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Z*Net Atari Online Magazine
July 13, 1990 Volume 5 No. 28 Issue: 528
=======================================================================
(c½) 1990 by Rovac Industries, PO Box 59, Middlesex, New Jersey 08846
=======================================================================
BBS 201-968-8148 * CIS 71777,2140 * Cleveland Free-Net * GEnie Z-NET
=======================================================================
Staff: Ron Kovacs, John Nagy, Alice Amore, Jon Clarke, Bruce Hansford,
Robert Ford, Mark Quinn, John King Tarpinian, Bruce Kennedy, Eric Gove,
Terry Schreiber, and Lisa Kovacs.
=======================================================================
C O N T E N T S
- THIS WEEK..................................................Ron Kovacs
- Z*NET NEWSWIRE.......................................................
- BRANCH ALWAYS SOFTWARE UPDATE...........................Darek Mihocka
- REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPTS PART 29..........................Donald Thomas
- Z*NET DOWN-UNDER EXTRA..................................Press Release
- FOREM BBS NEWS............................................Steve Rider
- PD/SHAREWARE STOP..........................................Mark Quinn
- TRACKER-ST UPDATE.......................................Press Release
- Z*NET ECHOS...........................................Terry Schreiber
===============================
T H I S W E E K
===============================
by RON KOVACS
A new column appears this week from Terry Schreiber. Terry is from
Canada and will be a regular contributor reporting on Canadian events,
Z*Net Echos F-Net, contributing to the Z*Net Newswire and various other
topics.
German PD programs are now available on the Z*Net BBS. As soon as we
sort out the rest of the disks recently donated by Michael Schutz of the
Atari PD Journal of Germany, they will be available for downloading.
===============================
Z * N E T N E W S W I R E
===============================
- ATARI - Atari in New Zealand has told their dealers that the
- TT030 - Atari TT030 computer will be a 32Mhz rather than 16Mhz
- AT - as originally planned. The entire press release and
- 32MHZ? - specifications are elsewhere in this issue of Z*Net.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A similar announcement was made by Atari in the
Netherlands, but Atari USA and Corporate officially both say that their
specification information is unchanged... at least at this writing.
Said Bob Brodie in a response to direct questions about the machine, "I
spoke to Sam Tramiel about this personally. He has instructed me to
state that the specifications for the TT remain unchanged. It is still
a 16 Mhz machine." He added, "Clearly, this is just an out of control
rumor." However, some insiders say that change to the new CPU speed is
real, and that it is being made in reaction to a realistic assessment of
the competition in the growing (and speedy) micro workstation market.
According to the several souces that admit to the new chip plans, the
production schedule for the TT is promised to NOT be set back by the
change. This indicates to some that the underlying TT design and
clocking will not be changed, and that the faster CPU is not likely to
be supported by new, faster processors and busses downstream. The
result will indeed be faster computation, but a bottleneck in the
support and memory handling that may prevent the realization of the full
speed that is available from a completely 32MHZ design.
- STE - Atari Canada is aware of a problem with the STe and
- AND - hard drives and has issued return numbers to all it's
- HARD DRIVES - dealers to replace the defective stock immediately.
Although not all units are plagued with this problem,
if you have recently bought an STE, return it to the
store of purchase for checking.
- ATARI - Atari is agressively penetrating the educational
- IN - marketplace. In Ontario Canada it was accepted by
- EDUCATION - the Ministry of Education and introduced in the
schools. Using the 286 as file server it is networked
using Lantasic to other systems in the classroom.
- MICHTRON - We asked Gordon Monnier of Michtron this week about a
- UPDATE - story stating that Michtron was up for sale. Although
Monnier would not make an official comment on the
matter, he did confirm by saying Michtron was up for
sale.
- ATARI - The difference between TOS16 and TOS162 is a change
- ENGINEERING - that the engineering department places on any type of
- AND TOS - update, be it major or minor. They might increment
- 1.62 - the number a notch at a time. The part number of the
chip is C301164-002A, the suffix indicates the actual
TOS version. The date is noted as 12290.
- APPLE - Last week we told you that Apple was going to announce
- INTRODUCES - the release of new laser printers. On Monday the
- LOW-COST - announcement included a single user laser printer
- LASERWRITER - priced at $1.999 and a multiuser laser priced at
- PRINTERS - $3,299. Both printers are for the MAC Systems.
