS.TXT X PMC.INC 930304 2560 59 14
Desc: Info on CompuNews/CompuCycle
27893 LOGICBLK.TXT X T.IHIRA 930228 3712 28 14
Desc: OBJ routine DATA BASE,1000s routine
---------------------------------------------------
Contact: LIBRARY$
= COMMENTS =
You are free to use anything in this brief but files and Bulletin
Board quotes must be made in accordance to Atari ST Roundtables, Atari
Corporation and GEnie policies.
Feel free to contact me on any questions, comments or suggestions.
John G. Hartman [J.G.H.] Atari Roundtable, PR Sysop
--==--==--==--==--
||| AEO Calendar of Events
||| Compiled by: Lyre
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.3
------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have been wondering where the next Atari computer show is
going to be held, look no further! Or maybe you're simply looking to
find out the latest conference to be held on GEnie. Either way, this
listing of Atari happenings should help you to keep informed.
Computer shows where Atari Corp and/or Atari User Groups will be
attending are listed below. This includes important conferences held
online by Atari Corp or developers. Maybe your group, or one that you
know is hosting a show - if you are, please send me a note on GEnie
and I will gladly add your information to the listing.
While all of the material is factual, it is subject to change without
notice. Any announcements concerning the show will be included as
long as AEO hears of them.
//// CeBit Report Conference April 7, 1993
GEnie, ST RT (Page 475, Option 2) 10 pm Eastern
Join Bill Rehbock, Director of Applications Software at Atari
Corporation to find out the happenings of the recent CeBit show in
Germany.
//// Atari Works Conference April 12, 1993
GEnie, ST RT (Page 475, Option 2) 10 pm Eastern
AEO has been babbling its head off about this integrated productivity
software for the last several issues. Now, you can "talk" to the
programmer directly to find out more about this software! Learn the
power and features that are available in the word processor,
database, spreadsheet and telecommunications package known as Atari
Works.
//// Dateline Atari! Conference April 14, 1993
GEnie, ST RT (Page 475, Option 2) 10 pm Eastern
New date for this conference only!
Find out the latest information on the Falcon030 and other Atari
Corporation happenings in this monthly conference with Bob Brodie.
Also in attendance will be James Grunke, Corporate Director,
International Music Markets at Atari Corp. A free one year
subscription to Atari Explorer Magazine (the paper version, not this
text file silly!) will be given to some lucky attendee. Please note
that this conference, originally to be held on April 2nd, has been
re-scheduled to this date due to illness.
//// Outline Art version 3.0 Conference April 19, 1993
GEnie, ST RT (Page 475, Option 2) 10 pm Eastern
Nathan Potechin, President of DMC Publishing, takes a break from his
duties in the ST RT on GEnie in order to be the guest for a
conference about the latest software offering for Calamus users.
Outline Art, an industry standard on the Atari platform, allows for
the creation of vector graphics (a.k.a., object art). Now, with the
latest release, Outline Art jumps from 1.0 to 3.0 directly in North
America and provides a number of improved features. But to find out
more, you'll have to attend this conference! Nor is Nathan coming
empty handed. Some lucky attendee is going to leave this conference
with Outline Art 3.0 or fonts worth equal value!
//// Purple Mountain Computers Conference April 21, 1993
GEnie, ST RT (Page 475, Option 2) 10 pm Eastern
Purple Mountain Computers representatives Oscar, Darek and Don will be
the guests at this conference. Learn more about PMC, their floptical
drives and their new dealership/agent offering. PMC is literally rich
in ideas and approaches.
//// ABC Solutions Conference April 28, 1993
GEnie, ST RT (Page 475, Option 2) 10 pm Eastern
ABC Solutions, North American distributors of business applications,
including Timework's Desktop publisher, FirstGraph and tbxCAD will be
the guests for this conference.
//// Missionware Software Conference May 5, 1993
GEnie, ST RT (Page 475, Option 2) 10 pm Eastern
Missionware Software, distributors of Flash II, will be on hand this
evening in order to speak about the most popular telecommunications
software created for the Atari computer line. Flash, originally from
Antic Software, has been completely re-written and Missionware
Software is responcible for the continuance of an excellent program.
So plan to attend in order to find out the latest and greatest
information concerning Flash II! But wait, we're not asking you to
attend for nothing; besides a lot of information, you might also
receive a copy of Flash II version 2.10!
//// Dateline Atari! May 7, 1993
GEnie, ST RT (Page 475, Option 2) 10 pm Eastern
Join special guest Bob Brodie for his monthly update of all things
Atari.
