GrACE NEWS
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE GREENVILLE ATARI COMPUTER ENTHUSIASTS
VOLUME: NUMBER: 1 1
MEETING: NOVEMBER 17 f 1987
DOORS OPEN AT 7:P0om
GRIER MEMORIAL CHURCH
PROGRAM:
Wei 1 this year i s about over
and the time come has to elect the
new of fi cere for the 1988 year. So
at this month's meeting were going
t o hold elections for the new
officers of GrACE for the 1983 year
Also since we now have a new
BBS up and running I feel we need
to let everyone in on some of the
tricks of h o w this board runs, so
I’ve asked George Nelson "THE SYSOP
to fill us in and give us an inside
1 ook at the boar d and how to ac c ess
different areas of it and how to
move around once we’ve loged on.
So now I want to encourage
everyone to come out and vote and
also see how the new GrACE BBS
"GrACE EXPRESS" is run.
NQVErEEF 57. 1987
S' .... 'E
te ia B
GRACE
EXPRESS
B44-8836
GIVE US A CALL HEAR ? 0..,
Where also going to open the
floor for a question and answer
time. Bo if you have any thing
you would like to shear or any
q ues t i on s y ou wou Id like to ask
bring them with you to the
meet i ng *
Bo join us Tuesday, November 17th
at the Grier memorial ARP Church
Fellowship Hall. Meeting begins
at 7 : 00 ; program starts at 7:30*
Donald S h oc k ley,
Vice Presi dent
P(D©D‘uW SJPUEls
The following people have agreed
to run for Grace offices:
President! Don Shockley
Vice President: (OPEN?
Secretary: Mary Ann Terminate
Treasurer: Doug Slagh
Please note that the Uice
President position is open.
I f you can help pi ease te I I
one of the officers. Possibly
a group of people could do ,
this job? '
GrACE NEWS
VOLUME: 5 NUMBER: 1 1
PAGE Z
Gr ■ A . C . E .
GrACE OFFICER S
FOR 1 987
The greenville fctari £aiput«r Enthusiasts is in
independent, non-profit organization and mr'i group
with no affiliation with Atari Corporation, or any other
organisation. Membership dues (fanily) is *28.88 per
rear, Membership includes access to the club's public
den jin program library, subscription to the Gr.A.C.E.
newsletter, and access to the club's electronic bulletin
board, Amazin' Grace (803-244-8936) .
The GrACE newsletter is published aonthly by the
Greenville Atari Computer Enthusiasts, 117 Saratoga Dr,,
Greer, SC 29651. Permission to reprint articles is any
non-c mere ial publication is permitted without
authorization, provided credit is given to the
Greenville Atari Computer Enthusiasts and the author.
Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not
necessarily represent the views of Gr.A.C.E.,
The GrACE newsletter will accept any articles by
members on any topic found pertinent to the club.
Articles will be accepted in any form, although word
processing files uploaded to the club's BBS (244-8336)
with a message left to Ed Culbertson or Mike Jett,
Editors, art preferred.
Editors
ED Culbertson
(877-15461
Product! on Editor
George Marin
(472-2815)
Contributing Editors
Ken Richardson
(277-1824)
A1 Tompkins
(292-3246)
Rhett Bryson
(246-3117)
Gr . A . C . E . Adv e rt is ino Ra t e s
Full Page *15.11
Half Page *12.88
Quarter Page f 9.11
Eighth Page I 5,11
Correspondence Address and Newsletter Ezchange
Greenville Atari Cenputer Enthusiasts
117 Saratoga Dr.
Greer, South Carolina 29651
8B3-877-I546
PRESIDENT
JOW DISHER
246-8967
V. PRES7PGH DIR
DON SHOCKLEY
B95-521B
SECRETARY
MARY AW TERN1NAT0 292-8280
TREASURER
DOUG SLAGH
677-7653
BOARD MEMBERS
NEWSLETTER EDS.
ED CULBERTSON
877-8546
LIBRARY- 8-BIT
- 16-BIT
- PAPER
JIM COOPER 246-5793
MARY AW TERMINATO 292-8268
BBS SYSOP
GEORGE NELSW
292-2355
MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
Take a moment and look at your
mailino label on this issue of the
'GrACE NEWS' . Check the right-hand
side of the label for the word
'DUES'. Just after this word are
the month/year when your membership
expires. Try to renew at least one
month early. This helps us with the
accounting and record keeping and
also avoids your missing any issues
of the newsletter.