- TEXAS - Texas Instruments filed suits this week against five
- INSTRUMENTS - semiconductor manufacturers who sell, import and
- FILES - package integrated circuits using TI patented process
- SUIT - without license. The suit was filed against Analog
Devices, Cypress Semiconductor, Integrated Device,
LSI Logic and VLSI Technology.
- MOTOROLA - Motorola and IBM are working on an agreement to enable
- IBM - Motorola to produce computer memory chips. IBM has
- NEGOTIATING - already licensed the high-tech memory-chip technology
to Micron Technology as part of its effort to improve
the competetive position of US chip producers.
- NEW - After Monday's announcement of new low-cost laser
- APPLE - printers, Apple announced on Wednesday the formation
- COMPANY - of a new company called General Magic, Inc.. The new
- ANNOUNCED - company will design and develop a new class of
"Personal Intelligent Communicator" products.
- NEC - NEC and Turbo Zone announced the opening of Turbo Zone
- WITH TURBO - which carries exclusively the TurboGrafx-16 products.
- ZONE OPENS - The opening of this new store will take place this
- STORE - Saturday, July 14 at the Serramonte Shopping Center in
Daly City California. Look for additional stores
scheduled to open in cities across the country.
===============================
BRANCH ALWAYS SOFTWARE UPDATE
===============================
Branch Always Software has moved!
=================================
Branch Always Software, makers of Quick ST II and Quick Tools, has moved
its headquarters from Canada to the United States. This will allow us to
offer faster, more reliable service to our main market, and offer
additional services such as overnight delivery and 1-800 sevice.
Operations will resume on Monday July 9, 1990. The new mailing address
for all correspondance is:
Branch Always Software
14150 N.E. 20th St. Suite 302
Bellevue, WA 98007
A 1-800 telephone number will hopefully be up within a few weeks to
offer toll free phone support to U.S. and possibly Canadian customers.
Branch Always Software will also be attending next month's World Of
Atari show and the WAACE show in October. All of our products,
including Quick ST 2.1 and Quick Tools will be on sale, and Quick ST 3.0
might be on display if a TT or 68030 accelerator show up in time.
The new 32-page Quick Tools manuals have arrived and starting Monday
will be mailed out free of charge to all registered Quick Tools users.
Quick ST 2.1 reviews
====================
Last month, two new Quick ST reviews were published. This is in addition
to several reviews that appeared in April and May in PSAN, ST World, and
the Phoenix newsletter.
We invite all ST users to read the new reviews in ST Informer and
Current Notes, but here are some small samples...
"I think Turbo ST is over priced... If you do not have Turbo ST yet,
then Quick ST seems to be a better choice... for all practical purposes
both accelerators provide a very similar degree of improvement."
- Current Notes, June 1990, review by J. Andrzej Wrotniak
"..the speed improvement is very noticable - I don't use my ST without
Quick ST installed... There is really no competition - for your money
Quick ST is definately the way to go. I highly recommend this package.."
- ST Informer, June 1990, review by Ron Schaefer
Warning to all Quick ST II Customers!
=====================================
It has come to our attention that the makers of Turbo ST have recently
announced a very bogus upgrade offer from Quick ST II to their product
Turbo ST 1.82. Apparently for only $29.95, plus shipping, plus the
original Quick ST II disk, Softrek will send you a copy of Turbo ST
1.82. That's $20 off the list price of Turbo ST, just because they're
a bunch of swell guys who don't want Quick ST II users to be "left out
in the cold".
Well, it isn't surprising that with reviews like the ones above, the
Softrek people would try something sneaky like this. However, this
crosses the line of fair competition. Softrek does not manufacture or
sell Quick ST II. They are not authorized to "update" our disks, and
are (thanks to some fancy wording) encouraging the piracy of Quick ST
II. Their update offer does not mention that sending in your Quick ST
II disk to Softrek is the same as selling it to them (which means that
you must also delete all backups of Quick ST II, and are no longer
eligable for updates). This may seem quite obvious, but we can guarantee
that there will be people out there who will read their upgrade offer
and send in the Quick ST II disk, and then continue to use Quick ST II
or download updates. This is piracy, however you disguise it. They
also fail to mention that Turbo ST can be purchased from some dealers
for about $30 or $35. This can turn out to be less expensive than
spending $29.95 plus shipping plus postage plus losing your rights to
use Quick ST II. They also do not offer a money back guarantee for when
the users discover that they would rather use Quick ST II.
