cot 1/© ©otititctor
The newsletter of the San. Diego Atari Computer Enthusiasts
november ’31
(SB ACE * P .0 . BOX 203076 * SAH DIEGO * CA * 92120)
Japanese Woodcuts
The Coutesan
byAnchi(l 714}
The San Diego Atari Computer Enthusiasts
(SDA.C.E.) is an independent, non-profit organization and user group with no
connection to Atari Corp. membership includes access to the program library,
subscription to the I/O Connector, and access to any other club activities. Per-
mission to reprint articles from this newsletter in any non-commercial form is
permitted withot specific authorization, as long as original credit is given.
Commercial Rdvertising Rates
$35 - Full $30 - Back $20 - Half $10 - Quarter $5 - Business card
S.D.R.C.E. Officers
President David Delgadillo 475-6790 VP.tS-bitl Ron miller 748-7195
VF. CST) Rick DeHaven 284-2365 Treasurer Tom Andert 287-4198
Secretary Bruce Lawson 229-0380 Prg Dir (8-bit) Buck Bragunier 582-2730
Prg Dir (ST) Frank Cascio 282-5208 8-bit Librarian David Becker 280-1330
ST Libararian mike Odegard 287-9282 memship Officer Dick Haitt 541-7034
newsletter Editor Peter Payne 560-4272
(Call between 5:00 pm and 9:00 pm please)
Correspondence address:
Son Diego cjtciri Computer Enthusiasts
p.O. Box 203076
San Diego, cq 92 l 20
S.D.R.C.F. Bulletin Boards
S.D.A.CP. 8-bit BBS SiJ.A.CX. ST BBS
Sysop: Eddie Woods Sysop: Rick DeHaven
(61 9) 566-3430 (619) 284-3821
Submissions To The Newsletter
are most welcome, and are due by the third monday of the month, for the next
month's newsletter, mail printed copy or returnable disks with text files (ST
single sided format please) to the club's P.O. Box, or upload the file to one of the
S D A .C 2 . bulletin board systems .
Buy/Sell/Trade
ads, available on a space-available basis, are free to club members. The Editor
will accept ads at meetings, through the club's P.O. Box, or via telephone.
Deadline for classifieds is the same as articles.
Editor's Bits
Hello once again. It ‘s about 108 degrees as I
p type this, and I am bathed in sweat. This
weather is unbearable, but I guess it's only
temporary .
I wasn’t able to make the AtariFest in
Glendale, but others from SDACE were there,
and I heard it was good. Atari was there,
along with many software companies, dis-
playing their wares and wares. It was a
4 succees,rm told. Veil have a report on what
went on at the show soon .
A replacement for the job of newsletter
editor has been found in Tom Bryant .
Hopefully, he should be able to take over
within two months or so. I extend my
thanks to the other interested people .
Thanks for the support .
Oh, in case you haven't heard, Atari has
bought the Federat chain of stereo and
computer retailers for $67 3 million. Jack
Trammiel should be bringing his 'no holds
i barred' theories of marketing and capitalism
to the stereo industry, probably putting mad
Jack's, DOV and Circuit City out of business
by December, if all goes well tthat's sarcasm,
in case you didn't guess). The purchase will
give Atari some control over the retail end of
ST sales, also. The mega ST's, incidentally,
will not be sold through Federated .
Speaking of mega's, they're here! Oh my
god! Veil, Atari's taken half a year longer
than anticipated, but they have Blitters
| (which are very nice. I'm told) and are in at
least two major local retailers at this time.
They come in 2 and 4 meg versions (the ST2
and ST4, respectively), and probably go for
around $1700 for a 2 meg system, and $2200
for a 4 meg. The mega ST's, if you're not fam-
iliar with them, sport detachable keyboards,
internal clocks, Blitters, 800K internal drives
(styled more like the Amiga), and the new
version of the TOS ROSls. They're fully
compatible with the existing ST line, and I
want one .
The 8-bit SIG is still going well, although the
last meeting was a little weak, with less than
20 people showing up. Come on uou g un s! By
I not showing up to the meetings, you're
ruining all that Ron miller and the Beckers
are trying to do. The 8-bil club is not dead
I yet, but it will be someday soon if more
support is not shown. So mark you calendar!
