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Atari Bulletin Board - 1990 February
Atari Bulletin Board / February 1990 / Atari Interface Magazine
by Bill & Pattie Rayl
ATARI CORP NEWS
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Atari reportedly made a good showing at the Winter CES in Las Vegas, NV. In
the West Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Lynx and California
Games was being displayed with the help of two bikini-clad women on
rollerskates and a "day at the beach" backdrop. Meanwhile, back at the private
suite in the Mirage Hotel, Atari was showing the Lynx, Portfolio, 2600 and
7800 game machines and the ST.
According to Andy Marken of Marken Communications, Atari's PR firm, Atari is
projecting 1990 production of one million Lynx machines and the game
development system for the Lynx is now available for companies intrested in
making games for the Lynx.
Bob Brodie, Atari's no-so-new-anymore user group manager, recently held an
online GEnie conference where he discussed his upcoming plans (including a
vist with Michigan area user groups on Feb. 18) and other Atari happening. It
seems nearly unanimous that hiring Bob Brodie was the best thing Atari did in
1989.
THE STe
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Canada has the STe and dealers have been selling them anywhere from $699 to
$899 Canadian (approximately $600 to $800 US). With built-in Blitter, easy
memory upgrades using SIMM modules, full stereo sound capability and more, the
STe is already a big hit in Canada, causing decreased sales of normal STs and
even Megas!
Reports from dealers across the US indicate they have not been avle to order
520STs from Atari since mid-December. Some of these dealers indicated they had
heard Atari would be dropping 520ST, although Atari has denied this. A handful
of dealers have also reportedly recieved word the STacy2 and STacy4 laptops
should be on their shelves in two to three weeks from this writing. That means
dealers should, hopefully, be able to get them by the time you read this.
DEVELOPER NEWS
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MichTron of Pontiac, MI, has announced availavility of the Fast FAX modem
and software, giving Group III FAX capability to any Atari ST. The software
includes a phone directory that can store over 1000 company names, contact
persons and FAX numbers. List price is $699. Contact MichTron, 576 S.
Telegraph Rd., Pontiac,MI 48053, (313)334-5700.
Universal Item Selector III has been released, offering a number of
enchancements over previous versions, including an UNDO function, movable
window allowing users to place the item selector anywhere on the screen,
ablitity to lasso multiple files and more. Retatl price is $24.95 and upgrades
are $5 + $2S&H. Contact Application and Design Software, 120 NW "E" St.,
Grants Pass, OR 97526, (503)476-0071.
Gribnif has an upgrade to NeoDesk (version 2.05) with support for the ST's
"GEM Pipeline." This allows special "NeoDesk Accessories" such as the recent
freeware NeoDesk Recoverable Trashcan (found on this month's AIM Disk).
The Trashcan will store deleted files, which can be recovered until the
Trashcan is "emptied," much like the Macintosh.
Gribnif has also announced plans to release NeoDesk CLI, a command Line
interpreter in a GEM window (simialr to .ACCess! from Rock Digital) that will
utilize NeoDesk's capabilites to the fullest. Asso coming from Gribnif is the
NeoDesk Developer's Kit, so others can write NeoDesk Accessories. For more
details, contact Gribnif Software, P.O. Box 350, Hadley, MA 01035, (413)584-
7887.
Another contender in the "improve your ST desktop" arema should be shipping
by the time you read this. DC-Desktop from Double Click Software offers a
number of "desktop enchancements" and features similar to NeoDesk. DC-Desktop
can even use icons from NEoDesk and, since it isn't a desktop replacement, DC-
Desktop works in all resolutions and reportedly with no compatiblity problems.
List price is $39.95 and owner of NeoDesk can get DC-Deshtop for $20 with
original NeoDesk disk. contact Double Click Software, P.O. Box 741206,
Houston, TX 77274, (713)645-3759.
PC Ditto II has been shipping in quantity and many people have been
experiencing problems installing Ditto II in their machines. In some cases,
because PC Ditto II is a 4-1/2x7 inch board, reports are coming in that the
board simply will not fit in some machines!