We have made a formal request of Softrek to return to us any Quick ST II
disks, which they receive so that we can delete the affected users from
our registered user list, and so that we have the piece of mind of
knowing that Softrek isn't reselling the disks for additional profit.
Affected users will then be sent letters to notify them of their new
status. We have also requested that Softrek withdraw it's ridiculous
"update" offer.
We have nothing against people buying Turbo ST. However, they should do
so when they feel they need it, not when some sweet sounding offer is
made which can actually end up being more expensive than walking to your
nearest dealer. And what about people who do not currently own Quick ST
II and have to pay the full $49.95 when ordering from Softrek? Why are
they being penalized and not offered Turbo ST for $29.95 too? Turbo ST
is an overpriced product for what it does, and if the Softrek people
want to compete, they should perhaps consider being more competitive.
Branch Always Software does not believe in offering bounties or trade-
ins on other people's software. We sell a product that can sell itself
quite well, thank you, at $19.95 on its own merits. We see no
constructive reason for offering bounties, especially when some dealers'
Quick ST II prices are as low as $14. We do not need to trick the
competition's users into purchasing our product. We hope that the
powers that be at Softrek will come to their senses and comply with our
requests.
============================================
R E V O L U T I O N A R Y C O N C E P T S
============================================
P A R T 2 9
"T H E S O L U T I O N"
by Donald A. Thomas, Jr.
(c)1990 ARTISAN SOFTWARE
(This is PART 29 of a series of articles published and distributed by
Artisan Software. Please feel free to copy and distribute this article
as you please provided you include all unediteD text. Also feel free to
upload to boards and communication services. These articles are
designed to entice you to take constructive action. Write to involved
parties and tell them how YOU feel about the subject.)
The simple solution to Atari's position in the United States is
exposure. While understanding that fact, it is much harder to make that
happen. It takes much more than running a lot of ads. It takes a
commitment from everyone who has a stake in Atari products. TRANSCOAST
SYSTEMS, Inc. of San Francisco, California understands the need for
exposure and the work required to see it through. This past Tuesday
through Sunday (July 3-8), as many of us were enjoying the holiday at
home with our families, Mr. Don Kimble of Transcoast operated a booth at
the "CONCLAVE '90 RENO". This event attracted scores of PIP Printing
shop owners from across the country. There are over 3,200 PIP Printing
franchise operations across America and this is their annual gathering
to see and hear about the latest in technology for their industry.
PIP Printers, for those who may not have heard of them, are a chain of
print shops. There are a handful of such franchise operations, but PIP
is one of the most successful over the years. They offer complete
printing services to businesses in their area at competitive prices and
many offer the pre-press services of layout, design and pasteup.
Transcoast Systems, Inc. arranged a booth at this event to present the
Atari Mega4, SLM804 and Calamus software as the complete desktop
publishing solution. For an approximate $6,000, Transcoast not only
promises to have a system up and running most anywhere in the country,
but the price includes training as well. The complete system also
includes a MEGAFILE 30, Outline Art software and Font Editor Software.
There are 35 fonts that are packaged in the system. For a nominal added
charge, other features can be added such as the full page viewing
capabilities of the Viking monitor.
Impressed by the dedication and commitment of Transcoast Systems, Atari
U.S. arranged to supply the hardware shown at the event. In addition,
Bob Brodie, Don Thomas and Atari's V.P. of Sales, Bill Crouch, arrived
to help make certain not one inquiry went unanswered. From ISD
Marketing (distributors of Calamus), Nathan Potechin made himself and
his best graphic artist available to also answer questions and help sell
DTP solution packages.
PIP owners were astounded. Amazed not only by the versatile
capabilities of the software, they were surprised to see the name of
Atari (many thought the company had long gone) and the incredible low
price. Within a couple of days handfuls of business cards were
collected from those PIP owners who wanted either a formal presentation
or more information as toset-up time. A son of one PIP franchise
proprietor was quoted to say, "Atari sure has come a long way, haven't
they?". Another had just taken delivery on an IBM/Pagemaker combination
and was heard to say she was going to see if she could sell it.