L The next 8-bit meeting is Thursday, the
I hovember 1st. Be there! There are lots of
new products to be seen, so show up, please.
A reminder: The December meetings are
skewed. There will be ORE meeting, on the
first Thursday of the month (the 3rd of
December), at the north Park facility at 6:30.
Elections will be held at this General
meeting, and then they will split into the 8-
bit and ST meetings . Everyone be there !
Speaking of elections , the time is here to be
thinking of running for a public office. The
SDACE nomination Comittee has been
appointed by the President, and they'll be
calling up members to talk about this . Ve're
not asking for computer wizards or long
running members of SPACE; just people who
want to help others within the club . Ve want
you! Our little club can’t survive without
your support and the support of everyone (I
said EVERYOnE!), so please, if you've got the
time and the will, give it some thought. The
elected offices are: President, 8- bit Vice
President, ST Vice President, Secretary and
Tresurer . Thanx .
Incidentally, the membership rates will be
going up next year to $20. This will be voted
on by the membership soon . Costs are going
up, especially newsletter costs . If you want to
sign up for $15 instead of the higher price, do
so at soon as possible, and save yourself the
money. Ve've recently had to start mailing
our newsletter first class, because our Bulk
Rate mailing costs were getting more
expensive! Ve spend around $70 each month
for copying, and around $40 for postage costs .
Ve never take in more than half of that in
advertising monies . Therefore, the news-
letter is a big drag on expenses, and is the
main reason the club s been having the
financial difficulties it's been having . Do you
want to help? Talk to your local computer
retailer, ask him why he's not advertising . If
he does advertise, let him know you're
reading them. Vhen you buy something,
mention the I/O Connector, and the ad you
saw . That'll help a lot .
Do you like computer games? Do you have a
modem? Veil, give the Computer Boulevard
BBS a call. The number is 589-0565, and 300-
2400 baud is supported. There's a new
Galactic Empire type game online, in which
up to 25 players try to amass worlds in a vast
empire, and beat off their competitors. It's a
fun game, and has really caught on. Vhil®
you're on, engage in conversaion in the
message bases, or check out the downloads.
I'll see you there .
- Peter Payne
ST Educational Software News
by Lois Hansen
Reprinted from The SLCC Journal
In preparation for the VORLD OF ATARI
fair, I called up some of the software
companies known to be producing ed-
ucational software for the ST. I thought
that some of you who didn't make it to the
fair might like to know some of the news:
Saflasoa: Perhaps the most exciting
news is from Unicorn. They have come out
with no less than ten educational pro-
grams for the ST and they have several
more programs which are close to release .
I spoke with the president of Unicorn, Jeff
Stark, who told me that they have
writing educational software
for the Hlac because Apple is now trying to
position it as a business machine and
retailers don't want to display educational
software for the mac . Unicorn is continuing
to write for the Amiga and will get involved
with the Apple //gs, but at least at this
point , their main thrust is the Atari ST . Jeff
said that Unicorn has been designated the
"official 11 Atari ST educational software line,
and will be offered to retailers by Atari as
part of the package when they sign up new
dealers. If you have comments about their
products, want to ask for specific kmds of
software in the future, or simply want to
encourage them to continue to develop
more educa-tional software for the ST, give
them a call. The number’s right there in
your documentation. They’re only in Las
Vegas. Vhjn I called, the President ans-
wered the phone .
The newest products just released from
Unicorn are Read-a-rama for ages 5-8, a 2-
disk program that does pictures to words
and will accept input words, and Aesop's
Fables, o reading comprehension program
for the same age group. This program took
8 months to develop, is on two disks, has 12
animated stories, and 1000 words of voc-
abulary Q & A Coming soon are two more:
magical myths, a reading com-prehension
program for grades 4-8, and Word master, a
vocabulary builder for grades 3-8. Word
master will accept user input words, and
additional data disks of words are planned .
SSEra& i also spoke with Richard
Jacks, vice president of Engineering at First
Byte. Their specialty is talking programs
for the ST; the obvious application is for
pre-readers, but "reluctant “ readers will
find the First Byte talking math tutorialc
the four basic operations, IRathtalk, very
helpful. Richard told me about some other
programs out now or coming soon; Out now
is First Shapes, a preschool program that
talks, and Iliad Libs, based on the party
game of the same name . There is also
another mathtalk, about fractions,
percents and decimals, and another pre-
school program. First Letters and Vords.