//// ACE HI May 15, 1993
The Hale Moku Community Center, just outside of Pearl Harbor, will be
the setting for the second annual ACE HI (Atari Computer Enthusiasts
- Hawaii) computer show. Starting at noon and ending at 6, every half
hour of the show will provide an event or door prize. Some come down
to paradise; enjoy the sun and beautiful sights of the island state.
Including Waikiki Beach and the Arizona Memorial.
For more information contact ACE HI, Attn Otto Cleveland, P.O. Box
30957, Honolulu, HI, 96820. Or, inquiries may be sent to Jim German on
GEnie as J.GERMAN3.
//// Pacific Northwest Atari May 22-23, 1993
<[ Postponed! ]>
The Pacific Northwest Atari show, hosted by Vantari User Group, was
originally scheduled to take place on May 22 and 23 in the Metrotown
Centre Mall, the second largest mall in Canada. No new date has been
announced at this time. For more information, contact G.NORTON via
email on GEnie.
//// CT AtariFest '93 June 12-13, 1993
The Connecticut AtariFest was such a rousing success last year
that it has been moved to the Windsor Court Hotel in Windsor, CT.
This major northeast computer event is once again being sponsored by
ACT - an umbrella organization consisting of Atari user groups in
Connecticut.
Although the show has moved from last year's location, it is only a
mile away. Yet it is still convenient to I-80, I-84, I-90, I-91 and
I-95 and to Bradly International Airport. Windsor Court Hotel offers
an excellent room rate of $35.00 per room. Otherwise, all prices
remain the same as last year. However, vendor booths will be almost
50% larger! Additional floor space, free parking, more vendors and
alternative activities for family members are available (a craft fair
and consumer electronics show are running concurrently).
Already, commitments from A&D Software, Gribnif Software, Barefoot
Software, Toad Computers, Computer Studio, Baggetaware, Derric
Electronics, E.Hartford Computer Repair, Wizztronics, and GFA Software
Technology have been made. There are other vendors making inquiries
also. Last year there was fourteen user groups in attendance, we
expect even more for this year's show. Come and see a Falcon030 at the
show. For further information, call Brian Gockley at 203-332-1721 or
Doug Finch at 203-637-1034.
//// Kansas City AtariFest '93 June 26-27, 1993
Join the members of the Kansas City Atari Connection for their first
major Atari show at the Stadium Inn, 7901 E 40 Highway, Kansas City,
Missouri. The show date, which conflicted with two other shows, has
been changed - please make a note of the new date. Advance ticket are
$4.00 per day or tickets may be purchased at the the door at $5.00 per
day.
Attend the show and visit the commercial developers: Cali-Co
Software, ICD, MissionWare Software, Fair-Dinkum Software, Systems For
Tomorrow, New Dimensions Computer Center, Compu-Seller West, ChroMagic
Software, Paul's Software, CodeHead Technologies, Clear Thinking
Software, SKWare, Electronic Spinster Graphics, D.A. Brumleve, Gribnif
Software, MegaType, Muller Automation, Oregon Research Associates,
Soft-Logik Publishing, Taylor Ridge Books and many others.
For advance tickets, please send payment to: Kansas City AtariFest,
P.O. Box 1653, Lee Summit, MO 64063. User groups may request a User
Group Information Package.
To make room reservations please call (800) 325-7901. If you will be
arriving by plane, you may call (800) 874-7691 and a local travel
agent will arrange a special airfare rate for those wishing to attend
the show.
For more information, you may leave inquiries on GEnie to B.WELSCH,
B.FRAZIER2 or J.KRZYSZTOW. On CompuServe, contact Jeff Krzysztow at
74027,707. On Delphi, contact BOBTROW. Or you can call (816) 224-9021,
or send mail inquiries to the post office address listed above.
//// Blue Ridge AtariFest July 24-25, 1993
This year the Blue Ridge AtariFest is growing bigger and better then
ever with a weekend of excitement in the Westgate Shopping Center. As
the home of the Computer Studio, the mini-mall area will be showing
the latest and greatest Atari products on Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm
and Sunday from noon till 5 pm.
Join the weekend fun and activities, see the hardware and software
available and meet the developers and nationally known personalities
in the Atari marketplace. You can even watch them demonstrate their
incredible creations in person.
If the show itself is not enough to draw you to the festivites, the
annual Bele Chere street festival will coincide with the Blue Ridge
AtariFest.