Since this article is distributed in Atari forums, we already know the
value of our Atari systems. The success that Transcoast enjoyed is
something all Atari dealers can enjoy. Long term success will not come
until we begin to work a little harder, a little longer and a little
smarter. If the business does not come in our front door, then we must
go to the business. The PIP show in Bally's Reno, forced PIP owners to
see something they never knew, the power and capability of the Atari
desktop publishing solution.
Transcoast Systems, Inc. is located at 388 Market Street, Suite 400,
San Francisco, California 94111. They can be reached at (415) 296-2572.
Don Kimble is the owner. Ike Eisenschmidt is one of his trainers and
an expert in Calamus on the Atari system. If your school, church,
hospital, club or group can use the technology of desktop publishing for
newsletters, advertising, menus and other printable materials, offer
them a copy of this article. Tell them the REVOLUTIONARY new system in
Desktop Publishing is Atari, Calamus and Transcoast Systems, Inc.
For information on how you can "JOIN THE REVOLUTION" and actively
support the exposure of Atari computers, send $6.00 to ARTISAN SOFTWARE,
P.O. Box 849, Manteca, California 95336. An ST/MEGA compatible disk-
based HANDBOOK will be rushed to you by return mail. The HANDBOOK is
also available from ST INFORMER, CURRENT NOTES, MEGABYTE COMPUTERS
(Hurst, Texas), COMPUTER STUDIO (Asheville, North Carolina) and as a
download from COMPUSERVE, GENIE and DELPHI.
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Z*Net Down-Under by Jon Clarke
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
***** Z*NET DOWN-UNDER EXTRA *****
This document is Press Information provided by SOFTWARE SUPPLIES, AKA
ATARI NEW ZEALAND, on ATARI Logo paper. Transcribed using optical
character reader for precise conversion by Z*NET NEWS SERVICE, 7/9/90.
Z*Net assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information
itself.
Press Release
ATARI TT030
Compatible - Expandible - Flexible - Affordable
The Atari TT030
- Compatible with the Atari ST, 1000"s of software titles already
available
- 3 New Graphics modes:
320 x 480 with 256 colours from a palette of 4096
640 x 480 with 16 colours from a palette of 4096
1280 x 960 high resolution monochrome
- Stereo 8-bit PCM sound
- 68030 running at 32 Mhz
- 68881 Floating Point co-processor
- 2 Megabytes of RAM, expandable to 26 Mb
- SCSI and ASCI with DMA built in
- Internal Hard disk
- SCC LAN port with DMA
- Four serial ports
- Parallel port
- MIDI ports
- Detachable keyboard
- Internal A24/D16 VME card slot
- Real time clock with non-volatile RAM
- ROM cartridge slot
- External floppy connector
Comparison of standard features
Amiga 3000 Mac IIcx Atari TT030
CPU 68030 68030 68030
FPU Yes Yes Yes
Clock speed 16 Mhz - 32 Mhz
RAM 2 to 17 1 to 32 2 to 26
Burst Mode Yes No Yes
ROM 512K 256K 512K
Graphics
Max resolution 1280 x 480 Optional 1280 x 960
Interlaced Non-interlaced
Max colours 32 Colours 256 Colours
from 4096 from 4096
Max video RAM 1 Mb 8 Mb
Sound Stereo Stereo Stereo
Expansion Proprietary NuBus VME
Hard disk DMA Non-DMA DMA
Floppy disk Proprietary Proprietary PC compatible
Network No Yes Yes, DMA
Serial 1 x RS232 2 x RS232 4 x RS232
Parallel Yes No Yes
MIDI No No Yes
ROM Cartridge No No Yes
The Atari TT030 Hardware
The TT030 (Thirty-two/Thirty-two bit) is the first member of a new
series of Atari computers designed as enhanced versions of the existing
ST and MEGA family. The TT series maintains compatibility with the
ST/MEGA architecture, but uses the Motorola 68030 microprocessor and
provides enhanced graphics and sound. The TT030 is also designed to run
Unix (Unix is a trademark of AT&T).
The TT030 is based on the high performance 32-bit Motorola MC68030
processor running at a 32 Mhz clock frequency. The 68030 includes on-
chip data and instruction caches which can be filled from some regions
of memory in bursts of double word fetches.
The architecture also includes the industry standard VME bus to
facilitate expansion. The system supports the latest revision (C.1) of
the VME bus specification. The TT030 can accommodate one single-
Eurocard (3U) A24/D 16 or A 16/D 16 slave-only VME board.