Also planned for release soon is Smooth-
Talker, not an educational program per se,
but a program which will speak tor spell)
any ASCII file your word processor can give
it. This has obvious applications in beg-
inning reading , and Richard said that mac
users in universities have used it as a kind
of group class notes review session fac-
ilitator. Gather around the ST the way their
grandparents gathered around the radio...
He said it was also useful for checking input
to spreadsheets. This program, like all the
First Byte line, will list at $49 55. A bargain
in this latter case; some of us may want
call this company [which has an Si
number) and tell them what we think of $5_
as a price for kids* software which costs
considerably less than $1000. But be ready
to counter their wails about development
costs with your claims of numerous friends
ready to buy educational software at a fair
price.
Bad news from these folks .
Their support for the 8-bit line had been
discontinued a while ago, and they are now
ceacing distribution of their excellent math
program. Homework Helper, and their
graphic adventure senes based on classic
text like Treasure Island .
/MttffUg fl has finally released its
cheap C$18 .95 for two disks f) educational
software for the ST developed by the Arrakis
Advantage Company , There are allegedly
five packages of Algebra, two of Geometry,
one each of Statistics and Trigonometry,
four of Biology, and two each of Chemeetry
and Physics. I have seen Algebra, Geometry
and Chemistry in the flesh at the show .
Atari Corp gave us the Algebra I and
Geometry I packages which I will t
evaluating and reporting about later.
\ §>M.€.<B. Classifies
I
8
i
VAHTED by SDACE:
Atari 810 or 1050 Disk Drive
Ulust be cheap! Call Dave D 475-6790
For sale : Deep Space ,$15,
Antic and Analog back issues
Dave Delgadillo 475-6790
Atari CXS5 numeric Keypad (8-bit),
40 Track DS drive, 80 Track DS drive,
Riok Dehaven 284-2365
1040ST, monochrome monitor,
mouse Pad , 1 st Word , etc
$625/T3est Guy Davis 463-9704
20 meg Seagate hard disk,
256K miO, Green Screen,
SOOXL v /256K , 1050 W Doubler ,
Okimate printer, $680 system
Call Don Fritz 560-8142
LISTING OF SAN DIEGO AREA ATARI BBSs
Area code 619, 300/1 200 BAUD, 24 hours a day
unless otherwise noted
Code Name
Computer
Baud
Number
3
Fred’s Place
8-bit
2400
560-8173
3
Polaris
8-bit
3/12
566-621 0
3
The Highlands
8-bit
3/12
298-8475
The Atari Fortress
8-bit
3/12
426-4253
3
8-bit SDACE
8-bit
3/12
566-3430
1
Penthouse Suite
8-bit
3/12
279-2722
1
Shervood Forest
8-bit /ST
3/12
276-5603
t
! Aardvark
8-bit/ST
2400
272-5553
4
ST-SDACE
ST
3/12
284-3821
4
ST btfDI Connection
ST
2400
452-7535
5
Emerald City BBS
ST
1200
475-9498
5
! Computer Blvd.
ST
2400
589-0565
5
Computer Plus BBS
ST
3/12
691-7862
4
* Computer Outlet
ST
2400
282-6815
1 = TCxe, 2 = Forem, 3 = BBS Express
4 = Michtron ST, 5 = Forem ST
(*=Limited hours, !=Magic Sac support)
For additions or corrections,
please contact tne editor...
8-bit Gazette
Ron miller. Atari 8-bit VP
Following news covers the September 1087
Board meeting and the October 1987 8-bit
meeting ,
I * Financial statements - any currently
paid tip member is welcome to view the
financial books kept by the club treasurer .
2, Club color TV's - when the club
seperated the 8-bit and ST meetings , it was
agreed that group take posession of a TV.
Right now each group does have a color TV
to support club activities .
3 . Elections - it was agreed that the
December meeting would be a general
meeting of all members for the purpose of
holding elections . The meeting date will be
the first Thursday of the month of
December, which is the 3rd, and the place
will be the north Park Rec Center *
4, Club neeletter - it was agreed that the
8-bit club could be guaranteed at least two
full pages in the newsletter. The 8-bit club
is also responsible for those two pages , i e ,,
if the newsletter editor does not get any
input from the 8-bit side, the editor is not
required to place any 8-bit news in the
newsletter. Thus, the 8-bit club is looking
for an 8- bit co-editor to take care of their
portion of the newsletter. If any 8-bit
members are interested, they should
contact Ron miller, at 748-7195.
