Atari Web Pages Latest News
Version 1.0
Date 22/12/94
by Mark Stephen Smith
2nd Update
Foreword
Hello and welcome to the first news item on the Atari Web pages. This document will describe the Atari Web pages as provided by Mark Stephen Smith and will include a list of the latest updates for the month. Each month I hope to update this text with the very latest additions and news on the Atari Web pages.
Hopefully these pages will provide an invaluable service to their users, but they are still at an early stage and developing all the time. As such any feedback and support you may have for these pages is more than welcome, it is infact encouraged. The more input I get from its users the better, as then I will know what is good and bad about these pages and can change them appropriately in the hope of increasing their value to their readers.
Now on with the show.
News and Changes
Well since the original description a lot has happened. I'm now involved in several projects, and submit work to several Internet and diskmag sources for inclusion. I have also officially took over the maintenance of the Atari FTP list from Hallvard Tangeraas of which there have been a couple of updates.
New items in this document since the last copy will be marked with **. All new items are also listed below according to the date they were added.
The new items this month are:
22/12/94 -- Lynx Tips and Tricks
22/12/94 -- Ultra Vortex FAQ update for Jaguar
20/12/94 -- Lemmings Review for Lynx
20/12/94 -- Lynx Casino Review for Lynx
19/12/94 -- AEO Newsletter Volume 3. Issue.14 in text and ZIP format
12/12/94 -- Atari FTP List Update
12/12/94 -- Falcon Specifications and Information
12/12/94 -- Edith Professional Review by Frank Charlton
8/12/94 -- Falcon Owners Group Magazine No.7.
8/12/94 -- Newsletter format changed
8/12/94 -- AEO Newsletter Volume 3. Issue.13 in text and ZIP format
8/12/94 -- Questions and Answers pages updated, question 14.
6/12/94 -- Questions and Answers pages updated, questions 12 and 13.
6/12/94 -- CAIN Newsletter Volume 1. No.8
5/12/94 -- Got Doom on the Jaguar, expect a review soon.
2/12/94 -- Hand Made Software News (Jaguar)
2/12/94 -- Lynx FAQ updated
2/12/94 -- Jaquar FAQ updated
2/12/94 -- HENSA Atari TOS Newsletter Volume 7. No.11
28/11/94 -- Sensible Soccer News for Jaguar
25/11/94 -- MiNTNet FAQ
25/11/94 -- HENSA Atari TOS Newsletter Volume 7. No.10
24/11/94 -- Sinister Developments News (Jaguar)
24/11/94 -- Coming Soon! (Jaguar)
24/11/94 -- Rebellion Development News (Now in HTML)
24/11/94 -- Klax Review for Lynx
24/11/94 -- Kung Food Review for Lynx
23/11/94 -- A.9 added to Questions and Answers page.
23/11/94 -- Rebellion Development News
What are the Atari Web pages?
These are a collection of pages covering all formats of the Atari. In these pages may be found the latest news, reviews, software for downloading, and various other information and links to other places of interest to Atari users.
I have tried to make the structure of these pages easy to follow and as intuitive as possible but there is still a lot of work to be done yet.
How do I access them and what is the Web?
First of all I shall look at what the Web is or to use its full name the World Wide Web. The Web is new way of accessing the Internet, unlike previous methods where you were required to enter commands into the program you were using the Web uses a more user driven method of getting around the Internet. This method is much more graphical than former methods and as such is much easier to get to grips with.
When using a Web browser (the name given to a program used to access Web pages) the control method usually consists of a point and click operation. A Web page will consist of text and graphics which are sometimes highlighted in some way to indicate that they are selectable and link to more information or a particular piece of data.
Such a link is referred to as a hyperlink. In fact the whole system is a variation on hypertext and uses a script to create each page. Each script is written to a HTML (HyperText Markup Language) standard which contains the main body of text in the page and a few command tags for the browser as to how to format the page and what to do with links, etc.
Web pages may contain text, graphics, sounds, and animations, although the later two are normally supported through external software. It is also possible using the Web to gain access to newsgroups, ftp sites, and gopher services all through the one program. As such this makes this a very powerful tool for Internet access, and coupled with its ease of use this has suddenly became the big thing in the recent Internet explosion into the media.
Browsers can handle all properly written HTML scripts but may vary in operation when scripts are incorrect or contain mistakes. Browsers can be divided into to distinct types, graphical and text only. Popular graphical browsers include NCSA's Mosaic and the recent new browser NetScape. On the text side Lynx is the most popular textual browser (NOTE: text browsers don't show any form of graphics).