The TT series is expected to function in an environment with other TTs
and even machines from different manufacturers. To facilitate
connectivity, each system has an on-board port for a moderate speed LAN.
If the LAN is not being used, the port can be programmed to be a
standard RS232C port. Through an optional VME bus-based or SCSI-based
Ethernet controller, the TT also has the capability of connecting to
heterogeneous Ethernet networks. The TT030 has three additional
standard RS-232C serial ports for connection to modems, display
terminals, or digitizing tablets. The hardware features of the TT030
include:
- Motorola MC68030 at 32MHz
- Motorola MC68881 Floating Point Coprocessor (the coprocessor is
socketed, so that it can be optionally upgraded to a MC68882)
- ST RAM: 2 Mbyte of ST-compatible dual-purpose (video/system) RAM,
expandable by an add-on daughterboard containing a further 2 or 8
Mbyte of dual-purpose memory. This 64-bit wide memory appears 32
bits wide to the processor and SCSI/SCC DMA engines TT video logic
has access to this memory on a time critical basis. The remaining
system logic, including the processor, can access this memory in the
alternate 250 nS TIME SLICES.
- TT BURST MODE RAM: provision for a daughter-board that will accept
either 4 x 1 Mbyte or 4 x 4 Mbyte SIMMS, allowing another 4 Mb or 16
Mb expansion. This RAM can only be accessed by the processor, the
SCSI DMA Engine, and the SCC Network DMA Engine. The 68030 can take
advantage of burst-mode for filling its internal cache from this
RAM.
- 4 socketed 1 Mbit ROMS, providing 512 Kbyte of ROM space.
- Internal video modes that are a superset of those in the Atari ST/
STe series using an analog RGB (VGA-like) colour monitor:
pixels rows colors palette
320 200 16 4096 (STe compatible)
640 200 4 4096 (STe compatible)
640 400 2 4096 (STe superset)
320 480 256 4096
640 480 16 4096
using a high resolution ECL monochrome monitor
1280 960 black on white
- parallel I/O port, generally used for Parallel printer output
- internal speaker, which can be disabled under software control
- 2 low-speed asynchronous serial I/O ports (one from each of two
68901 MFPS) at programmable baud rates up to 19.2 baud
- 2 high-speed asynchronous/SDLC Serial I/O ports (from a Zilog 8530
SCC). One part can be programmed to be a Local Talk compatible LAN
interface with a proprietary single channel DMA controller. The
other port is intended for use as an asynchronous AS-232 port with
programmable split baud rates.
- battery backed-up real time clock (RTC) with 50 bytes of non-
volatile RAM
- ST/MEGA compatible intelligent keyboard, with mouse and joystick
ports including support for a 3 button mouse
- Atari ACSI DMA channel (for Atari Hard Disk, Laser Printer, CD-ROM,
etc)
- Floppy disk controller and interface sharing the ACSI DMA channel
- Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) STe compatible DMA sound
engine with programmable volume and tone control which can play back
stereo 8-bit samples at rates up to 50 Khz
- Atari ST compatible cartridge port (128 Kbyte Storage)
- SCSI interface using 23-pin connector implemented with the NCR 5380
SCSI controller chip and a proprietary DMA controller
- Industry standard VME bus for expansion
When comparing the TT030 with the competition, four important features
stand out:
- flicker-free, high resolution colour graphics built-in as standard
- high bus bandwidth, independent of video resolution
- excellent connectivity including four RS232 ports, MIDI, LAN, ASCI &
SCSI.
- high speed burst-mode RAM, 32 Mhz CPU clock speed.
===============================
F O R E M B B S N E W S
===============================
Effective immediately Full Moon BBS is now your source for the FoReM
BBS program by Matthew R. Singer. FoReM is not new, it has been in use
all over the free world since 1985. Available in single line versions
for the Atari ST (one meg RAM recommended) and the IBM PC (512 K
required). FoReM may be purchased directly from Full Moon for $74.95
plus $5.00 for shipping and handling. All orders are shipped with a
manual that includes detailed instructions on installing and configuring
FoReM.
When used in conjunction with the FNET mailer program by David Chiquelin
(a shareware program supported at Atari-Oh! BBS 713-480-9310) either
version of FoReM can be used to exchange messages with other BBS Systems
worldwide.
