Current Notes
Vol. 10, N1
's/sss/sy/sssss/s//////////////s/.
: : xf : x : : ; . : : : . : x : x'yx: : x;x : x ; x;x : x ; x : :-
HHHi
III ( his issue:
I atest Atari News
What is an AtariFest?
I he New Look in CLI’s
Idling, Part 2
I he Magic Juice!
\S here Did My Memory Go?
\ Yankee Abroad
l ocus on Word
Processing
\ New ST Word Processors:
Word Up 3.0
Script
Wordflair
\ml a New Laser Printer:
The Hewlett
Packard
LaserJet III
Product Reviews:
Space Ace, Drakkhen
Tracker ST, Forecaster III
Red Storm Rising, 2
MultiDesk, MaxiFile, HotWire
L. A
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Mi>’r .i|>11 H.in.! I hupJ^3T
Mon iloa Mullf $12
Monitor Stand $14
Monitor Stand w/pow## imp $45.95
Mount Maatar $26
Muumi (Atari) $44
Mouaa (Golden Image) $17
Multisynch Munit<« (A*nr) 1419
Omniswilrti $79
PC Speed (216/AT) $119
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Table of Contents
October 1990
Special Reports
10 The HP LaserJet III
HP introduces a solid printer whose advanced features and
incredible price make it a strong contender.
— by MarshallVale
14 Your Atari ST with the HP LaserJet III
Resolution enhancement provides substantially superior quality
but Atari ST system compatibility may be a problem.
--by Dennis J. O’Boyle
16 Word Up 3.0 vs Script
Two new word processors have been released for the ST and
both are better than almost anything else in the ST market.
—by Christopher Anderson
20 Wordflair Version 1.01
Goldleaf introduces a product that appeals to a specialty mar¬
ket not yet addressed adequately by its competitors.
—by MiltCrcighton
42 TheNewLookinCLI’s
John explains CLI’s (Command Line Interpreters) and com¬
pares three recent entries in this arena.
—by John Barnes
This publication is produced using an Atari Mega ST4,
an Atari SMI24 monochrome monitor and a Moniterm
Viking monitor, a Navarone scanner, and the Atari
SLM804 Laser Printer. Most of the output is
generated with Publisher ST. Some pages, including
advertisements, are produced with PageStream and
others with Calamus.
Page 2
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
VOLUME 10, NO. 8 — OCTOBER 1990
Atari News ♦ Commentary
• Editorial, by Joe Waters. 4
Atari Fans Feast at the Fest
□ ST Update, by Frank Sommers. 6
The "Magician" Remains Silent, Dusseldorf vs
Glendale, Whither Art Thou, TT’s?, Atari Stock
Swan Dive
• Junkyard Pussycat, by John Barnes. 30
What is an AtariFest? Where are the Applica¬
tions? and Electronic Fare Wars.
• A Yankee Abroad, by Charles Warren. 64
Tommy and the TT, ST Emulator, An AT for the
ST, MIDI for the STE, Pagestream or Proxima?,
Announcements
• Small World, by David Small. 34
Idling, Part2. In this second of a two-part series,
Dave concludes his discussion about the various
phases he encounters when creating some¬
thing.
Departments
■ The 8-Bit Alchemist, by Ben Poehland. 24
The Magic Juice/ Ben reveals one of his most
treasured discoveries in the field of computer
medicine.
□ Myths and Mysteries, by Dave Troy. 58
Disguising ST Topics School, Desktop Publish¬
ing, and Databases
□ Shareware Sampler, by Brian Miller. 62
TestMaster2.0.1, create your own exams, and
Guitarist Demo, master the Guitar at home
□ ST Toolbox, by J. Andrzej Wrotniak. 72
Doing Things a Different Way, Andrzej looks at
new versions of MultiDesk, MaxiFile, and Hot-
Wire from CodeHead
□ Starting Block, by Richard A. Gunter. 28
Where Has AH My Memory Gone? Rich explains
how all that memory in your comptuer gets used
up.
Product
a
□ Drakkhen, by JoeSapienza. 68
To Arms! In a magical land.
□ Forecaster III, by Samuel M. Van Wyck. 54
Weather prediction and much more!
□ HP LaserJet III, by Marshall Vale. 10
□ HP LaserJet III, by Dennis O’Boyle. 14
□ Red Storm Rising, by Don Elmore. 38
Part II, stalking and killing the enemy.
□ Script, by Christopher Anderson. 16
(See “Word Up vs Script”)
□ Space Ace, by Frank Sommers. 56
When 28,800 is enough, already!
Reviews
□ Tracker ST, by H. Earl Hill. 48
The new all-purpose track-everything program.
□ Wordflair, by Milt Creighton. 20
A hybrid, lying midway between a word pro¬
cessor and a desktop publishing program.
□ Word Up 3.0, by Christopher Anderson. 16
(See “Word Up vs Script”)
KEY:
□ ST-related review or article.
■ XE/XL related review or article.
• Machine independent article.
Time to RENEW???? Look at your mailing label. If it has a "9010" on the first line, this means that your
subscription ends in month 10 of 1990. That’s October, this issue! Send in your renewal ASAP to be sure you don’t
jniss any issue of Current Notes. If you see a "9011“ or "9012," your subscription will soon end. Please renew early. ^
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 3
October! This is clearly AtariFest time. Those of
you who have never attended a Fest are really missing
a treat. The Junkyard Pussycat gives his views of the
critical components of an Atarifest. John has certainly
been involved in quite a few. I think my views are best
summed up by the piece Jack Holtzhauer wrote way
back in December of 1985 when he reviewed our very
first Fest. Many in our audience may remember Jack’s
account and will smile (or maybe cry) at the memories.
For those who weren’t there, this is the way it was in
the beginning...
I couldn’t believe it! Fairfax High’s parking lot was half
full when 1 pulled in at 9:30 am. All these folks couldn’t
possibly be wasting a perfectly good Saturday to attend
NOVATARl’s AtariFest. Could they? The event hadn’t
received all that much publicity, had it? Are there morethan
500 or so real Atari fans in the entire Metro area? Could half
of them be here? Already? The show’s not due to start for
another half-hour. 1 couldn’t believe it.