To access the Web you must either use one of the above mentioned browsers on a machine such as a Sun, PC or Macintosh, or if you want to access it via your Atari you will need a copy of the Lynx browser as unfortunately there aren't any graphical browsers YET for the Atari.
Next month I will give full details on how to access the Web using the Atari.
Where do I find the Atari Web page?
From your Web browser choose to open URL and enter the following address: http://www.dl.ac.uk/MISC/ATARI/atari.html
If you can store a hotlist of addresses or something similar on your browser then it may be worth including this address for quick access in the future.
Once you've done that you should see my main page so I hope you enjoy it, and don't forget to write with your thoughts.
What you will find in the Web pages every month.
From the main menu you have several links available to you, some under miscellaneous and others specific to a particular machine, or collection of machines. First I will look at what will be in the Miscellaneous section.
Atari Related links, Documents, FAQ's and Newsletters
First in the list are "Atari Related Links", these links are to other sources of Atari information or data (such as files, etc.).
There is a link to many of the major Atari holding FTP sites on the Internet. Links to several Web pages by different people on the Atari. This will grow as worthwhile sites come up. At the moment you can visit:
- HENSA to download Atari files (Moderated by Denesh Bhabuta)
- ZFC's Atari Pages by Annius V. Groenink. This has links to various Atari related places, along with talk of his own work on Edith and his new Drive U Project. Annius is also working on a version of the Mosaic browser for the Atari and the best of luck goes to him on that.
- Christer Gustavsson's Atari Gem Programmers Page. Very useful information for programmers graphing with Gem and the operating system. Also offers help via his questions answers page. Some links can be found to Atari related places.
- CAIN Atari Pages. CAIN is the Central Atari Information Network and they create a newsletter which is updated monthly on all things new to do with the Atari. There are also links available here.
- Martin Maisey's Atari Pages. Contains information (downloadable) on programs written by himself for the Atari. Again there are links to other Atari places.
This section has one or two more candidates for the near future when more work has been done on the owners pages.
Documents
Useful documents will appear in here. At the moment there is:
- Atari FTP List by Hallvard Tangeraas (essential for the latest news on who provides Atari FTP sites). This is updated in theses pages almost as soon as Hallvard changes it.
- Atari TOS Desktop Survival Kit by Thomas J Hopper. An essential guide to getting the most out of your DESKTOP.INF and NEWSDESK.INF files.
- Recommended list of software for the Atari by Denesh Bhabuta. List compiled by Denesh for me of his best software for the Atari (updates coming soon). Mostly PD and Shareware, this list contains links to download most of the software mentioned.
- Information on picture formats by Dave Bagget. Lots of information on the format of different picture files for the Atari.
FAQ's (Frequently Asked Questions)
Useful FAQ's will appear here. At the moment there is:
- Atari ST SLIP FAQ. This is a guide to connecting your Atari to a network. All you want to know about networks and the Atari.
- Atari CD FAQ. Information on getting and using CD's on the Atari. Regular updates to this can be found in my pages.
- GDOS FAQ by Gerd Castan. Got a question on GDOS then this is the place to look.
**MiNTNet FAQ by Christer Gustavsson. Everything you wanted to know about
**MiNTNet.
Newsletters
Although there may be more to come the following newsletters are updated promptly as I receive them. These have been re-organised to make it easier to keep track of. At the moment there is:
- CAIN Newsletter containing the latest Atari news.
- HENSA Newsletter containing the latest updates to the HENSA Atari archive.
**AEO Newsletter containing the latest Atari news.
Questions and Answers
Submit your questions to here and get them included in this page. Answers are open to anyone who has something valid to say, and help is provided to me on Programming and Music questions by several knowledgeable sources. Please support this section, only by your interaction and questions will it survive. All answers are included in this page for anyone else with the same question and answers are also sent back to the person who submitted the question for those without Web access.
If you feel you have an expertise in a particular area concerning the Atari and would be willing to answer questions on that area when and if I submitted them to you, then please let me know and you can join the team. Programming and Music are fairly well covered and I can cover Graphics programs, help with Technical questions would be appreciated.