Most problems, however, are occurring with the chip clip that is supposed to
allow solderless connection to the ST's 68000 chip. It seems the clip isn't
giving a good, solid connection for many people. Owners who have soldered the
board inare reporting Ditto II work like a cham! Ditto II even has a Norton SI
rating of 4.0, a 33% speed increase over the figures in Avant-Garde's original
ads. List price is $299.95. Dontact Avan-Garde, 381 Pablo Point Dr.,
Jcksonville, FL 32225, (904)221-2904.
Disgruntled do-it yourselfers with no real hardware experience are looking
seriously at an alternative in Supercharger. Supercharger is a harware IBM
emulator from Germany that plugs in to the ST's DMA port. At $399,
Supercharger is a bit more expensive that PC DItto II or PC Speed from
MichTron, but Supercharger doesn't require opening your ST and comes with MS-
DOS 4.0. Contact Talon Technologies/Medionix, 243 N. Highway 101, Ste. 18,
Solano Beach, CA 92075, (619)755-8808.
Beckemeyer Development, makers of the MTC-Shell multi-tasking environment
for the ST has recently changed phone numbers. Their new voice number is
(415)530-9682.
Ralph Turner, author of "The Atari ST Book of Tips and Instructions," has
released a new book entitled "Intermediate and Advanced Atari ST subjects."
Written in Mr. Turner's concise and understandable style, this new book helps
the ST owner get through ofter confusing topics such as hard disk management
and optimization, IBM emulation, building your own hard drive system from
scratch, sector and file editing and much more. In all, 158 pages of valuable
information. List price is $16.95 + $2S&H. Contact Index Legalis Publishing
Co.,P.O. Box 1822, Fairfield, IA 52556, (515)472-2293.
GAMES AND GAME ACCESSORIES
--------------------------
Folowing closely on the heels of the original game, the Bloodwych Data Disk
#1 has been released by Mirrorsoft of the UK. As the game story goes, by
defeating the Dark Lord in the original Bloodwych game, you actually only sent
him back to his original plan of existance. Now, he's mad and transports you
to his turf to take his revenge. Although Mirrosoft has not found a US
distributor, the Data Disk is available from many dealers of from mail order.
The gest price I've seen as yet is $18.95 from Joppa Computer Porducts, 3909
Pulaski Highway, Abingdon, MD 21009 (800)876-6040 for orders of (301)676-1948
for information.
For gamers who wnat the ability and freedom of one-handed joystick
operation, like in the arcades, Duggan Dezign has released Stik-Gripper. An
all-steel joystich clamp that secures your favorite joystick to a talbeltop or
desk, Stik-Gripper is designed to fit a wide variety of joysticks and is built
to last. A number of only users have been praising Stik-Gripper as a great
bargain at only $18.95 retail. Contact Duggan Dezign, 16 Oak Ridge Dr., West
Warwick, RI 02893, (401)826-0140.
On a similar note, Canadian-based Advanced Gravis has begun shipping their
new MouseStick. This niffy product emulates both the standard joystick and the
ST mouse. The MouseSTick support screen resolutions of 320x200 to 640x400 and
allows you to customize a number of features via LCD menus. List price is
$129.95. Contact Advance Gravis Computer Technology Ltd, 7033 Antrim Ave.,
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canda V5J 4M5, (800)937-0062.
ONLINE NEWS
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Z*Magazine, Ron Kovac's long time 8bit online publication, has formally
called it quits, citing lack of new 8bit news and products as the cause for
its demise. ST*Zmagazine has also been discontinued and, in its place, Z*Net
Online has been born. As the name implies, it is the online complement
to Kovac's Z*Net hardcopy user group newsletter supplement. With this change,
the GEnie Z*Mag account is no longer active and all email on GEnie should be
addressed to the new Z-NET account.
ST Report has also undergone some format changes and has been "reborn" as
CPU NewsWire, reflecting its support of multiple computer systems through its
CPU Report feature.
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A.I.M. February 1990
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