1 grabbed my Washington Post, cuppa coffee and bag of
Hardie’s biscuits and started walking towards the main
entrance. I hadn’t taken more than a couple of steps when
the sonorous voice of a public address announcer wafted
across the parking lot from the nearby school stadium,
“BROGAN CARRIED THE BALL TO THE COUGARS
32. BROUGHT DOWN BY NUMBER 66-BILLY BOB
PLUCKETT. FIRST AND TEN, VIKINGS!” Ah ha! That
explains it! These cars don’t belong to owners of an $89
computer and its new XE and ST cousins. They belong to
good ’ole red-blooded American football fans. What better
place to be on a bright Saturday Fall morning than at the
local school field, before heading home to lean back in the
recliner and watch the NCAA on TV, a six-pack within
easy reach. That’s more like it—puzzle solved!
But wait a minute! I’m not the only one walking toward
the building. There are several family groups in front of me
and some other stragglers coming from the parking lot. And
up ahead a couple of guys are unloading computer gear from
vans parked near the main entrance. Maybe there will be a
few folks here, after all. Let’s wait and see.
Hmmm.Lots of activity in the long hallway leading to
the cafeteria where the Fest was to be held. Folks pushing
handcarts to and fro, those on the way in piled high with
computer stuff. And inside the cafeteria there must be fifty
people. A mixed bag ranging from little kids to grandmas, all
busily at work preparing exhibit areas—running electrical
lines, setting up computers, stringing cable, stacking mer¬
chandise, hanging posters and signs. They even look
organized-could they really know what they’re doing?
Maybe this thing will fly!
Uh oh! Here comes Georgia Wcatherhead! I remember
her from the last NOV ATARI meeting where she was
seeking volunteers to work at the Fest. She's heading right
for me with that “I need just one more” glint in her eye. I
quickly put on my “I’mon my appointed rounds” expression
and steered a sharp change in course towards the refreshment
room. I sat down and read the s|>orts section while I ate my
white-bagged breakfast, figuring it would probably be safe
to go back into the main room in a couple of minutes.
It was, but there must have been two hundred people in
there then, standing a couple deep m tiont ot the exhibit
tables strung around the room s |>erimcter. And they looked
like they were having fun
Palmer Pyle was on tin PA system giving away the
first batch of door prizes He was t<> do this every half hour
throughout the day-dozens <>| At.ui I shirts, back packs,
and pith helmets; game cartridges donated by Black Patch
Systems and Applied Computer Wmh mics; free subscriptions
to PC-ADS; more gamoa donated by NOV ATARI; and
NOVATARFs grand pi ‘.I \nd free lor the
taking—a couple hundred (VntqHde mobiles and another
several hundred Atari gum button I ots «*t goodies for
everyone.
The crowd must U at least another hundred stronger
now. Time to ta> ilk around and aer whfl’ du-re was to
see before things really got out ..! h .n.l Why not start near
the door and work my wa> aioond the loom ’
Dave Meyer, hr. dan ouplcof other
cohorts were working tl \ MING table.
Dave was running a video i i|n f< aiming a number of
popular Atari games V' /»d . . \hn \stro Chase,
etc., while Heather was putting * m. other, thru their paces
on her 800XL. M Evan I hook N<>\ \lAKI’s busy disk
librarianand Cum/tf A< '/*•* • -•lumnut * a*, hard at work at
another console demousiiatmg M>me t SSI's wargame
simulations. A real hit at tin U»nih wns a video tape
covering Neal Harris' recent visit t • NOV ATARI and
another showing ActiventuM » < I > Id >M demonstration.
Folks were to t m l I.nrdoop WilCh' ill day.
Next tloot at tin I \‘ I h M II hibit Jim
Stevenson and Ld Seward Jem m t»atmg I < t/on, Basic
XL, Pascal etc., and m-.wifmg question-, regarding the
features of these p«»pul u i.mgiMgu* I In > wi n swamped
with questions regarding A * \nmn I h> the many teachers
drawn to the lest l>> publu it> gtm< md within the Fairfax
County school system Jim w*% *U<> lm%> selling NOVA¬
TARl’s fine NPX disk p«..g« «m*, /b/- film* 7‘"being a
particular favorite.
Next in line wa tin « "M showiase area I could see
Evan Wallace standing Iwn k then Uhiinl tin uowd, but I
couldn’t belly^up close enough to << what was going on.
Maybe on the next ern ml l m s.i did m*k< it Somebody
said you needed a visa.)
Page 4
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
On to the productivity exhibit where Gary Purinton
and several others were manning the store. The hit here?
AtarilVritcr Plus, ; received just the night before from our
favorite computer maker. They were trying to demo PJus
while reading the manual at the same time. They hadn’t
even seen it till after the show opened. At another console,
Bob Waterfield was running tutorials on Synapse’s Series of
applications software-- SynCaJc, SynFile+ etc. By the time
word got around that Plus was on display, the area was
grid-locked for the rest of the day.
Just around the corner was the EDUCATIONAL area
under the charge of Diana Burdt, Marvin Bleiberg,et al. A
covey of XL’s was running all sorts of educational fare
ranging from pre-school to college-level material. Marvin
was even using his Atari to display graphs relating to
pharmacokinetics. Come on! I can't believe you’ve never
heard that term before? Everybody knows it relates to the
’’study of the bodily absorption, distribution, metabolism and
excretion of drugs” (source: Web. New Collegiate Diction:
ary-9th ed.). Had it right on the tip of your tongue, didn’t
you? Doesn’t it strike you as strange that our favorite ’’game
machine” would be used for such an esoteric purpose? In any
case, Marvin later told me he’d had a good day. He ran into
several graduate medical students who had come up to the
Fest from Richmond. They not only liked his graphs, they
even understood them! Small world!