There are two easy ways to
renew:
1, At the monthly meeting talk to
Doug Slaoh the club treasurer and
present him with $20 < i n cash or
check) .
2. Send your name and renewal (*28)
to:
Doug Slagh
104 Burgoyne Court
Greer. SC 29651
VOLUME: 5* NUMBER: II
GrACE NEWS
PAGE 3
F'AM bl i ngs
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
The new BBS is up and
running and I'm impressed* Not
only with the BBS itself but
with the fact that George
Nelson got it up and running so
quickly. Thanks for all of
your hard work, George,
If you haven't been up on
i t yet then I suggest that you
do so and don't forget to leave
mail for the SYSOP. ~
Springboard asking them to
consider rel easing it that t hey
have decided to do so.
Now let's get out there
and buy it so that the software
companies will see that we will
f o 1 1 ow t h r ou □ h if they do ,
SENSE, WE DON'T HAVE TO MAKE NO
STINKING SENSE
This months Chippie Award
for "The Best Worst Sales
Approach in a Non Supporting
Role 11 goes to Electronic
Bout i que.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
Over the years a lot of
people (read customers) have
been pretty critical of Atari
for var i ous r easons and a 1 ot
of it has been deserved* Most
of the criticism has not been
aimed at the computers (you,
1200XL, you're excused) but at
other aspects of running a
company. Let's face it, there
have been times when Atari's
judgement has been nothing
short of incomprehensible.
Recently, however, 1 read
a rather lenghthy article in
the Pokey Press titled "Why I
Don't Hate Atari 11 . This
article by Ken White gives an
entirely different point of
view and makes for informative
r eadi ng. I will have it at the
next meeting so if you want to
read i t just 1 ook for me. I'll
be the best looking guy there.
SEAL IT WITH A KISS
Wei 1 f another letter
writing campaign worked. One
of the most popul ar programs on
the market is Newsroom by
Springboard, However, until
recently. Atari B~bit owners
were not able to purchase it
because it was not available
for our machines. But so many
Atari owners wrote to
This award is given to
them because of a scene that I
witnessed several weeks ago in
Electronic Boutique. At the
time that it happened it didn't
make any sense and it still
doesn't. Following is the
conversation as I remember it.
See what you think.
Place - Electronic Boutique
Characters - One salesman and
three customers unknown to each
other but all Atari owners.
Customer 1 - How much for an ST
single sided disk drive?
Salesman (looking up) - We
don't have any, we're sold
out ,
Customer 1 - How much for an ST
m o n o c hi r c« me m o n i t o r ?
Salesman (looking up again) —
We don't have any. To tell you
the truth. Electronic Boutique
isn't going to carry ST
equipment anymore because the
quality was so bad that 50X of
the units didn't work*
Customer 1 - Really? I have a
lot of friends that have ST's
and no one that I know has ever
had a problem.
Sal esman - I know a 1 ot of
people with ST's also and none
of them ever had a problem
ei t her .
Customer 1 - Was this only a
problem at this store?
Salesman - Actually, we didn't
have any problems here but the
! VOLUME: 5* NUMBER: 1 1 GtACE
NEWS page 4-
chain as a whole had a lot of
Mary Anne Terminate i
problems and we weren't the
announced that there is an
only ones. Toys-R-Us doesn't
attempt to set up a School
carry the ST line anymore
Board BBS in our area for use
either and I can only guess
by students and teachers. More 1
that they had the same kind of
inf or mat i on on thi s wil 1 be
pr obi ems.
made available as the project
Customer 1 leaves.
cent i nues.