5 . October meeting - Approximately
twelve people attented, Ron ITUller
discussed Atari graphics and plotting to a
printer or pen plotter. Ed Voods discussed
and demonstrated his image capture
ComputerEyes using a color camera,
recorder and image capture system . many
members have never had a chance to see
this kind of hardware before .
6 . Buy and Sell - There were some good
hardware and software purchases. An
Atari 822 thermal printer went out the door
for $18. Original software packages traded
in the range of $5-$15 .
7* november meeting - the theme is
sound. Ve will discuss sound generation
and some uses. Ve should have some fun
with some music programs and some wild
sounds .
CEdi tor's note: the date for the next 8-bit
meeting is Ilovember 5th. Please be there,
so we can avoid the problem of having too
few members present. Its extremely
important to the health of the 8-bit SIG that
you attend as often as possible. Thanks)
1
Desktop Pen Plotters
The microcomputer user basically has
available tvo types of plotting devices , One
is the printer which can plot pictures
using patterns of printed dots. For some
pictures (such as digitized pictures from a
TV camera) this is a very good mechanism.
The second plot device is a pen plotter ,
which can plot pictures by dragging an ink
pen across paper. For pictures made of
lines (such as building floor plans), then
pen plotter is probably a better plotting
device because it can draw true lines. The
pen plotter can also draw one picture on
top of another without destroying either
picture. With the correct software, plotting
to either printers or pen plotters is equally
easy. And often a pen plotter uses the
same cable and computer port as a printer,
making the pen plotter look like a printer
to the computer .
There have been at least two good cheap
pen plotters on the market during the last
year . One is the Epson 4 color pen plotter
which was available from Jade Computer
or about $200 00 . The other is the
mannesmann Tally Pixy 3 three color pen
plotter which was available from Jade for
about $200 00. Vhile the following
discussions pertain to the Pixy 3, other pen
plotters operate in a similar fashion .
The Pixy 3 has a plotting surface of 2450
pixels horizontal by 1800 vertical. It can
draw an exact straight line from any pixel
to any other , Pixels are 0 .1 milimeters
apart (about 025 inches). Pixy 3 can chanc
pens under program control. On command
it can draw different line types (soli
dashed, dotted, etc.), circles, (specify center
and radius), spline curves (twisty smooth
curve through any number of points), fonts
(different alphabets), axis (x and y with
varying tick marks), grids, rotated text,
auto scales, and more.
Controlling Pixy 3 from BASIC, for example,
can be done with LPRIT1T. You might LPRII1T
“I3Q 100, 200" which moves the pen to
position 100 ,200 on a plotting surface of 2450
by 1800. LFRU1T "V 500, 600, 200, 200" would
draw a circle at x=500, y=600 with
radius=200. LPRIHT "Jl“ will pick up pen # 1 .
LPRJI1T "JO" will put all pens back in their
holder . In BASIC it is handy to build up a
library of string variables containing select
printer commands, since all plotter
commands are sent with LPRIHT. Plotting
from other languages is done using the
printer command for that language .
(Editor's note: Don't forget the remarkable
Atari 1020 4-color plotter, which can be had
used for $15-$30. The print quality of thi
40-column direct -connect (no inlerfac
required) plotter is really great, with many
of the above mentioned features .)
CAUTION
COMPUTER OUTLET MAY BE HABIT FORMING
6% aft all non-sal© software and hardware on your next purchase
Run Rtarilllrlter Plus uiitli SpartaDos
By mill Ingram
Reprinted from the PAG newsletter
AtariVriler Plus is great, but ...
Every time I use it I have unkind thoughts
dial the people at Atari vho seem to be to
be determined to prevent me from using
some of the features I like best abuot my
80QXL. These include a 256K expanded
memory and US. Doubler equipped 1050
drives used vith the SpartaDos disk
operating system. I could have a 128K
Ramdisk to allow rapid switching between
several files . I could use double density for
added file capacity and time /dale stamping
of files, using the R-Time S Cartridge or the
SpartaDos clock .