The last exhibit table featured the Atari’s music
capability. Working in conjunction with Jim Heard of
Fairfax Computer Products, Steve Steinberg had a couple of
computers up and running various 8-bit music programs.But,
the hit here was a Casio synthesizer hooked up to thc^
520ST’s MIDI interface. This demo drew capacity crowds all
day. Jim was also showing off the ST’s graphic capabilities
using Atari’s ’’freeware” Neochrome program. He even
brought in a professional artist to show folks how easy it
was to produce attractive graphics screens. I’m told the
AMIGA lost a couple of sales here.
One of the busiest areas at the Fest was NOV ATARI’S
own table where, while Earl Lilley, Linda Wood and other
volunteers weren’t signing up new members,they were doing
a land-office business selling the group’s library disks. The
folks from AURA, the only other local users’ group present,
were also putting on a pretty good show. It looked to me as
if their participation was well worth their effort.
Vendors, vendors everywhere! A dozen or so. HAL-
COM was there demonstrating their popular Computer-Eyes
package. Mike and Linda Barnes from XLENT Software
with their fine ’’printware” products. COMPU-GREET1NGS,
computer-formatted greetings cards. The publishers of PC-
ADS, Local retailers—Portside PC, Cal Com, L&Y Elec¬
tronics, Black Patch Systems, STS Video, Applied Computer
Associates, Galfal Systems, and, as previously mentioned,
Fairfax Computer Products. Probably some others I missed. I
had a chance to talk to several retailers after the show. They
appeared to be more than pleased by the business the Fest
generated, both on-site and followup. Willing to try again?
You betcha. One even had a good suggestion for the next
Fest. Why not set up a ’’spotlight” area—a section with
plenty of room where demos of ’’hot items” could be
scheduled? Maybe in an hourly rotating cycle of presen¬
tations? Items such as a music synthesizer hooked up to the
ST’s MIDI interface, Computer-Eyes, Activenture’s video on
the CD-ROM etc. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
I closed out my stay by spending an hour or so
sitting-in for Joe Waters at the Current Notes table, selling
back-isues, answering questions, and such. We also had
Atari’s new XM301 modem on display there. The three most
frequent comments?(l) Jeez, how did they make it so small?
(2) Can you use it to down-load? (3) So, what else is new?
I didn’t have the answer for the first one. "I’m pretty
sure” was my response to the second. I never did get a
chance to look at the documentation. I directed those
looking for other new Atari products to the PRODUCTI¬
VITY area where AIV P/us was on display and also
mentioned that demo versions of Silent Butler and Home
Planetarium had also come in from Atari the night before. I
wished them lots of luck ’cause 1 had missed both on my first
go-around.
I never did find Silent But/er but on my way out I ran
across the Home Planetarium demo. If I understood what I
saw, 1 think it allows you to pick any spot on the globe,
choose your direction and angle of view, and the program
will display the starfield for you for any date since the dawn
of time. Solar tracking, eclipses and plotting the progress of
Halley’s comet are also possible. You can also use your
joystick to zoom in and out, just as if you were using a
variable focal length telescope. Just the thing for stargazers
or budding astronomers.
I enjoyed my visit. I had a chance to talk to members of
all the local users’ groups and some others who had come
from as far South as Georgia and the Carolinas;as far North
as Pittsburgh; others from Jersey and New York. Most felt
the trip more than worthwhile-better than similar events
they had attended. I guess by the time I left, at about 1:00
pm, over fifteen hundred visitors must have filtered through.
Terry white is NOV ATARI’S publicity chairman. This
event was his brainchild.Terry, Georgia Weatherhead, Diana
Burdt, Marvin Bleiberg, Gary Purinton, and the rest of the
folks from NOV ATARI put it together. And it worked. It
worked well. Everybody take a bow! Better yet, encore! Next
time let’s spread sawdust on the floor and have balloons!
Elephants! Dancing girls?
—Jack Holtzhauer
’’Atari Fans Feast at the Fest,” reprinted from Vol. 5,
No. 10 of Current Notes, (December, 1985).
Some of you will read this at the 6th annual
Washington AtariFest. The rest will have to read about
the Fest in next month’s issue of Current Notes.
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 5
The "Magician" Remains Silent, Dusseldoi
vs Glendale, Whither Art Thou, TT’s?
Atari Stock Swan Dive
Fully Recovered
The STe, the last new Atari
machine, was declared “healthy”
and released from the “kranken-
house.” Dealers on both coasts, as
well as in Europe, have announced
that the new machines coming from
Atari are “fine” and no longer give
hard drives migraines, meaning wipe
out their directories or what have
you. What caused the problem? The
vote seems split between the DMA
port and the MMU chip, with Atari
maintaining it was neither. So just
be happy. They work now.
He maintains that not for yet
another month will he devise a mar¬
keting plan, still needing more in¬
sight and more information to be
sure what direction it should take.
If his “magic” can work, can
create the excitement here that still
quite thrives in Europe about “the
latest” Atari products, then Atari,
Mail Order, U.S., will not happen.
The TT is apparently generating
abundant enthusiasm, in fact,
excitement in England and Ger¬
many. (See Below.) If, somehow, it
can be “hijacked” from the FCC and
The Stalwart & The
“Magician’
Last month we used the word
“stalwart” to denote those who had
succumbed to Atari management’s
“fear washing,” a new form of the
old Chinese water torture. They
were the ones who had recently left
Atari, or who could be expected to
soon. Along with this sense of fore¬
boding at Atari was the urgent
expectation that “new manage¬
ment,” Elie Kenan, Atari’s new pre¬
sident of computers, could and
would stand Atari on its head in the
U.S. market and drive it upward into
a position of some “recognition.” As
one Atari-specific magazine pub¬
lisher noted, in paraphrase, “There’s
no place to go now for a more
‘enjoyable’ computer. There’s no
reason to expect that Atari U.S. will
survive much longer, having
estranged most of the components
that a business needs to be
successful or, in these days, just to
survive.” That said, we would like to
reserve “our powder,” for yet
another month. Admittedly, the rea¬
son is—Elie Kenan. He continues to
refrain from wielding his new sword.