You can order FoReM ST or PC by sending a check for $79.95 ($74.95 for
the program plus $5.00 S&H) made payable to:
Stephen Rider
20 Cargill Ave
Worcester MA 01610
Orders are shipped UPS only, specify a street address as UPS cannot
deliver to a Post Office box number.
For ST orders specify single sided or double sided diskette. PC owners
please specify 360K or 1.2 meg 5.25" or 720K 3.5" disks. Depending on
the media you order we will also include some useful PD or shareware
utility programs that are widely used by FoReM boards.
Steve Rider
Full Moon BBS
508-752-1348
This offer is made in conjunction with Matthew R. Singer, creator and
copyright holder of FoReM ST. Offer not valid in Massachusetts. (c)
1985-1990 Matthew R. Singer
===============================
PD/SHAREWARE STop
===============================
by Mark Quinn
Authors: Matthew Carmody, Ben Cosh *SHAREWARE*
File name: DEFSEL.ARC
File type: Utility
Program name: Definitive File Selector
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DEFSEL (along with The Little Green Selector and UIS) is another
alternative to the standard file selector. Whether this one's right for
you is a matter of personal preference, and deciding which features are
important.
Features:
- 150-letter pathnames possible
- Abort loading by holding both shift keys down
- Nine different ways of sorting files
- Delete mode
- Ten 'extender buttons'
- Diskinfo button
- Create folders
- Dynamic memory requirement feature
- Mouse speed doubling feature
- Security delete mode: deleted files are overwritten with garbage
- Save DEFSEL configurations
- Deinstall feature
- Almost every feature has ALT key equivalents
DEFSEL should be run before any mouse accelerators. This program is not
as intuitive as some others I've seen.
The programmers state that the program "shouldn't really conflict with
anything". If it does, let them know. (You may wait quite a while for
the response, seeing that they are in England.) We experienced some
problems on a Mega 2 with TOS 1.2. The programmers also state that
version 3.00 (the above is version 2.01) is under development.
Author: Damien Jones
File name: PURGER.LZH
File type: Utility
Program name: Disk Purger
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A couple of weeks ago, I said to myself "There ought to be a no-nonsense
program that wipes the directory and FAT tables of a formatted disk".
Enter Purger, which fills the bill nicely, and also gives you the option
of getting a directory of the soon-to-be purged disk. Once the files
are purged, they will still be shown by the directory option until a
disk change occurs.
If you have any reservations about the urge to purge, I wouldn't suggest
using this utility. Files are not recoverable once they are purged.
Author: S. K. Webb
File name: STREADER.LZH
File type: Utility
Program name: ST READER
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It seems that every few weeks someone uploads another text reader. This
one is hefty, and thus has some nice features, including a second text
window, reverse video, the ability to toggle text size (useful for
children and those of us with low vision) and load alternate fonts, a
search feature, switching to medium resolution when you're reading text
files in low resolution, then switching back to low when you exit,
converting 1st Word files to ASCII, saving converted files to disk,
printing files, block save, block print, repeating the last screen
command times, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Quinn's Quickies"
SIREN2.LZH
Monochrome accessory. Police car zooms across the bottom of your
screen at chosen intervals. With sound effects.
101.ARC
Playable game demo. Drive drug runners out of town. Futuristic
setting. Fast action.
FRED.LZH
Playable game demo. Nice sound effects in this hack-'n'-slash epic.
Pleasing graphics, too.
CRICIT.ARC
Demo. "Integrated cash register and inventory control program". If you
want to use an ST for the former in your business, take a gander at
CRICIT.ARC The program looks very extensive, though I didn't know what
the hades I was doing. Also check out CRICITAD.ARC for more of a
description of what this program does.
DANDARE.LZH
Playable game demo. In this one, you're in a space suit with a
"plasma rifle". It takes more than a few shots to kill the mutated
green child. Buy weapons, lives, etc.
GGPDEMO.LZH
Knowing absolutely nothing about genealogy programs, I couldn't give
this one a decent review above. But if you do, then check it out. It
seems easy to use.
PAPACNT.ARC
Update. Newest (and last) version of The Paperless Accountant. Now
supports monochrome.
MONOEMU.LZH
Update. A monochrome emulator for color monitors, now modified for use
with TOS 1.4.
ICBD.LZH
Playable game demo called "It Can't Be Done". Destroying the ship CAN
be done.