Comment; It's tough to sell
something you don't have even
At this time Rhett Bryson
with a buildup like this.
took the floor and gave a
' Ken Richardson
delightful demo of the X10
Powerhouse. He had lights and
r ad i os and TVs coming on and
■
going off all over the place*
He showed us how to program the
XlU from the computer. After
programming the command module,
the computer does not have to
be hooked into the system to
OCTOBER MEETINQ
OCTOBER 20,1987
control your lights and
appliances. He was using the
The meeting was called to
Echo program from Mi strop to
order by John Disher. ( I am
pr ogr am the modul e . A ver y
getting better at this!)*
interesting demo and very
George Nelson gave us a
helpful when you are at home or
i report on the status of the new
away. "w
1 BBS. The equipment was
received at the cost of
Mike Talbert then gave us
$1315.35 and $300.00 for the
a demo o n h o w a n A tar i c o mp u t er
mini -ups. He reported that he
and Chameleon Terminal program
i decided to try the ST Express
has saved him time and many
software and asked for help in
trips to the o f f i c e to correct |
setting up the BBS and the hard
a problem with a file. He used
drive.
his Atari 130 XE and dialed
The BBS, now called GrACE
i n t o his office wh i c h uses an
EXPRESS f phone number 244-B936,
IBM 39 mainframe computer* !
is running on:
Someday we will just get up and
520 ST w /mo n cm h r o me men i t or
go to our computer room to
A Supra 20 Meg Hard Drive
wor k . No getting up and
SX212 Modem and a
petting dressed and just 15
Bi g B1 ue Pr inter.
steps to work. Sound s good to
George has asked that we
me .
Arc all files that are
Again all of you that are
uploaded. The Arc and ArcX
not attending the meetings
files are available from the
either already know it all or
club library or from the BBS.
are missing a 1 ot o f
Officers will be nominated
i n f or ma t i on . I f you k now i t
all, come share it with us. If
you don’t , come in and give us
and voted on at the November
a 1 i st en .
meeting. So, if you want a
vote on how YOUR club is run,
show up and vote.
MARY ANNE TERMINATE!
W ' V T P
v
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Service and support after the sale
Laser 12a
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AATARf
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GrACE NEWS page
VOLUME: S' NUMBER: 1 1
sm/tis iwuhe
As most Cor many) of
you know by now, I have made a
change of positions within the
club- I am giving up the reins
of the 8-bit library to move to
the position of SysOp of our
new bulletin board: GrACE
Express ?
The new
hard ware /so ft ware for the BBS
arrived the same day as our
last meeting. In the 2 1/2
weeks since that time, I have
devoted much of my time at home
into getting the system up and
running. Due to this time
committment, I was unable to
obtain enough software to
create a satisfactory November
Di sk-of-t h e-Mon t h .
Hopeful 1 y , t hi i s
situation will not happen
agai n . Plans have already been
made for another member to
assume the 8-Bit Librarian
role- The new librarian will
be Les Prichard, and he should
receiving the library and
equipment sometime before the
meet i ng.
As far as my new
position, I entered into the
role as SysOp with a great deal
of anticipation — eager
an t i c i p a t i on . I love to
communicate with computers, and
this is a great opportunity for
me to have a lot more contacts
with members than I may have
had otherwise.
What’s it like to set
up a BBS and run it? Well,
let’s go t h r ouq h what it was
like. Setting up the system,
of course, was the first step.
The first thing I had to do was
have a phone line in st ailed.
This was done several days
before the equipment arrived,
so I was ready to go as soon
as the UPS man showed up.
I had to set up the
hard drive and create
partitions for the file areas.
This was not as hard as I
thought it would be.
Connecting the modem and
getting it to respond to the
BBS software was a minor
pr obi em . We ar e using the new
Atari SX-212 modem, and it does
not have any switches for
setting auto- answer mode for a
BBS. Fortunately, with the
help of A1 Tompkins and Ed
Culbertson, we overcame this
problem with a software patch,
and the modem has performed
flawlessly ever since.
Creating the menus and
hel p files was t he most
challenging task. Some of the
screens are directly off the
BBS disk, so that made it
easier. Error codes would show
up occasionally when the
program searched for files and
did not find them in the
correct path. This was a lot
of fun, especially since I knew
the users would understand that
it would take a while to aet
the bugs out. The software is
just about impossible to crash,
and all of the problems that I
had were due to my mistakes* I
kept moving files around from
the floppy to the hard disk to
the ramdisk to try to qet the
fastest setup with the least
wear and tear on the hardware.
I am pretty well satisfied with
the results as they now stand.