splayed about in the U.S. in time for
the Christmas market, it will miss
becoming another of Atari’s “still¬
born” new products. In fact, hope¬
fully, it could breathe a bit of new
life into the company and its market
Atari in Germany—Rocking
Along
Oh, my, how we would have
loved to have it happen here in
Washington at the Atari Fest. A
great debate about whether the
attendance was 40,000 versus a
possible 50,000, or as one U.S
dealer attested, 60,000 attendees
But it was, indeed, Deusseldorf,
Germany. Remember, the Germans
have a facility for trade fairs, which
they call "Messes.” Many of the
Messe halls are bigger than some of
our train stations. So when you
combine two halls, which the Deus¬
seldorf show did, with one devoted
almost exclusively to professional
applK aii iini«lit h 1 by the large
German graphics companies, like
Hell and Kot a begin to have
one large, if not huge, display area,
about the size of five football fields,
all linked togothoi
What diew the crowd? Was it
because there were 10 times as
many oxlubiti>n .r. iihuh were at the
San Jose fair in California, or 50
times ns many visitors? Well, to start
with when you got within about 15
kNomalM of mu Mmm area, the
horizon was blanked with little
squain wluti. signs leading, “Atari
Messe one i mi son said there
must have boon a thousand or more
them, one at evoi, turn in every
road loading to thu grounds.
Inside the exhibit halls Atari Was
• ham| 'Mini, them were
those Who .. .minding com¬
plaints siimiai to what you hear in a
novel onding dione in the U.S.,
complaints about promotions that
u" • i s in" .it .Hid lack of
ptodiK i when you m< >%t need it, and
pool maiketing But these voices
wata imothoiod h, Iim approving
.. . it the txmdoroua ciowds, the
novel ending displays ot peripherals
.m l | : ' 1 " • at.in .nid the
evening in between in the beer halls
with ttie ti ll rn, j demonstrative
German people
"iin an i , "ii Tiamtel were there
and well
.. by all Fite Kenan was
revolving through tho crowds,
s|'"n im | tnM ... II, i".elopers, par-
in mail, those supplying the U.S.
Page 6
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
market, e.g. ISD and Goldleaf Pub¬
lishing, of Ca/amus and Wordf/air
fame. Reportedly not only these two
developers, but several others, were
commenting quite favorably on
Atari’s new president. Among the
gossip that flows as fast in German
as it does in English, Europeans
who know that the U.S. Atari market
not only has fallen arches, but is
almost shoeless, were mouthing the
“without question it’s true” news
that the Tramiels would close up
Atari, U.S. and move to Germany to
live. (If you believe that, then you’ll
believe that Atari is about to merge
with Macintosh.)
The big event, of course, was
the release for sale of Atari’s newest
machine, the mighty TT. It was one
of the main centers of attention.
Price quotes varied. A stripped
down version was reported to sell
for the equivalent of U.S. $3,000. An
8 meg TT with a hard drive, VGA
monitor and keyboard was some¬
where between $5,000-$6,000, with
a 4 meg version at $4,800. Obser¬
vers were impressed, with some
rating its performance as superior to
that of any version of the Mac II. Not
everybody was happy, however.
Developers were claiming they
couldn’t get TT’s even though they
had already gone on sale for the
public. One Atari official said that
the supply had been limited to 100
TT’s and they were sold almost
immediately. When more would be
available in stores was not certain.
Nathan Potechin was showing
Calamus in color in beta format. The
estimate is that it will be available in
the U.S. just before Xmas. Memory
upgrades for the ST were much in
vogue. A 12 meg upgrade for Mega
ST cost about $800, including the 4
meg already in your Mega. Hackers
were heard to observe that the TT
was overpriced and no big deal;
memory upgrades and enhance¬
ments of your ST would produce
just as good results. Feran’s &
Musique of Stuttgart were selling an
Apple talk board for the ST, which is
reportedly also available here on the
west coast for about $300
(MicroWorld, Berkeley, CA, Tele:
415-548-8999). There was also a
laser printer driver for the GCR Mac
emulator. STe’s have pretty much
replaced the standard 520’s and
1040’s. Interestingly enough, one
U.S. dealer decided he should visit
an Atari dealer in Duesseldorf to
compare notes. The phone book
didn’t carry the word “Atari” and his
efforts to locate one in the city were
a failure.
Finally, we should soon be see¬
ing new tools for DTP. The Euro¬
pean emphasis seems to be on
graphics, graphics where software
controls the size of the dots on the
screen, graphics with type setting
quality higher than Linotronics, e.g.
3000 dots per inch. Rumors that the
new GDOS was out and available at
the show were prevalent and
apparently false. These may have
been generated by a beta display,
but according to a knowledgeable
official at Atari, the new GDOS is not
out in either Europe or the U.S. and
won’t be until the end of November.
Rollercoaster
Last March* we reported on
Atari’s stock and compared its
November ’89 price to that of
February '90; it was holding around
5 or 6, a 50% drop from its high for
the 52 week period of 12 3/4’s. We
“scientifically” computed how much
the father and son’s had lost as their
29,104,955 million shares of stock
had catapulted downward. Remem¬
ber, March 1990 was a time when
computer stocks were not thriving
generally. Today Atari, as then, has
less than 1% of the U.S. computer
market, versus Macintosh, which is
down, but still ten times that of Atari,
with an 11% market share, which,
even so, makes Apple anxious.
Despite a little buying here and
there and some ups and downs, in
between then and now, on 24
August, Atari’s stock dove into the
cellar, in the middle of the day at $2
per share, to close by 4 P.M. EST at
3. Another 50% cut in value for the
Tramiels, since February; not to
mention employees, past and pre¬
sent, who had stock options early
on, and who had been waiting for
the stock to climb back up over $8
before trying to purchase and profit.
For a few days, in late August and
early September, the stock bounced
slightly upward around 5 and then
back towards its 24 August closing
low. As we go to the printer, this
mid-September, it hangs there at 3
1/4 - 3 1/8th, twisting slowly in the
breeze.
Still in the Closet
Why was the TT selling in
Europe, or at least 100 of them, but
per Atari, there will be none to show
at the WAACE Atari Fest? Why?