//// MIST AtariFest V July 31, 1993
The fifth annual MIST AtariFest will be held on Saturday, July 31
from 10 am to 5 pm at the Best Western Waterfront Plaza Hotel. The
Mid-Indiana Atari ST Users play host to this excellent one day event
with its proven method of success.
This year a new location has been chosen for the MIST, the Best
Western Waterfront Plaza Hotel. Offerring free shuttle service to
Indianapolis International Airport, which is just minutes away, Best
Western is convenient to both air and car travel. Several major
highways allow acces to the hotel for motorists. An assortment of
dining and entertainment choices provide interesting diversions once
the show is complete.
Whether you are a novice or a professional user, there is something
for every Atari enthusiast. Seminars, held throughout the show, can be
attended by guests or show-goers can engage in Lynx or MIDIMaze
tournaments with the best players receiving prizes. Winners of the
rafle can pick up their prizes in a number of shapes, sizes and
purpose.
Hotel reservations can be arranged by calling (317) 299-8400; mention
MIST AtarFest V and take advantage of the discount rate. For single
occupancy. guests may stay in the hotel for $53 or for a double, $59.
Special facilities for the handicapped, non-smokers and small children is
available.
Admission to this show is still only $3.
For more information, send mail inquiries to ASCII, c/o Bill Jones,
6505 West Castle Avenue, Indianapolis, IN, 46241. Or, by phone, call
(317) 856-4260. Online via GEnie, messages may be sent to W.JONES43;
on FidoNet Mail at Bill Jones at 1:231/370.0 or by InterNet/UUCP at
Bill.Jones@f370.n231.z1.fidonet.org.
//// The Glendale Show September 18-19, 1993
The Southern California Atari Computer Faire, version 7.0 takes place
in Los Angeles, California. The largest domestic event for Atari
computer enthusiasts for the last several years, many developers and
vendors attend to show off their latest products. For more
information, contact John King Tarpinian (of the HACKS user group) at
(818) 246-7286.
//// COMDEX November 15-19, 1993
This industry-wide computer show occurs in Las Vegas, Nevada each
year. More info as it becomes available.
--==--==--==--==--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- --==--==-- CompuServe Sign-Up Information --==--==-- --
-- --
-- To sign up for CompuServe service, call (voice call) (800) 848-8199. --
-- Ask for operator #198. You will be sent a $15.00 value CIS membership --
-- kit for free. --
-- --
-- --==--==-- CompuServe Sign-Up Information --==--==-- --
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--==--==--==--==--
||| GEnie Developing News
||| Compiled by: Lyre
/ | \ GEnie: AEO.3
------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome once again to Developing News - our continueing showcase of
commercial and shareware product information. This issue is, quite
literally, crammed with information from developers.
However, before you delve into the exciting details, I would like to
make a few comments about product announcements.
Last issue, just before the deadline, I realized that I had forgotten
to download a press release that had been uploaded to the Library.
While I was looking for the file, I came across several other files
which might contain product information that should appear within this
article. Due to the size of these files, downloading, reading and
writing a press release about them was simply out of the question.
There wasn't enough time to do so. After checking with the Editor, it
was decided that AEO would cover these files in this issue.
The reason that I menion all of this is simply to request that both
shareware and commercial developers consider announcing their
products better. Commercial developers can announce their products in
the Commercial Sales topic (Cat ##, Top ##); and commercial and
shareware developers can upload text files into the Press Release
Library (Library 25), or can send email to me directly.
I realize that I am asking developers to perform yet another task in
their already busy schedules, but I believe that doing so is of value
to all of the developers.
Atari consumers may not have a local dealer, nor might they subscribe
to a magazine. This means that other then news online, their only
information resource is via a bulletin board system or word of mouth.
AEO, being distributed on some networks directly (via AEO staff) and
on others indirectly (via users uploading it to their local bulletin
board), may be the only means of reaching these potential customers.
Every Atari user is not on GEnie - this prevents them from looking in
developers categories or even inquiring whether any developer has a
product that does "X."
Now, although these potential customers are reading AEO, I can only
provide them with the information that I can obtain. And I can not, in
all honesty, download every file or read every topic on GEnie.
Although I do try to keep abreast of all of the developements taking
place, it is not always possible. In effect, I am announcing the
information that I can =find=; not necessarily all of the information
available!
There are, undoubtedly, developers who are missing sales because
information about their products is not appearing within this
magazine.
So, please consider using one of the product announcement options I
listed earlier. Doing so increases your potential sales by expanding
the number of Atari consumers who hear about your product. It also
expands the number of users who are familiar with your company's name;
and a recognized corporate identity does sell more product.