Unfortunately, none of this seemed
possible because of the way AtariVriler
Plus was supplied with a copy protected
"boot" disk . Then, along came the article by
Carolyn Hoglin in the July Antic magazine,
explaining how she adapted the program to
run with TOPDOS . I determined that I would
do the -same for SpartaDos ahd include the
Ramdisk and time and date stamped files.
I chose not to alter the original AtariVriler
Plus disk, but came up with a method
'hich uses a batch file tg perform the
nlire boot operation . A disk swap is nec-
essary, but everything else is auto-matic.
Here's how it can be done. First, initialize
a SpartaDos disk using X32D . DOS iSpartaDos
version 3 2), and copy# the SpartaDos files
ED.COm and TDLH1E .com to it. then, onto
this same disk copy the AUTORUT1 SYS file
from the AtariVriler Plus, disk and rename
it VRITE.C0m. Finally, create the following
STARTUP BAT [batch) file:
TDLIELE
RD D3: /E
COPY VRITE.C0m D3:
; REDQ0VE BOOT DISKAI1D IHSERT
; ATARIVRITER PLUS DISK III DRIVE 1
PAUSE
ID OFF
BASIC OFF
D3:VRITE
Vhen this disk is booted it performs the
-'allowing operations:
TDLIT1E - sets a time and date clock from
the R-Time 8 Cartridge. If you don't have
one of these, use the TIH1E and DATE com-
mands to initialize the clock and calendar .
RD D3: /E - set up and formats a Ramdisk
in the top 123K of memory. Hole that this
leaves 128K available to run the 13QXE
version of AtariVriler Plus .
COPY VRITE.C0m D3: - copies the program
VRITE .Com (the autorun sys loader pro-
gram from the AtariVriler Plus disk) to the
Ramdisk CD3;).
The next two lines are a prompt to replace
the boot disk with the AtariVriler Plus disk .
PAUSE - prints a promt PRESS AT1Y KEY TO
COnTmUE after swapping disks.
TD OFF - turns off the screen display of
time and date, but leaves the internal clock
active to lime /date stamp disk files .
BASIC OFT - turns off BASIC. Don't have to
hold down the 0PTI0I1 key during boot .
D3 VRITE - loads and runs the loader
program from Ramdisk. It then loads
AtariVriler Plus from Drive 1 .
LOAD and SAVE will now work with either
single or double desnsity disks. Double
density disks will need to be formatted
ahead of time. The built-in FORIHAT com-
mand works from the DUP SYS file on the
disk and produces only DOS 2 format . (This
will still work, as SpartaDos can read most
Atari formats, but you will lose the extra
capacity). Also, the IIIDEX command will
show the disk directory in DOS 2 format,
without the time and date. However, the
information is there and can be read with
the normal SpartaDos DIR command .
'Oh, You're m Computers? Say Some-
thing m Fortran.'
FOR ALL YOUR HARDWARE • SOFTWARE NEEDS
WARNER'S
ATARI SALES AND SERVICE
FREE MONTHLY *ST‘WORKSHOP
PUBLIC DOMAIN LIBRARY
MIDI STUDIO
REPAIR DEPARTMENT
LARGEST SOFTWARE SELECTION
3940 MIDWAY DRIVE , 3UTE Xf
RHONE 22
DIESO, QA 13110
- B 09 O ■*§
13
Sara raasgjra iflfiatpfl raaorararaaatp araaoarasfl
Pa Sa Sara gsusi's
Sara rasragjra 9 sra ©guara
SLCC NEWSLETTER EXCHANGE
BOX 1506
SAN LEANDRO , C A 94577-0374
The Ilovember 8-bil meeting will be Th.irrsda'g, Xlowember 5th , (the first Thursday of the
month, as alvags), at the meeting place in nlira IHesa,at the Voods Clubhouse on Bagvood,
near mira Ihesa Blvd (see map in the June I/O Connector or call editor for directions). ST
workshop /Hlagic Sac SIG will be same time and date as the 8-bit meeting, at north Park Rec
Center, 2719 Howard Ave, in the Adult Room . The Oct ST SIG meeting will be on mondag,
October 19th, no v ST meeting will be IZlondag , Dovembcr 161 b at 6:30, also in the north
Park Rec Center, in the Social Room . ITlQrl< LjOUP CQlendctP find ShOLU up!!!