Reviews
Here I hope to include reviews of Atari products both new an old. So far I have the following reviews:
- Kobold review by Andy Curtis (ST Format)
- Flash 2 review by Frank Charlton (ST Format)
**Edith Professional review by Frank Charlton (ST Format)
There are several reviews on the way by the above mentioned people aswell as some by myself (waiting to get hold of Apex Media for the Falcon). This section should hopefully include around ten or more reviews by Christmas.
Again if you feel you would like to submit reviews for inclusion then please write to me. Please note these pages don't include Lynx and Jaguar Reviews, as they are contained within their own pages.
Updates and Information on these Web Pages
All updates and news on the Atari Web pages goes in here. Previews of whats to come soon are included and new items or updates to the pages are listed according to date with the most recent being first. Most updates contain links to the new material for instant access.
Other things to be found in here are the number of accesses to the Atari pages. At the moment this is out of date, but I hope soon to have this updated on either a monthly or even weekly basis.
This now concludes the Miscellaneous section. Now onto the Other Pages. These pages are specific to a particular machine, or collection of machines. These are going to go through some major changes and you can expect a fair number of changes to be made to these in the next month or so.
Falcon Page
This will contain information and files relevant to the Atari Falcon, currently this page is divided into the following areas:
News and Previews
In here expect to see any news or previews that come my way, whether they be small descriptions or full features with pictures. At the moment there is:
- Apex News. This contains some information I got on Apex Media for the Falcon when I spoke to Douglas Little on the phone a few weeks back. Not very detailed unfortunately, but I'm waiting on my copy of Apex to give a full review so expect that to be rectified soon.
- Dextrous News. Small description of some of the features of Dextrous with a picture. Only at an early stage of development, if I hear more it will go in here.
- Towers II : Plight of the Stargazer. Pictures and description of this great looking Falcon only sequel to Towers. Expect the demo soon.
- Newsletters from HENSA on Falcon section of archive.
Misc
Miscellaneous information on the Falcon, including:
- Falcon Demo FAQ. List of Demos for the Falcon, including some form of information on each.
- Compatibility list of games with Falcon.
- Compatibility list of applications with Falcon.
**Falcon Specifications and Information compiled by Rod McCall.
New Software
The latest Falcon/enhanced software available for download. Major revisions to be done with updates here. At the moment the following software is included, with more to come:
- Play MPEG v0.68 by M.D.Griffths (shareware)
- Speed of Light v3.5 (shareware picture viewer)
- Scape a planetary landsacpe generator.
- Digital Tracker demo of commercial version.
- Obsession 1 level demo.
**FOG issue 7 diskmagazine for Falcon.
Other software worth having
Software worth using on the Falcon.
- Backward v2.52. For compatibility with the ST. Please send any versions which are newer than this.
- MultiBlow. Configurable overscan utility.
- Starball. Excellent pinball game (Falcon enhanced).
- Berzerk. Excellent version of Berzerk (Faster on Falcon).
- FOG issue 6 diskmagazine for Falcon.
Atari ST/STE/TT/Mega STE Page
This will contain information and files relevant to all the above mentioned Atari formats, currently this page is divided into the following areas:
News
In here expect to see any news or previews that come my way, whether they are small descriptions or full features with pictures. At the moment there is:
- Newsletters from HENSA on TOS section of archive.
New Software
The latest (most recent versions) software available for download. Major revisions to be done with updates. At the moment the following software is included, with lots more to come:
- Speed of Light v3.5 (shareware picture viewer).
- ST Zip v2.6. Latest version of ST Zip.
- Obsession demo. 1 level of this great pinball game.
Other Software worth having
Software worth having on the Atari.
- Ozone. Good platform/puzzler.
- Starball. Excellent pinball game.
- Berzerk. Excellent version of Berzerk.
Lynx Page
All the latest news and reviews on the lynx, along with cheats, etc. This page is divided in to the following areas:
News
News on the Lynx and related material. At the moment there is:
- Lynx Summer Steal Deal Extended to the Fall. News of price reductions for a limited period.
Reviews
Reviews for just about every Lynx game ever released will appear in here. All reviews are by Robert Jung. At the moment the following reviews are included:
APB Awesome Golf Baseball Heroes
Batman Returns Basket Brawl Bill and Ted's
BlockOut BattleWheels Blue Lightning
California Games Checkered Flag Chip's Challenge
Crystal Mines II Dino Olympics Dirty Larry:Renegade Cop
Dracula the Undead Double Dragon Desert Strike
Electro Cop European Soccer Chal. Ultimate Chess Chal.