Why was Atari telling its developers
not to bring theirs to Atari shows,
until after Atari unveiled the TT for a
second time at Comdex. This
seemed all the more curious, since
two TT’s had been displayed at the
Anaheim show in April. At the com¬
ing WAACE show, there was a sug¬
gestion from one Atari stalwart that
there might be a back room “treat,”
in quarters Elie Kenan and company
had taken “off site,” but for develo¬
pers only. In the old days, this would
be done to generate a little market¬
ing magic. But, as one person poin¬
ted out, the only people buying
Atari’s now are Atari owners who
attend shows and elect to upgrade.
Why try and hype them? Other
might-be-buyers have no way of
knowing the machine exists, much
less what new models are available.
So, why not bring the TT out of the
private closet and show it to every¬
body at the Fest?
Human Ware
A group of wags who were
berating the lack of new Atari hard¬
ware to be shown on the east coast,
suddenly focused on a new type of
fest “software.” They conjured up a
picture of Sam T. sitting high up on
a carnival perch, with ladder
attached for remounting, over an
inflated small round swimming pool,
with an electronic switch connected
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 7
to a battery of Atari computers, all running Space Ace.
When the first competitor went over 28,000, down
would come blue baby (see Space Ace ending) and
Sam and all. During brakes and dry outs, he was to be
replaced by Bob Brodie, the peripatetic user group
coordinator.
Top Nine
The changing leaders in the game world, or at least
the games just arrived from Europe (Sideline Software,
1-800-888-9273) are: Battle of Britain, F-29 Reta/iator,
Mid-west Resistance, Shadow War, F-19, Ancient
Beast, Bomber Mission Disk, Venus Fiy Trap, and
Fa/con Mission Disk #2.
Will They Ever Close O.K. Corral?
Have you ever snuggled into your memories of the
happiness of childhood and compared it with the warm,
inside pleasure of using your Atari computer. Do you
therefore lower the head, and hunch your shoulders and
prepare, fearlessly, if self-consciously, to tell any inter¬
rogator why, next to “family,” there is only one “thing”
that makes you smile, “inside,” your Atari computer.
Well, hear this! IBM and the Mac have just jumped
off their horses and waddle-scooted into “Shoot-Out
Corral” to decide it, once and for ever. Who demanded
it? Why have any carnage, over “two such nice
machines,” smiling Atari owners ask?
The highly-respected National Software Testing
Laboratories decided it was time, once and for all, to
decide! They, per our renowned computer author T.R.
Reid, hung, right up on the barn-door wall, the naked
frames of IBM and Mac, (and in several guises, e.g. Mac
SE vs IBM 50Z, and Mac llci vs. IBM 70's), and
declared, “Have at it!” Remember, when you test for
speed, it doesn’t easily factor in “fun”; or when you
compare price and features, or memory and price, etc.,
etc., you begin to lose sight of the bulls-eye, even with
electronic, computer tracking. So, when the sheriff rode
up, and the deputies hesitantly toed-over the electron¬
ically mutilated bodies, what could the autopsy possibly
tell? Well, the entrails consisted of performance, ease of
use, speed, and price, and the winner? A machine that
never even rode into town for the shoot-out. It was the
clone, the IBM clone, on a speedy little horse, costing
half as much as the others. As for the Mac-IBM blast
out, it was, per the NSTL, a standoff.
Anaheim Revisited
The Glendale show over the weekend of 15-16
September was pretty much a replay of last April’s
Anaheim. There were enhancements to our current DTP
programs, but no really brand new programs. Atten¬
dance was light, making it comfortable to move around
and enjoy. If you counted local stores, the vendor total
possibly went as high as 35. Len Tramiel was carrying
the banner for Atari, but had brought no hardware to
display. He did address the group and answered
questions, or if you will, fielded them. On Atari’s new
marketing strategies for the U.S., he quite skillfully
avoided even hinting at the fact that there was or wasn’t
one. Quite properly so, if our information is correct that
Elie Kenan is still cogitating the plan, and has almost
absolute authority over it.
Possibly the big news, or big little news, was the
evidence of TT’s in the hands of developers. David
Small had his GCR up and whirring away on his TT.
Most DTP programs were running on TT’s with Moniterm
big screens. The little SLM 605 was not in evidence. Len
said it was coming with higher print quality and lower
cost. When asked about a new "desktop" for the TT
that someone in Europe claimed to have seen, he was
elusive indeed; you might have thought he was Judge
Souter before the U.S. Congress But the implication
was certainly that a “new desktop" for the TT might well
be in the offing. What kind of a giuphics enhancement
management might this be? Further definition was not
available.
CD ROM
Here, NOW
CDJMK504
CDAR 504. $595.00
Yes Folks! The New ATARI CDAR 8CM CO ROM Drive, is
available at Computer Rock Thu unit u capable of reading
both ISO and High Sicmiu f i<*ntly two
CD s available for the CDAR 50*1 , * 1 > >i
IBM CD an be read on the Cl >AR TA >4
ST Software Library Titles
Public Domain CD ROM, 240 Megabytes of
PD software, on one CD ROM $79.95
Clip Art Disk: 40* Megabyte* of Clip Art. lor
desktop Publishing Imago Cal imago Cataloging
Software included. _ Qrty $69.95
Computer Rock,
3785 Balboa St San hancltco. CA 94171
ORDER LINE (415) 751 8573
Page 8
Current Notes
Vot. 10, No. 8
-Electronics
Toll Free From OH, PA, WV, KY, IN, MI 1 -800-52-BANDG
15729 Madison Ave. Lakewood, Ohio 44107 1(216)521-2855*
ST Upgrades
When we do upgrades, we do them Right. Due to the
various designs of the Atari computers, we have found that
there is no "single" upgrade board that works correctly. We
have chosen several different boards and use the one that
best works in the ST that you own. ALL OF THE BOARDS
WE USE EITHER PLUG IN OR SOLDER IN. We WILL
NOT use a board that jams into the computer unless
there is no other way.
The following is the current pricing for memory
upgrades to the Atari ST computers. Some computers have
incompatible MMU and Glue chips, and may require
replacement at an additional cost. Also some older units
require additional labor.