===============================
T R A C K E R S T U P D A T E
===============================
PRESS RELEASE
Version 2.03 of Tracker/ST is now available..!
This free upgrade makes all of Tracker/ST's click-on buttons single
click buttons, for greater ease of use. Also, all the buttons are now
FULLY FUNCTIONAL with TOS 1.4 and TOS 1.6.
A few other minor changes have been made. This update will be sent to
all registered owners of Tracker/ST free of charge (you don't even have
to send in your original disk). If you have not registered please do so
immediately.
If you have a GEnie account and have not received the upgrade in e-mail,
just let us know your GEnie address and we will forward the file to you.
You MUST be a registered owner to receive this upgrade through e-mail.
To those of you unfamiliar with our program, Tracker/ST is a mailing
list/mail merge/person tracking application which features great ease of
use (fully GEM), and tons of power. For an informational brochure
contact Step Ahead Software at 212-627-5830 or write us at 496-A Hudson
Street #F39, New York City, NY 10014
Tracker/ST retails for $79.95, and is available direct or through your
local dealer. Tracker/ST is now available in Australia as well (so tell
all your friends Down Under).
Our users LOVE Tracker/ST:
"This is a GREAT program and it has cut my mail list time by over half..
Just wish I had this program a couple of years back."
--B.G., Texas
"I am really impressed with the excellent service your company is
offering."
--J.M., Texas
"Great product..! The manual itself is a work of art..."
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Z * N E T E C H O S By TERRY SCHREIBER
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NODE 505 ATARI WEST BBS VANCOUVER B.C. (604) 272-5888
ONLINE MAGAZINES AND COMMENT
ST-Report announced last week that they have abandoned the Atari bashing
series, although I am pleased to read the news, I hope it will be a new
beginning for the magazine. However, on the defense of Atari I offer
the following:
o 1040Ste (enhanced 1040 st upgradeable to 4 megs using Simm packs)
o Stacy (in a variety of configurations)
o Megafile 44 (44 meg removable Syquest drive)
o CDAR 504 (CD rom player)
o PC3 (640k 8088 MS-Dos compatable 2 floppy system, EGA,CGA and Herc)
o ABC 286 (640k 30meg HD,3.5 floppy,VGA,MDA,CGA,EGA and Hercules)
o PC4h (1 meg ram,3.5 floppy,63 meg HD,16 Mhz,VGA,MDA,CGA,EGA and Herc)
o PC4r (as above but with 44 meg removable instead of 63 meg harddrive)
o PC5-20H (2meg ram,3.5 flop, 63M HD,VGA,MDA,CGA,EGA and Herc, 20 Mhz)
o Portfolio (handheld computer system)
o Atari calculators and adding machines
o Lynx game system
Please let me know if the other guys have released that much hardware in
the past two years.
Atari is listening to it's user's. Salespeople stated that people wanted
MS-Dos machines, Atari responded by releasing a variety of boxes with
different configurations. Branching into the calculator market was
another extra for Atari, the portfolio was not long to come. Complaints
of the St's limited sound and color capabilities in comparison with the
Amiga resulted in the STe being born. Musicians and business people
alike said "You have a great product here with the ST but you needed a
portable" - thus Stacy. With this much product and the TT just around
the corner I feel that Atari is agressively attacking the business, home
and entertainment marketplaces. If they don't succeed with this much
ammunition then you can bet that part of the blame will be the negative
attitude of the users, bashing and bad press reports.
I don't however hold Atari blameless all of the problems. Unfortunately
we are all human and make mistakes. You would probably forgive your
local barber for a bad haircut so why not your computer manufacturer?
It's time people to rally around the flagpole once more and give Atari
the support and consideration it rightly should have. The more
computers sold, the bigger the userbase, the more software that becomes
available and written for the ST. We all benefit from this, there are
no benefits from bashing.
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Z*Net Atari Online Magazine is a weekly released publication covering
the Atari community. Opinions and commentary presented are those of the
individual authors and do not reflect those of Rovac Industries. Z*NET
and Z*NET ATARI ONLINE are copyright 1990 by Rovac Industries. Reprint
permission is granted as long as Z*NET ONLINE, Issue Number and author
is included at the top of the article. Reprinted articles are not to be
edited without permission.
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Copyright (c)1990 Rovac Industries, Inc..
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