Well, I've completed my spiel. I want to thank all of the developers
for considering these points and for the readers for putting up with
me. :)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// IAAD Looking for Pirate BBSes
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
ATTENTION! ALL ATARI ENTHUSIASTS!
The Independent Association of Atari Developers is actively pursuing
"pirate" bulletin board systems, that is, BBSs with commercial files
available for download. We would very much appreciate the assistance
of Atari enthusiasts in this endeavor. If you know of such a BBS,
please contact PERMIT$ in GEMail. All correspondence will be held in
the strictest of confidence. Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
D.A. Brumleve
President, IAAD
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Spelling Sentry 1.20 Upgrade
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Suggested Price: $59.95 Upgrade Price: $10.00
Wintertree Software Inc has announced an upgrade to their popular
spelling checker accessory, Spelling Sentry. This upgrade makes
Spelling Sentry bigger, better and faster then previous versions.
Spelling Sentry operates by watching the keystrokes you type at all
times. Whenever it detects a space, it compares the keystrokes it has
captured against either the included dictionary or a user-defined
dictionary, whichever is loaded at the time. If a spelling error is
detected, Spelling Sentry alerts you to the error. Spelling Sentry
can also be used to check files on disk - including the GEM clipboard.
Abbreviation expansion is another feature of Spelling Sentry. In
order to use abbreviations, they must be defined within Spelling
Sentry and saved. When it detects that an abbreviation has been used,
it will automatically expand the abbreviation to the full text string
previously defined.
This upgrade makes Spelling Sentry bigger - with the addition of over
11,000 words to the standard dictionary. This brings the total word
count to over 115,000. By reorganizing the structure of the
dictionary, Wintertree has managed to make file smaller while at the
same time making spell checking faster. The number of words in the
dictionary has increased by more then 10% and yet the size of the file
itself has only increased by a little over 6%!
Spelling Sentry has also gotten better - by listening to the requests
and suggestions of current owners, new features and improvements are
included with this version. Here is a list of the improvements made:
[] 16 alternative words are now displayed instead of eight in the
correct-word dialog.
[] Spelling Sentry can now optionally locate alternative words that are
phonetically similar to the misspelled word. For example, Spelling
Sentry correctly suggests "Atari" in place of "Uhtarry." Spelling
Sentry's original method of locating alternative words, based on
typographical similarity, is still available.
[] You can now try a new spelling for a misspelled word via the Recheck
button. Spelling Sentry will check the new word for correctness.
[] Spelling Sentry's abbreviation feature can now substitute the
contents of a disk file wherever an abbreviation is used. The maximum
size of an abbreviation expansion (including files and chaining) is
now 1024 characters.
[] Spelling Sentry's new keyboard capture feature saves time when
defining new abbreviations. The keyboard capture feature inserts the
last 40 characters you typed into the dialog field used to define
abbreviations.
[] Added a new abbreviation macro to substitute the contents of a disk
file.
[] Added the installation path field to the main window.
[] Added the "Loading dictionary" message.
[] Added new GEM pipeline messages to query the background-checking
status and toggle background checking.
[] Added a message to the INSTALL program requesting that the working
disk be moved to A: before rebooting when installing on a 2-drive
system.
The following problems have been corrected:
[] Fixed the correct-word dialog, improving compatibility with Calamus.
[] Screen flashing now works consistently on all monitor types.
[] Undo key now works reliably when checking disk files during file or
clipboard checking.
[] REGISTER.PRG now accepts the entire name field to be filled.
[] Very long registration names will not overwrite text in the main
window.
[] Fixed a bug that caused Spelling Sentry to bomb when abbreviation
expansions longer than 64 characters were expanded in the background.
[] Spelling Sentry no longer hangs if the .ABR file is empty.
Spelling Sentry is now faster - with the reorganization of the
dictionary file, a 15% increase in speed has been realized. When
optimally configured, Spelling Sentry can check 2400+ words per minute
on a stock ST.
Spelling Sentry 1.20 still has a suggested price of only $59.95.
Registered owners who purchased Spelling Sentry on or before December 31,
1992 can upgrade to 1.20 by sending a check or money order for $10.00 to
Wintertree Software Inc.
Customers who purchased Spelling Sentry version 1.00 through 1.11 on
or after January 1, 1993 can upgrade to version 1.20 at no charge
(proof of purchase date is required). All update requests should
include the original Spelling Sentry diskette.
For more information, contact Wintertree Software Inc., 43 Rueter
Street, Nepean, Ontario, Canada, K2J 3Z9. Or, by phone, call (613)
825-6271.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Flash II version 2.10 Announcements
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The following comments pertain to the recent Flash II upgrade obtained
from the messages posted in Category 8, Topic 2 of the ST RT bulletin
Board on GEnie.