Host of you will
notice the results of this
exper i men t at i on . This proqram
is extremely fast when
responding to your keypresses.
I am very happy with the way I
was able to set up the download
area. About the only change I
VOLUME: 5" NUMBER: It GtACE NEWS PAGE ]
would like to see in this area
is for a user to be able to
browse through new uploads
without having to change from
one file area to another.
The message base area
i s ext r erne 1 y power f ul . The
only change that I would like
to see that I feel is needed
now is the requirement that the
user press the " = " key to
select the base he wants to
enter. It would be nice to
just press the number of the
base. (Maybe- in a future
upgrade?)
The software that we
are using on this BBS is
Express ! ST f r om I CD , Inc. (the
makers of SpartaDQS, US
Doubler, F’R: connection, etc.).
I chose this software because
of the ease of maintenance,
reliability, and the great
comments from sysops who have
moved over f r om the other BBS
software for the ST. And
mainly, due to the author, a
legend in Atari
telecommunications - Keith
Ledbetter. If any of you have
ever used the Express’ software
for the B-bits, you will know
what I mean. This guy is
amazi ng !
All in all, I would
say that we have a great BBS in
the making, and look forward to
ser vi ng as your new SysOp .
FT ease gi ve us a call,
especially you 8-bitters out
there. We need uploads
desparately, and have plenty of
room (4 meg for the 8-bits
alone!). We started out with a
clean slate and most of the
dead wood programs that were on
the ol d BBS will not be found
on the new one. Everyone wants
fresh software, and I know its
out there, so please
contribute. Thanks,
George Nelson, SysOp.
Here is some news from
the Atari Corp BBS.
CONNECTIVITY, SOLUTIONS , AND
TECHNOLOGY i ATARI ANNOUNCES
NEW PRODUCTS AT COMDEX
(Las Vegas, NV —
Comdex Fall 87)...
In a series of major product
i ntroduc t i ons ,
Atari Corporation emerges as a
maker of a complete line of
high-performance, low— cost solutions
for the business world.
New technology is showcased by
Abaq , an ul t r a— hi gh— per f or me.nce
workstation with, blazing speed and
dazzling graphics. The Abaq, based
on a sophisticated "transputer" chip
runs more than 10 times faster than
a PC/AT technology and more than 5
times faster than the 68020 with
math processor. The parallel
processing capability of Abaq lets a
single system multiply its
processing power by adding extra
transputer chips.
Atari unveiled its new CD
player capable of reading CD-ROM
disks and of playing musical CD
disks. The CD-ROM is supported by
a Mega and ST-compat i bl e DMA
interface, and will retail in early
18B8 for under $600.
Atari's connectivity answer is
a LAN which is compatible with the
NETBIOS standard used by IBM and
Novell. It communicates data at
1 megabi ts-per-second to PC's and
over 25 OK bi ts— per— second over
Appletalk. Atari is planning to
manufacture “PromiseLAN" adapters
for the Mega, ST, and F’C computer
1 i nes .
VOLUME: 5* NUMBER: / /
GrACE NEWS page %
The At ar i Mega comput er s are
showcased wi th a var i ety of solid
business solutions* Desktop
publishing is represented by both
the Atari SLM804 Laser Printer and
by G.O. Graphics, who are porting
their Desk set program CCompuGraphi cs
compatible) which Atari will market.
Word Perfect is displaying the
recently shipped Word Perfect ST
and Atari is displaying Microsoft
Write. A group of vendors are
appealing to VARs with vertical
packages running under the
IDRIS multi-user multi-tasking
operating system. Several new
high-end CAD packages are on
display including Foresight’s
Dr a f i x 1 .
Atari expanded its
PC— comp at i bl e offerings by adding
two new models, the PC 2 CPC XT
compatible) and PC4 CPC AT
'-Odipat i b i 1 e ) , both with EGA graphics,
high cl oc k speeds, and low price
tags. A variation of the PCSwill
operate in VGA graphics mode as well.
The PC2 and PC4 will be offered with
3,5 M or 5* 25" floppy disks and with
hard disks. These new models join
the Pl 1 T which at $799 is a basic
51 2K PC XT compatible, suitable for
use as a LAN workstation and for
standalone personal computing. The
Pl includes XT— comp at i b 1 e slots,
while the PC4's slots are PC AT
compat ible.