520ST (Old Style) to 1 megabyte % $240.00
520STFM to 1 megabyte $120.00
52OST/520STFM/1040ST to 2 megabyte* 0 * $340.00
52OST/520STFM/1040ST to 4 Megabyte# $490.00
* Some units will actually have 2.5 megabytes
°o Expandable to 4 Megabytes
# This upgrade is not recommended for the older style 520ST because
the power supply may not be able to supply the extra current
required.
Our Service Department
When your computer
equipment fails to function, you
want to obtain repairs as
quickly as possible. As a
general rule, it is very difficult
to have Atari hardware
repaired or exchanged by Atari
"Quickly”. To the best of our
knowledge, Atari does not
actually repair any products
you send to them. They
usually rely on their excellent
consumer product exchange program, which often takes
many weeks, and may cost you large sums of money not
really necessary because Atari never checks the product...
They simply send you another one.
Our service department repairs about 90 °o of the
Atari products submitted for service and suggest unit
exchange only when it is financially advantageous to the
owner. The fact that we actually check every product could
save you hundreds of dollars. Why should you pay $200 for
an exchange, if it can be repaired for $60? However, if the
cost of the repair approaches the exchange price, we will
handle the entire exchange process (many times out of our
stock), saving you a lot of hassle and time.
Call For Current
Pricing And Specials
Portfolio
ANNOUNCING
Removable Hard Disk
$849.95
Standard system includes
ICD Host adaptor with
clock, Syquest SQ555, and
SQ400 media cartridge.
Custom systems with built
in 5.25" or 3.5" floppy also
available.
Two year warranty on
all components.
Additional Media Carts $89.00
* Analog RGB Input
* Digital RGB Input
* Stereo Audio and Composite video
inputs
* Super VHS Inputs
* 640 X 200 Display
* 14 Inch Glossy Face Screen
(13 Inch Viewable)
* .42 MM Pitch CRT - Provides full
80 column by 25 row text
display
* Green Text Display Switch
* Built in Tilt/Swivel Base
* Two-Year Limited Warranty
Grea t Monitor for your STe
Magnavox 1CM135
Features:
□
$299.95
Smart. Very smart.
□
HeadStart
SSL
(JPi)
300CD
IBM AT Compatible 12.5MHz 80286
1 Megabyte RAM
3.5" (1.44 Mb) floppy
5.25 " (680Mb) CD ROM with Audio Capability
Internal 40Mb 28ms Hard Disk
16-bit VGA with 256K Video RAM
Internal 2400 Baud Modem
101 key keyboard
3 button Logitech Compatible Mouse
Headphones
52 Sofware programs Including:
$2199.00
Plus Monitor
Publish It!
The New Grolier Electronic Encyclopedia
Hotline Two (Nat. Directory of Addresses
and Telephone Numbers)
Quattro 1.0
Word For Word
MS-DOS 4.01 GW-BASIC
Deluxe Paint II
Microsoft Bookshelf
CD Guide
Mavis Beacon Typing
Q&A 3.0
Twist & Shout
Much, much, more
Authorized Dealer for:
Atari
Panasonic
Star Micronics
Epson
Headstart
Hewlett Packard
Citizen
And Others
We accept Visa, MC, Discover— No surcharges— Shipping costs based on
actual UPS charges.
* As a registered owner of hardware purchased from us, we will accept calls collect.
All prices subject to change without notice.
The HP LaserJet III
A Printer for All Seasons
by Marshall Vale
Because of new work situations, I found myself
needing better output than my old 9-pin printer could
provide. I began to require high quality printing at
home. I started to look seriously at laser and ink jet
printers, and after much hemming and hawing I pur¬
chased a shiny new Hewlett-Packard LaserJet III.
Let’s Kick the Tires.
The LaserJet III (abbreviated LJ3 from here on) is
based on the Canon SX engine. The SX is an 8-page
per minute printer, which is also employed in the LJ2
and the Apple LaserWriter II series. Canon printers are
known for their ease of use and maintenance, features
that make the large weight and footprint more pala¬
table. The LJ3 weighs in at 54.6 lbs. and is 9.8” high by
18.10” wide by 31.4” long with tray inserted (19.7”
without tray). It was definitely a chore carrying the
beast up to the third floor. The LJ3 retails for $2,395
and has the low street price of $1,600 to $1,700.
Where the LJ3 really shines is with its abundance
of features. The LJ3 is outfitted with the new PCL level
5, HP’s page description language. Advantages of
PCL-5 are faster graphics
computation and more tex¬
tual effects such as rotation,
reverse, shade, and mirror. In
addition, PCL-5 includes the
whole HP plotter language
so that the printer can act
just like a plotter.
In addition to the sturdy
Canon SX engine, the LJ3’s
other assets only serve to
make it a more impressive
printer. Probably the most
impressive feature of the LJ3
is HP’s new proprietary
Resolution Enhancement chip. This resolution
enhancement manages to squeeze an apparent 400 to
600 dpi image out of a 300 dpi printer. It does this by
changing the size of the laser as it is imaging and
placing smaller-than-300 dpi dots in calculated places.
The special chip figures out where these small, extra
dots should go to improve the appearance of curves
and other jagged images. All this is done on the fly by
the chip and requires no extra overhead.
Expandability and versatility round off the printer.
The LJ3 sports 1 Mb of standard RAM, the general
standard is only 512k, and can be expanded to 5 Mb in
1 Mb increments. You can also add Adobe PostScript
to the printer via a cartridge that fits into one of the two
cartridge ports in the LJ3. It is a new version of
PostScript that features much faster font rendering
techniques and the 35 standard fonts that come in the
Apple LaserWriter Plus & NTX. You can connect the
printer up through either the provided parallel port or
serial port. If you also need to hook up other types of
I/O, there is an optional I/O port for an AppleTalk
connector or multiple serial connectors.
Installation.
The printer was easy to set up. A thorough HP
installation manual steps you through the procedure
painlessly. Only two items, a toner cartridge and a
fuser pad, needed to be instaiiud in the machine itself.
The rest of the installation involved taking out various
protective snaps and Styrofoam
If you are familiar with printois based on the Canon
engine, you know how easy it is to change toner. The
drum, toner and developer are all in one large car¬
tridge Whon you need to
repla< n the toner, you just
slide in a now cartridge and
change a small fuser pad.