All of the upgrades to version 2.10 of Flash II have been shipped.
All users in North America should receive their copies no later then
the first week of April. Upgrades sent overseas have also been sent,
but will take additional time for shipping. If you have not received
your upgrade in a reasonable amount of time, please contact
Missionware Software.
The F2INSTAL program included in the upgrade will overwrite your
already existing FLASH2.LST and FLASH2.DEF files. To avoid having
these files overwritten, install Flash II in a new folder and simply
copy the required files (old or new) into the appropriate folder -
depending on which folder you decide to keep. You can, and should,
make backups of the .LST and .DEF files along with your main files to
prevent unrecoverable loss of your program or data in
case of
catastrophe.
Users with Serial Numbers up to approxiamately 00250 can not use the
F2INSTAL program from a shell, such as HotWire or MaxiFile. After
having sent these upgrades out a bug in the installation path was
discovered and corrected for later upgrades mailed. These first 250
users will have to use the F2INSTAL program from the desktop. Simply
place the disk in drive A and run it normally.
If, while trying to install Flash II, you receive a warning stating
that F2INSTAL.DAT can not be found, then you have attempted to copy
the files before registering the program. You =must= enter your
registration information before trying to copy or install the files.
Until you have entered this information, F2INSTAL.DAT does not exist
and the installation process can not proceed.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// AtariUser Magazine Invoice Error
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
John Nagy, publisher of AtariUser Magazine, has stated that invoices
have been mailed out to user groups and dealers concerning bulk
deliveries which have been found to contain errors.
Apologizing for the error, AtariUser is contacting some of the
customers affected. However the full extent of the customers affected
by the error are not known. If you receive an invoice which is
incorrect, please note the correct information on the form and send
the correct amount.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Informer II version 3.0
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Soft-Aware, makers of Informer II, have formally announced the
release of version 3.0 of their popular database program.
Details at this time are still forthcoming, however, Soft-Aware has
stated that another upgrade is in the works. Tentatively scheduled
for a June release, version 3.1 will provide some of the features
available in the IBM PC version and will include a new, revised
manual.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Cyber Color
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Suggested Price: $49.95 Upgrade Price: ?
Lexicor has uploaded a save disabled demonstration version of their
new object coloring utility, Cyber Color. With the excepting of saving
your work, the demonstration version is the same as the commercial
version.
The commercial version of Cyber Color can be run as a desk accessory
or a program which will take full advantage of a 68882 math
co-processor (if installed) and includes a printed manual.
Utilizing a simple point and click interface, you can change the color
of any face of a 3D2 format object. Individual faces may also be
subdivided for adding finer detail. You can also flip the direction of
a face in order to correct "holes" appearing in your object. All
colors displayed will be the actual color on a compatible color
system. These re-colored objects may then be used within Phoenix
Object Renderer, Chronos Keyframe Animator or CAD-3D 2.0.
The 3D2 object format is used by Cyber Sculpt, CAD-3D 2.0 and many
other 3D modeling utilities. Lexicor's Rosetta 3D Translator may be
used to convert objects in other popular formats into 3D2 files.
Cyber Color allows for fast redraws, culling of faces in the wrong
direction, individual or multiple face re-coloring, the splitting of
faces, color palette changing, editing of the color shading groups,
and much more.
Cyber Color is available at your local dealer, or directly from
Lexicor for $49.95 plus $5.00 shipping and handling.
For more information, please contact Lexicor Software Corp., 1726
Francisco Street, Berkely, CA, 94703. You may reach them by phone at
(510) 848-7621.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Colorscan II v2.0
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
SKWare One has announced the release of a new version of their
Colorscan software.
Colorscan II v2.0 allows TrueColor conversion of monochrome GEM IMG
files created with any 32 greyscale scanner (like the MiGraph hand
scanner) set to photo or halftone mode based on the dithering in the
image to color rasters.
Colorscan II allows conversion up to 37 colors for 32 greyscale
images with a variety of color palettes. Options for 64- and 256-
greyscale scanners will also be included.
Their are a number of file formats that are supported for exporting
your work, including color and greyscale TIFF, Targa16, Targa24, TGA,
XGA, XIMG, STTT IMG, STIF IMG and all of the common 16 color file
formats.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Berthold Fonts now available for Calamus
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Suggested Price: See Below
DMC Publishing, North American distributor for Calamus and related
products, has announced that 341 Berthold fonts are now available.