"We offer complete systems for
the office, 11 said Atari president
Sam Tr ami el . "1 can see Atari Mega
computers with laser printers as
desktop publ i shi ng st at i ons
exchanging data with a satellite
group of PC 1 9 s as LAN stations. An
entire office environment can be
created- The PC, the Macintosh, and
the Atari computers co-exist. Each
can do the things they do best.*’
IT* S MAGIC
Data Pacific has announced
that version 4.52 of the Magic
Sac i s ready for shi pment . Thi s
version fixes a number of minor
bugs and gives hard disk
suppor t ■ The cost of the
upgrade is $20 and comes with a
new instr uc t i on manual .
Yes, there will be another
version — 5.0 and it will have
the TRANSLATOR support. So,
just what is the TRANSLATOR?
Well, it’s a hardware
mod i f i cat i on that al 1 owe a disk
drive (Atari type) to read and
write Macintosh disks. This mod
will even wor k wi th the built-in
drives of the 1040 ST and the
520 STEM. The cost is $279.35.
Just a short comment here
about the Magic Sac. I have
purchased one and it wor ks very
well. I have been pleased with
the product and Data Pacific’s
customer support (jutst look on
Genie). I feel that the
Translator will do exactly as
advertised. Now, I have to
decide do I need (read want) a
Translator or do I need a
hard disk — decisions,
dec i si ons !
Ed Cul ber t son
TECH TIPS
•Print Shop : Early copies to the
program do not completely support
the 8S0 . By inserting the Print
Shop Graphics Disk and pressin
the letter "U", you will be ablt
to update your Print Shop disk
with a program contained on the
graphics Disk*
VOLUME: NUMBER: /( GtACE NEWS PAGE J
I
INFOWORLD
OCTOBER 19.19B7
coipl iients
AL THCKPKINS
Atari to Ship
Small-Footprint
Mega Systems
By Renee Mathews
Atari Corp. recently announced
it has begun shipping its Mega 2
and Mega 4 small -footprint PCs,
which are designed especially
for small businesses and desktop
publishing applications.
The Mega 2 includes 2 mega-
bytes of RAM. and the Mega 4
comes with 4 megabytes. Both
models are based on the
Motorola 68000 microproces-
sor and operate at 8 MHz. Both
computers also are compatible
with software and peripherals
for the Atari ST line of comput-
ers, the company said.
The Mega systems feature a
720K, 3 '/?-inch floppy diskette
drive, a Centronics-style parallel
porn, an RS-232C serial port, a
full numeric keypad, a cursor-
control keypad with editing
keys, 10 programmable func-
tion keys, and a mouse.
The Mega 2 is priced at
$1,699,95 with a K 2-inch mono-
chrome monitor and $1,899.95
with a color monitor. The Mega
4 sells for $2,399,95 with a
monochrome monitor and
$2,599,95 with a color monitor.
The computers are available
now from Atari business com-
puter centers.
Atari Corp,. 1196 Borregas
Ave„ Sunn v vale. CA 94088:
(408) 745-2000.
£jrp/orer
I have just purchased the Nov/Dec
issue of Atari Explorer and there
i s an article on the new Mega ST.
OPEN— IT— UP
Inside is the same Motorola M&8000
microprocessor (same as in the
1040 and 520 ST and the Apple
Mac). There are a number of
custom chips (Shifter, MMU, GLUE,
etc.) and the infamous BLITTER
chip. This chip handles the data—
movement -intensi ve activities.
Hander uhy Atari did not use the
M63020 chip, since this is to t-e a
flew and injproved version?
Dne nice thing are the expansion
slots, much like the Apples and
IBM machines.
It would be nice to have a Magic
Sac card, an IBM card , and a 20 or
30 meg hard card for these things/
The new machines also have the new
TQS which has had some code
opt i mi z ed and some mi nor bugs
f i xed (we hope > *
A PRETTY BOX
The CPU sits under the monitor and
the keyboard is attached via
cable. This is very nice, and
1 ook s muc h like the IBM,
But I still wan t to know why is
the on / o f f sw i tch still on the
tack of the CPU?