Cartridges aie readily avail-
ablo suit o troth the LJ2 and
LasoiWntoi ll's use the same
toner cartridges.
The LJ3 comes with a
stmdy 200- sheet letter-size
tiay You can get additional
trays toi legal, envelope and
European sizes The paper
tray acts .is tho manual feed
with sliders on top of the
tray. The printer needs a lair amount of space and
breathing room for ventilation— a consideration if you
plan to purchase this printer
The control panel of the LJ3 is mu h unproved
from the LJ2. There is a small, but readable. LCD panel
that you can set to display in venous languages. Below
the panel are eight buttons that set all of the LJ3’s
features. There are no DIP switches In this printer.
Hooking up the LJ3 to my Moga2«2 (a Mega2
upgraded to 4 megs) was a cinch All i had to do was
move my old Star NX-to out of the way and connect
This is sample
te?(t of the Zapf
Chancery font.
Rpple LaserWriter II NTK(orig^ize)
This is sample
te?ct of the ZapJ
Chancery font.
HP LaserJet II
Resolution Enhancement - on
Zap
pple Laser, enlarged 400%f . ..... . . . •
f HP LaserJet 111, enlarged 400 J
Page 10
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
the parallel connector to the LJ3 instead. The printer is
very quiet. In fact, I could not hear it over the jet engine
sound of my hard drive. My first test was to try a text
dump from the desktop of a read.me file. (Note: The
LJ3 does not print out a test page every time you turn
it on. If you want a test page, you have to press a
button to get one. It does go through an internal test
when you turn it on.) My new LJ3 immediately spat out
the pages at a rate of 8 per minute.
Using the LJ3 with the ST.
Straight ASCII dumps worked wonderfully. I will be
able to print out my source code and read.me files
without hassle. For printing from other programs, one
needs a printer driver for any version of the LaserJet or
DeskJet (the LJ3 understands both.) I could not find a
Degas printer driver but I did find a couple of programs
that would print Degas files. Generally, it took one to
two minutes to print a page. If you need to print from
GDOS programs, there are several LJ3 GDOS drivers
available. I did not get a chance to see how well these
work. Word Perfect provides a driver for the printer.
Various CAD programs should work without incident
because the LJ3 works as a plotter.
All the major desktop publishing software packages
such as Ca/amus, PageStream and F/eet Street v3 all
provide drivers for the LaserJet series. I tried the
PageStream \/1.82 demo but encountered a problem.
To my surprise, LJ3 did not have enough memory to
print a full page of graphics. After printing all but 1/4”
of the page, the printer would konk out saying it had a
memory overflow. When I pushed the continue button,*
the LJ3 would print out the page to the overflow point
and then proceed to print the rest of the page on
another sheet of paper. PageStream computes the
page as one huge graphic image and then transmits it
to the printer. This makes the printer choke.
PCL-5, by itself, takes up a lot of room and needs
extra room to operate. If your page is comprised of text
and some graphics you will have enough memory to
print. However, if you are doing graphics that span the
entire page, then you run against the problem. Both
PageStream and Ca/amus, for example, transmit the
whole page, including text, as a graphic image, so you
may have to upgrade the memory.
The average time to print out the sample pages
that came with the PageStream demo (some were
quite complex) was around 3 to 7 minutes. I found
PageStream’s fonts to be rather rough at small point
sizes but overall, PageStream generated good output.
Personally, I think Ca/amus produces cleaner prints.
Using the LJ3 with the Macintosh.
The other major criteria that the LJ3 needed to
pass to be useful to me was to work with the Macin¬
tosh side of the world. To begin, I needed a printer
driver for the Macintosh, known as a Chooser file, to be
able to print to the LJ3. I decided to try McPrint from
Insight Development. Insight Development appears to
be a offshoot of HP since the manual lists itself with a
HP reorder number. McPrint works as a Chooser level
printer driver so it functions transparently much like a
regular Apple LaserWriter driver does. It also works
flawlessly with the parallel port. McPrint supports font
cartridges installed in the LaserJet by actually creating
Mac screen fonts for them. Compatibility is very good
with various Mac programs. I tested the McPrinf LJ3
combination with Microsoft Word 4, PageMaker 3,
TypeSty/er, MacDraw ii, and HyperCard. McPrint’s sup¬
port is excellent; the support people were very friendly
and knowledgeable. The manual is very good, stepping
the user through the set-up procedure and including
comments on using McPnntwilb various programs.
The one key program with which the LJ3 and
McPrint work beautifully is Adobe Type Manager. ATM
gives the Mac part of PostScript’s features, thus allow¬
ing the Mac to display outline PostScript fonts and print
them on non-PostScript printers at the printer’s highest
resolution. If I want 63 point Times, ATM will display a
smooth 63 point Times on the screen and then print it
out smoothly and perfectly on the LJ3.
Although using and printing with ATM is a bit
slower than using a PostScript printer, ATM has a much
lower price. The time it takes to print using ATM was on
the average 4 minutes per page. Pages with graphics
took anywhere from 4 to 10 minutes at most. Another
nice note is that once Dave Small releases the Apple-
Talk board for the ST, one will be able to add both the
AppleTalk connector and the PostScript cartridge to the
LJ3. These additions will create an extremely fast and
genuine PostScript printer for use with both solo and
networked computers.
Using the LJ3 with MS-DOS?
The LJ3 should work with the various MS-DOS
emulators out on the market although I did not have a
chance to try it. The LaserJet series is the most popular
laser printer in the IBM world, so any program that
supports a laser printer should support the LaserJet.
Since the ST and the IBM share the same parallel port,
there should be no incompatibilities there either.
It’s Not Perfect.
I do have a few gripes about the LJ3. First is the
problem of printing a full page of graphics and running
out of memory. This seems ridiculous considering that
the printer comes with a megabyte of memory. I would
think HP could have done a better job of juggling
memory. But considering that PostScript printers
usually have a minimum of 1.5 megs, perhaps I’m
asking too much of the printer. What it all means is that
I’m going to have to upgrade my memory soon.