These fonts can be used with all versions of Calamus and the recently
released Outline Art 3.0.
All of these original, copyrighted fonts are available through one of
the 45 font families shown in the table below. Each of the font
families listed below includes the number of fonts in that family and
the price, in US and Canadian funds, to purchase it. These prices are
dependent on the number of fonts in the family.
Font Family # of fonts US CDN
---------------------------------------------------
AG Book Rounded 8 199.95 249.95
AG Old Face 6 179.95 209.95
AG School Book 4 149.95 179.95
Augustea 5 179.95 209.95
AK Grotesk 21 439.95 549.95
Ariston 3 119.95 139.95
Arkona 2 79.95 99.95
Barmeno 4 149.95 179.95
Baskerville 13 299.95 375.00
Bellevue 1 39.95 49.95
Berliner 2 79.95 99.95
Block 6 179.95 209.95
Boulevard 1 39.95 49.95
Bodoni Antiqua 11 269.95 339.95
Bodoni Italic 11 269.95 339.95
Bodoni Old 12 269.95 339.95
Boton 8 199.95 249.95
Caslon 8 199.95 249.95
Catull 4 149.95 179.95
Christiana 7 199.95 249.95
City 6 179.95 209.95
Colossalis 4 149.95 179.95
Comenius 4 149.95 179.95
Cosmos 4 149.95 179.95
Concorde 18 379.95 475.00
Cremona <<8>> 199.95 249.95
Daily News 8 199.95 249.95
Delta 9 229.95 289.95
English Script 6 179.95 209.95
Formata 25 499.95 629.95
Garamond 14 299.95 375.00
Gerstner 8 199.95 249.95
Imago 8 199.95 249.95
Jaeger Antiqua 8 199.95 249.95
Lo-Type 5 179.95 209.95
Nofret 16
Normande 3 119.95 139.95
Poppl Laudatio 12 269.95 339.95
Poppl Pontifex 10 229.95 289.95
Poppl Residenz 2 79.95 99.95
Post Antiqua 2 79.95 99.95
Post Mediaeval 3 119.95 139.95
Script 2 79.95 99.95
Walbaum Book 12 269.95 339.95
Walbaum Standard 6 179.95 209.95
Anyone interested in previewing these fonts can do so by downloading
the appropriate files from the DMC Publishing Library on GEnie
(Library 30) in the ST RT. These files contain samples of the font
family in CVG format.
Orders for these, or any other fonts available from DMC Publishing,
can be placed by phone, fax, email or the postal service. Visa,
Mastercard, money orders and personal checks accepted. Mastercard and
Visa orders must include the cardholder's name, account number and
expiration date.
For more information, contact DMC Publishing, 2800 John Street, Suite
10, Markham, Ontario, Canada, L3R 0E2. For Mastercard or Visa
purchases by voice, call (416) 479-1880; or by FAX (416) 479-1882.
Online, DMC Publishing may be reached via GEnie at ISD, on CompuServe
via 76004,2246, or on Delphi at ISDMARKETING.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE Marketing Opportunity
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The following information was originally posted in the GFA Basic
category of the ST RT on GEnie. This message has not been edited in
any manner.
Marketing Opportunity For Existing ST/Ste Developer/Company
-----------------------------------------------------------
This message declares that DSA is formally seeking any ST/Ste active
software company for discussions about marketing a new product. Due
to on going programming projects and ideas we are seeking someone to
represent our products commercially.
The primary product for discussion is called the GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE.
This product is an arcade game development tool. It will allow even
novice programmers to create fast action games in a fraction of time
it would take using other methods. There have been several games
developed as demos for the GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE. Only a few of them have
taken longer than 30-40 hours to produce.
At this stage the GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE is designed to work under GFA
BASIC 3.5/3.6. It should be noted though that all of the GP_GRAPHICS
ENGINE low level routines are completely legal 68000 code. Thus
converting the design shell to work under other languages should not
impose a problem.
As of this writing the following games have been designed using the
GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE. Please take the time to view them for examples of
what this product can do. Please understand that all of the examples
listed here were programmed in the duration of a 2-3 week period.
KID_GP (January 1993 cover disk of ST REVIEW)
EVADER (December 1992 cover disk of ST REVIEW)
MRS_MUNCHIE Shareware-Reviewed in all major mags
INSECTROID (March 1993 cover disk of ST FORMAT)
MEGAPEDE Shareware-Reviewed in all major mags
KID KONG & BUGS (April 1993 cover disk of ST-REVIEW)
ST INVADERS (March 1993 cover disk of ST-REVIEW)
MR CUD LEE Shareware
DARK PEARL Public domain
Most of these games can be found on-line here.