It's a nice desi gn f but I T 1 1 keep
my 1040,
ED CULBERTSON
VOLUME: *f NUMBER: 1 1 GtA CE
RAMDISKS FOR YOUR 320 XE
By Alan Friednan
After successfully adding » new 320K upgrade
to my 13cXE, I faced a whole new problm. What
to do with all this power?
Ttere are a lot of randisk programs on tte
256XL upgrade public domain disk, but due to a
difference in hw the 256XL upgrade accesses the
ran, these prograns won't work on tte 13QXE
upgrade.
Of course, Sparta DOS will configure the
additional ram into a ramdisk, but I wanted to
find a progran to do it cteaply (Sparta DOS is
$40) and one that would work with DOS 2. OS and
2.5. I figured the cost of tte tins an
CompuServe world be a good investment, are! it
was. Doing a search in the Utility section of
the Atari 8-bit library 1 found two XE randisk
programs. They were RAMDSX and S4APTO.230. Both
of these prograns have DOC files that are fairly
thorough.
RAMDS< configures the additional ran into two
707-sector ramdisks. Ihey are automatically set
up as D3 and D4. Itey are not initialized and
before being used mist be initialized through DOS
or an XIO cormand. I tried a copy of prograns
with these raudisks. I eet up tte AMISXM10
tail let in board with the ramdisk initialized and
everything went fine. I did find several
prograte that did not like the change in the OS
and therefore tried the otter randisk program,
aiAKIR,230.
SWKIR.230 only created one 707-sector
raniisk and only worked with EOS 2. OS, tewever 3
was able to use KYAN PASCAL with this systen.
Hiis only increased the ramdisk by 230 sectors
over the original 130k ramdisk, but this gave ne
the additional roan 3 needed to keep DUP.SY5 on
the ramdisk and to transfer the rest of tte K3X
camands for increased speed of operation.
Since this is a fairly new upgrade I an sure
it won't be long before saneooe canes up with a
program that uses all tte ran as a ramdisk and
allws you to decide what drive you want tte
randisk to became and that will be DOS 2.5
compatible.
Vith tte promised arrival of tte double sided
double density disk drive from Atari just around
tte comer, this may became tte most useful
upgrade for tte XE to cane down tte pike so far.
reprinted free
CURRENT NOTES
NEWS PAGE }Q
THE P:R:
CONNECTION
FROM ICD
by Gary Loveless
As of late, ICD has been on a rampage with massive support
for the Atari 6-bit line. One ot the latest releases is the P:R:
Connection.
The P;R: Connection is an interface between the Atari 6-bit and
other RS-232 devices. These devices may include modems,
parallel printers, serial printers, hard efrives and many other things
The P:R; Connection was made as an alternative to buying the
now ■extinct' Atari 850 interface. While there are Atari 650
interfaces still out there, they run as much as $120, while the P;R:
Connection has a list price of just $59.95.
The P:R: Connection is very simple to set up. Since it draws
power from the host computer, make sure that it is the perephial
plugged into the computer port. The nice thing about this inerface
is tnat it allows you do ‘daisy chain." Modem cables and printer
cables have to be bought seperately. (ICD sells these for $16)
I have not run into any problems with this unit myself, and I use
it every day. I have a modem and printer hooked up to it and it
works fine
it is fully compatible with the old 850 interface. Being small and
compact it takes up very little room at the computer desk. It has
no external power supply, thus telling you it draws power from t
host computer. (1200x1 owners note: your computer requires
internal modification before the P;R; Connection will work propei
with it)
THE INTERFACE PORTS
R1: This is the main RS232 serial port since it supports full
handshaking.
R2: This is the other RS232 port and is really only used when you
need an extra (make sure the software supports tne 'R2:' device.)
P: This is your parallel primer port.
i have had my P:R. Connection for about 2 montns now and
have never had any problems with it yet it is worth the purchase
of the P;R: Connection compared to the 850 interface.
The only small problem that I regret to tell you is that since
the P:R: Connection only has 2 RS23? ports it does not allow you
to do 'porting' like you can do on an Atari 850 using 'R4:' And
thars a minor problem for the majority of applications that the
average user would use it for.