Gauntlet:3rd Encounter Gordo 106 Hard Driven'
Hockey Hydra Ishido: Way of Stones
Jimmy Conners' Tennis JoustNew reviews are:
Klax Kungfood Lemmings
Lynx CasinoOther Lynx Stuff
Other items of interest to Lynx owners. At the moment there is the following:
- Lynx FAQ
**Lynx Tips and Tricks
New Software Announcement
Currently holds news of Bouble Trouble and Super Off-Road for the Lynx. Expect reviews soon.
Jaguar Page
All the latest news and reviews on the lynx, along with cheats, etc. This page is divided in to the following areas:
News and Previews
All the latest news and preview information I can find related to the Jaguar.
- Rebellion Development News
- Sinister Developments News
- Sensible Soccer News
- Coming Soon!
- Hand Made Software News
Reviews
A collection of reviews from different sources, hopefully I will be contributing more to this section myself. Reviews so far include:
Aliens versus Predator Raiden Tempest 2000
CybermorphThere are many more reviews to come.
Other Jaguar Stuff
Miscellaneous information on the Jaguar. Information included presently is:
- Jaguar FAQ
- Raiden Tips
- Jaguar Game Cheats
- Kasumi Ninja FAQ
**Ultra Vortex FAQ update for Jaguar
Other Jaguar Pages
Other pages specific to the Jaguar included in here. Currently there is:
- Atari Jaguar Homepage by Nils Jacobsen
There are others that will be included, some containing more recent news, but the one above is the most organised and intuitive one I've came across.
8 Bit Atari Page by Ivo van Poorten
Not maintained by me these pages cover the 8 bit formats of Atari machines and are very comprehensive. Nearly everything you could hope to find is contained within these pages.
What to expect in the future
Some structural changes are likely to appear in the next months. I will be introducing an announcements page where you can tell the World of anything you have to announce. Please send news of updates to your programs, Atari stuff for sale, and any other Atari announcements here (NOTE : Commercial companies should send information on products to be included in here and in the news sections).
Also coming soon will be a monthly editorial. In this I will try and sum up the month past and to give my opinions on how I saw things for Atari at that time. Hopefully I will be able to look back over many good developments in my pages and summarise them as they happened.
There is an outside possibility of starting a programmers and MIDI section in these pages but this is as yet undecided. I will judge whether or not to do this based on the kind of response I have. I do not want to repeat any of the good work done in these fields however by other Web page writers such as Christer Gustavsson.
More support is needed for the questions and answers pages, although initially successful people just stopped posting their questions. Although the odd one is still coming and answers are still forthcoming. Please support this, it is of benefit to anyone who uses it.
The Jaguar section should have a lot more news, pictures and reviews in the future. I now own a Jaguar and will soon be writing a review for Aliens vs Predator. I have tracked down a fair bit of news and am in contact with a few companies now and hope to get news from them on there products.
Extra pictures will appear due to my recent access to a colour scanner, enabling me to scan the latest pictures before the exist elsewhere on the Internet. I also hope to slowly get all the maps for AvP into these pages somehow?
Both the ST and Falcon sections should contain much more news in the future, along with more of the best PD/Shareware, and PD/Shareware reviews. I should have several demos hopefully in the near future for games coming out on these formats.
The Lynx section is to continue to get reviews and I will update the news as and when I get it.
Expect more links to Atari related pages in the future, as well as links to all the Atari related newsgroups. There will be more newsletters, documents, updates to the FAQ's.
Expect further reviews from Andy and Frank, along with myself (watch out for the Apex Media review). Hopefully I can include more screenshots, and do a few program tutorials. Also Claus J. Pedersen (Stello author), Bob Brodie (former Atari employee) and Steven Davies have all offered to support these pages with contributions in the future.
Last but not least, after Christmas I may set up a feedback page, where you can send your feedback via a Web form. Until then please write with your ideas, criticisms, comments, submissions (software, news, reviews, questions, etc), to me and don't forget that I am now the official maintainer of the Atari FTP list originally by Hallvard Tangeraas. All updates to this list should now be sent to me.
Thank you and see you with the updates to these pages next month!
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Mark Stephen Smith : msh@dl.ac.uk +
+ Atari Web Pages : http://www.dl.ac.uk/MISC/ATARI/atari.html +
+ +
+=====================================================================+
+ Atari FTP List maintainer, Atari Web Page creater and maintainer. +
+ Atari 1040STF, 4Mb Falcon 127Mb HD, Atari Jaguar, Atari Lynx +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