We feel the above games represent a good variety of possibilities
with the GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE but none of the above games make full use
of what the product is capable of. In other words they do not MAX out
the capabilities. For instance using the GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE in C or
Assembly language should yield better results.
As of this writing the only people that are LEGALLY allowed to
produce any programs using the GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE are:
Dave Munsie
5601 Ammons
Haltom City, TX 76117
Programmer: GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE
Robert Dytmire
633 Pony farm Rd.
Jacksonville, N.C. 28540
Beta tester,Programmer using the GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE
All of the bove games were written by one of the above programmers.
There has been no other user testing or programming with the
GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE tools.
If you have an existing software company that would like to expand
into the area of games or programming tools please take the time to
send a letter stating you would like to discuss this further. It
should be noted that we are open to two areas of discussion regarding
the GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE.
1) The out right selling of the product. With all
source codes and documentation.
2) Selling the exclusive rights to ONE company who
will then be able to market it in any way they
see fit. (End user,dealer,distributor, etc..)
We have talked with a few companies already but we never commited
ourselves to formally anouncing our intentions. This letter makes it
formal. Any previous contacts made by other companies should be
re-submitted for discussion.
Thank you for your time. We look forward to hearing from any potential
ST/Ste software company.
Dave Munsie - Developer of the GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE.
p.s. Why don't we market this ourselves?
Due to an overwhelming amount of programming
projects we feel we would not be able to
continue programming if we were involved with
the marketing end of the GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE.
We have over 6 products that will be ready
within the next 4-6 weeks.
Please send your letters and comments to:
DSA
Attn: GP_GRAPHICS ENGINE
5601 Ammons
Haltom City, TX 76117 A
(817) 485-9293 10:00-5:00pm Central
p.s.s. Please do not respond to this message on-line.
If your serious about your inquiries please take
the time to write or call. Thank you.
This message can be freely duplicated as long as it is not modified
in any fashion. (c) 1993 Dave Munsie
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
//// Kidprgs
=-=-=-=-=-=-=
D.A. Brumleve offers a wider selection of Kidprgs which utilize a
unique, kid-friendly interface.
The consistent use of color coding, large mouse targets, simplified
options, auditory and visual verification of selections, limited use
of alert boxes, and automatic loading and saving of work make it
possible for children to quickly learn and use these programs. But
more importantly, these design features make it possible for your
child to enjoy themselves while preparing them for a future where
computer usage is becoming widespread.
Each of the programs described below offers your budding journalist,
artist or mathematician purposeful activities that will challenge and
entertain them. And Kidprgs can grow with your child; parents and
teachers can configure the child's disk to match the current
educational needs of the child. As the child learns, the disk can be
reconfigured to more advanced areas.
Kidprgs from D.A. Brumleve - find out why your kids will love them!
Kidpublisher Professional
=#=#=#=#=#=#=#=#=#=#=#=#=
A Desktop Publishing Program for Young Writers
(for ages 5-11) version 6.4 - $40
[] Publish your own illustrated stories, posters, etc.
[] Instantly transform messages to a secret code to share with your
friends!
[] Four built-in font styles.
[] Extensive drawing program now includes mirror-imaging!
[] Title page option with title, date, author's and illustrator's names.
[] 32 columns and 7 lines of text per page.
[] 5 pages on a 520ST, 10 on a 1040ST.
[] Word wrap feature, underlining, mouse control of cursor aid
later transition to adult word processors.
Multiplay
=#=#=#=#=
Math Exploration, Discovery, and Practice
(for ages 5-11) version 3.4 - $40
[] Think about numbers in new ways!
[] Practice multiplication and addition facts while playing
self-motivating games.
[] Make your own picture puzzles for use in a math facts game.
[] Print number patterns and fact tables.
[] Configurable to appeal to the entire age range: choose to deal with the
numbers 0-9, 0-19, or (with a 1040 or greater) 0-29; addition only,
multiplication only, both multiplication and addition; etc. -- even
choose the symbol for the multiplication operator!
[] Includes puzzle game, math patterning activities, test, puzzle maker,
and more!
Kidpainter
=#=#=#=#=#
A Paint Program for Young Artists
(for ages 5-11) version 2.3A-- $35
[] Create intricate onscreen patterns and colorful pictures.
[] Print your own coloring books, puzzles, posters, paper dolls, etc.
[] Add text in several sizes and styles within pictures.