So you're saying * Is this thing really worth it?" Well yes it is!
Personally, l wanted to upgrade from 1200 baud from 300 baud,
and I wasnt going to wait for the Atari SX212. So I called a dealer
and got an Avatex I200nc for $115, ‘Wow* I thought then he said
"What kinda computer you have* I said " Atari" then he said " You'll
need an interface". I thought to myself "what the hell is that* So
he said "We have the Atari 850 interface for $119.95 or the P:R:
Connection for 59.95* So seeing that I didn't have that much
money I got the P:R: instead. Just goes to show you what price
alternatives can do for you.
All you people have fun out there, especially the ones in bh*
land!**
reprinted froi
THE POKEY PRESS
VOLUME: 5" NUMBER: |/
GtACE
NEWS
PAGE {)
POKE 634,0
LPRINT
1 - ON JD7B5-1
1 - MDSHDLJIS
B - RM1G4 ; 6 . B
£ - ERPKLU"
3 - SLHF5 : 7/3
3 - DSQJMUSt
4 - TKDA2-0C4
4 - HTUnJPSS
5 - UJNB3<13S
5 - IUULKQV
6 - U I f1C072*6
6 - JUTQHRSS
7 - U)HLBl>3+7
7 - KUIUNI5 * %
B - XGCn> 1< £8
B - DX2AF/C*
3 YFBL?“’;9
3 - EYC0GD+ :
The Figures in the POKE G34 t 0
column mill get you back to normal
characters From each of the codes.
The figures in the
LPRINT column
type CLPRINT ”1
so that your
printer can accept
wish to encode.
each line you
GIVE US
A CALL
AMAZIN’
GRACE
(ALIAS GRACE
EXPRESS)
244— 8336
wise savinas
— The attention span of a
; computer is only as long as its
electrical cord -
i — A computer makes as many i
mistakes in 2 sec >:
wor king 20 year s *
;*nds as 20 men
— Any given program, when
running, is obsolete.
— Any significantly advanced
t ec hnol ogy is i nd 1 st i ngui shabl e
from magic.
mur phy
by JiM Woodu/ARd
THE POKEY PRESS
ATARI BUYS FEDERATED
It aeems that a few weeks ago. Atari U.S. Corporaton bought
a chain of electronics stores called Federated for $67.3 million.
This is not to be confused with the Federated that runs large
department stores Federated had 65 stores in 4 states {inducing
California) and sold televisions, video cassette recorders video
cameras, stereos, and rented video cassettes
Notice something? No video game systems No computers. Is
Atari going to add a certain brand of video game systems and
computers into those stores? You better believe it Imagine what
a great way to get your products to the people
Now for the big problem. What if you own a computer store
down the street from one of these Atari/Federaied stores? How
competitive can you be price wise? While Atari can put them into
their stores at cost, the independent store has to deal with
cSstri tutors, thus raising the price he has to pay for the machine
Then the independent must add a few dollars for himself, and then
you have the price you pay for your computer from him But why
pay him when you can go down the street and pay less, and get it
straight from Atari. At least that way you are guaranteed that if
there is a problem, you are going to be satisfied You may not oet
that from the independent store.
Tm no big genius when it comes to money (remember, I'm the
guy who said not to buy Atari stock), but I think that things could
be a little sticky in those, states where this situation occurs- We'll
just have to wait to see what happens,
Reprinted with permission from
ABACUS Atari User ‘s Group
POKING FUN
By Delmar Severy
Using an Atari POKE command
can make it very easy to sBnd
secret messages. If you PEEK at
location 6S4 you mill discover
that 0 is the default number
there. By Poking in other numbers
you can get nine easy codes.
Here are tuio charts to help
you have some fun .
<13 wVH13d
•'a*»
fcww»sr»9
Q-^ 1\A£'TS*)
cra 7«3TD AHVn»9.
~$g/
,^A-)) S I
> 3
'spy s6u|dds 6(J!l!°8 pu«
ja6u«A«Q }C JSUJ03
•Mi »* H3Jnq^j*yy
[sijouisu jatjg »m
** S133N 3 3%»JQ
GrACE NEWS
% ED CULBERTSON
107 SARATOGA DR.
GREER, SC 29651