[] Make and solve your own onscreen puzzles.
[] Extensive drawing tools.
[] Horizontal and/or vertical mirror-imaging.
[] "Rubber stamp" option offers unique experiences in patterns and shapes.
[] "Blind" drawing and other unusual activities.
[] 3 pictures in memory on a 520ST/STe, 9 on a 1040 or greater.
Super Kidgrid
=#=#=#=#=#=#=
For Creative Graphics Design
(for ages 3-11) version 1.6 - $25
[] Create beautiful onscreen designs and pictures.
[] Print color-by-number pictures.
[] Modify twelve challenging built-in samples.
[] Choose from fourteen colors to create designs.
[] Automatically save/load up to 10 pictures.
[] Challenges and supports creative thinking skills.
Telegram
=#=#=#=#
The Silly Song Player
(for readers only) version 2.5 - $25
[] A you-can't-do-that-in-software program: music, math, reading, and
humor all in one unique game!
[] Use coordinates to deliver singing telegrams around a little onscreen
town.
[] Practice reading skills while singing along with the computer.
D.A. Brumleve also offers Program Collections. Each collection
contains programs which compliment each other to enhance your child's
learning experience. Each Program Collection includes a disk box and
instructions.
®¯ Creative Discovery Packet - $120
11 programs especially designed for use in Early Childhood
Classrooms.
®¯Learning Games Packet - $40
A compilation of 10 educational programs from PD and shareware
realms.
To utilize any of these program, an Atari ST or STe with a color
monitor or attached to a color television is required. To print out
your child's work, the printer must accept an Atari screen dump.
The Fuji (Atari logo) Rubber Stamps are: small fuji - $5; large fuji
- $6.
The D.A. Brumleve Development Team consists of the following members:
D.A. Brumleve, M.A., is involved with computers and kids in a
variety of ways. She has written some two-dozen kidprgs for various
age-groups. She and Dr. T.R. Brumleve (co-author of Kidpublisher
Professional) have five children ages 6-14.
T.R. Brumleve, Ph.D., a research chemist by profession, contributes to
many kidprgs as a programming consultant.
M.L. Marks, M.Ed., is the Director of Creative Discovery School in
Champaign, Illinois. He has worked with preschool- through
elementary-aged children for the past twelve years. He is concerned
with tapping the best qualities of the computer and with making useful
programs of educational and creative value accessible to young
children.
For more information, contact D.A. Brumleve, P.O. Box 4195, Urbana,
IL, 61801-8820. Or, by phone, call (217) 337-1937; by FAX, (217)
337-9084. Online, inquiries via GEnie may be sent to D.A.BRUMLEVE.
--==--==--==--==--
|||
||| Shutdown ............................ Power off, EXIT, BYE, Logoff
/ | \ ------------------------------------------------------------------
Life can be hard....
But, life does have its wonders.
Last issue's Shutdown dealt with a departure - in this one, I'm happy
to pass along news of the newest member of the AEO family: Alexander
Joseph Barbiero, born March 29th to Patrica and Andreas Barbiero.
Little Alex weighed in at birth at a healthy 10 lbs, 3 oz, and will be
giving his folks fits for a few years to come. (Dad already has his
eyes on a 520STFM for Alex.) Congratulations, Andreas and Patrica!
And on that happy note,
Until the next issue of AEO, I remain,
Your Editor
Travis Guy
--==--==--==--==--
(This issue printed on recycled photons)
--==--==--==--==--
Atari Explorer Online Magazine is a bi-weekly publication covering the
Atari computer community. Material published in this issue may be
reprinted under the following terms only: articles must remain unedited
and include the issue number and author at the top of each article
reprinted. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted at the
beginning of the article, to registered Atari user groups and not for
profit publications. Opinions presented herein are those of the individual
authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the staff, or of Atari
Corporation.
--==--==--==--==--
Atari, ST, Mega ST, STE, Mega STE, TT030, Atari Falcon030, TOS,
MultiTOS, NewDesk, BLiTTER, Atari Lynx, Atari Jaguar, Atari Portfolio,
Atari Explorer, Atari Explorer Online, and the Atari Fuji Symbol are
all trademarks or registered trademarks of Atari Corporation. All
other trademarks mentioned in this issue belong to their respective
owners.
--==--==--==--==--
Atari Explorer Online Magazine
"The Official Atari Online Journal"
Copyright (c) 1993, Atari Computer Corporation
* * *
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:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: A E O :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
:: Volume 2 - Issue 7 ATARI EXPLORER ONLINE 3 April 1993 ::
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