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 11
That leads me to my next gripe, the cost of the
memory upgrades. Right now the choices are limited
since the LJ3 does not use the same memory
upgrades as the LaserJet 2 series. The HP 1 meg
boards cost slightly over $300. This seems rather over¬
board since the chips are probably less than $10 each.
One solution my dealer recommended is the Cumulus
memory board. It costs the same as the HP but
provides sockets for upgrading up to 4 megs by just
adding DRAM chips. [Ed. Note: Electric Business
Appliances offers a 4 Mb board for the LJ3 for $199;
1411 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19102; 1-800-942-
0018.]
Another slight annoyance is that the Epson/IBM
Proprinter emulation cartridge has not released yet.
When I called HP about it, they said that there was no
firm date or price but it would be out later this year.
Although LaserJet drivers are generally available, it
would be nice to be able to fall back on the standard
Epson driver if needed.
A major nuisance is that the printer is not very
portable. As it weighs in at over 50lbs., it is chore to
move. The printer is also very wide and takes up
considerable desk or floor space.
Finally, the printer must get up to 300 degrees
Fahrenheit in the fuser roller in order to fuse the toner
onto the paper. This generates lots of heat, so make
sure there is proper ventilation in your work area. This
is more of a problem with laser printers in general than
with HP’s in particular but it should be taken into
consideration. [Ed. Note: See Dennis O’Boyle com¬
panion article in this issue, pointing apparent incompa¬
tibility with LJ3’s produced after March 1990, keeping
in mind Marshal Vale’s LJ3 was made in May 1990. A
mystery unexplained.)
The Final Sell
So why did I decide to go with the LaserJet 3 when
the DeskJet Plus and LaserJet IIP are around with their
lower starting prices? There were a couple of deciding
criteria. First was the expandibility.
The LJ3 can really grow with time. It provides two
cartridge ports like DeskJet while the IIP only provides
one. I can add PostScript to both the LJ3 and IIP but
can not with the DeskJet.. If I had purchased the IIP
and had both the PostScript and Epson cartridges, I
would have to be swapping them out as needed. This
puts a strain on the cartridge connectors. However,
with the LJ3, I can have both cartridges in and the
printer automatically knows which one to use when the
print file comes in.
The IIP only comes with 512k of memory so to do
any minimum work I would need to upgrade it to at
least 1 meg which adds a couple of hundred dollars to
the price of the printer right there. Also the IIP is only
provided with PCL level 4, if you wanted to upgrade it
to level 5, it would cost another couple hundred dol¬
lars. At this point, the IIP with all the above additions is
only slightly less than the LJ3 thus I felt the LJ3 was
worth it.
The LJ3 is the only HP printer which has the
resolution enhancement chip which really does im¬
prove the printed image whether it be text or graphics,
ST or Mac, bitmap or outline. The PCL-5 prints faster
than both the DeskJet or the IIP which use older
versions of the language. PCL-5 also has built in text
effects and outline fonts. However, the main advantage
that sold me was the upgradeability. When I have the
money and the need, I will be able to soup up the
printer in all sorts of ways.
In my research, I noticed a couple of mail order
houses that offered it for about a hundred dollars less
than the average mail order price. What I found is that
they did not provide a toner cartridge with it. Since a
toner cartridge costs about a hundred dollars and my
dealer provided a cartridge with it, the price was effec¬
tively the same. If buying through mail order, make
sure they provide a toner cartridge Another avenue to
explore is see if your local HP dealer gives discounts if
you are university staff or in the military
A Wonderful Addition.
The HP LaserJet 3 is a solid printer Its advanced
features and incredible prico make it a strong contend¬
er. The LJ3’s resolution enhancement and upgradeabi¬
lity mean the printer will provido voiy high quality prints
for many years to come. Since HP printers are a major
standard, the LJ3 is a safe bet HP support is excellent
and one can always find servic e neaiby If one wants
to program printer drivers. Ml’ piovidos free develop¬
ment manuals to do so. I am voiy pleased with my
LaserJet 3 and feel that bocauso of it-, multi-platform
abilities, it would make a groat addition to any ST
system.
If you would like to got m touch with me please
mail me at:
◦ Marshall Vale. Box E. LanQuapa Resource Center,
Brown University, Providonr :o Rl 02912.
o Internet: mjv@brownvm biown odu
o Bitnet: mjv@brownvm
Special thanks to JamM "Kibo” Parry for his ST
DTP help.
[HP LaserJet ill. HP. DeskJet Plus. He w lett Packard;
5161 Lankershim Btvd. N. Hollywood. CA 91601.
Dealer Info (800) 367-4/72. Product Into (800) 752-
0900.)
[McPrint; Insight Develop VO Powell St, #500,
Emeryville, California 94608 (415)626-9658)
Page 12
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
BRE Software
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Utilities, Games, MIDI, Applications, Music, Graphics, Educational, Clip Art and much more
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Games
Pac Man, Hangman (Color Only)
Quick Draw V1.0 - Pictionary type
drawing game
ST Reverse V1.0 - Very Good
Othello type game (Color)
Super Breakout (Mono Only)
Adventure Game Toolkit
Shareware package that allows you
to create your own top quality
adventure games for Color or
Monochrome monitors. See our
complete catalog for 24 different
games created with AGT. (DBL)
Space Ace Demo (Color)
Mystic Mirror: Adv. Game Similar to
Dungeon Master. 2 Players (Color)
Wheel of Fortune V3.0 (Color)
Stellar Starfighter - Shoot’em Up
Space War V1.0 - The Classic
Space Shoot'em Up for 2 Players
(Color Only)
Go Up V1.0: Lode Runner Clone
w/Editor (Monochrome)
Tetriside Tetris type game for
1 or 2 players (Color)
Valgus Squared - Sequel to a Tetris
clone. Now those seven familiar
pieces come at you from all four
sides of the 27 x 27 area. (Color)
Demo of the HERO II Gaming
System. Fully Functional w/included
files (Color/1 Meg RAM/DBL)
Pile Up V2.1 Tetris Clone, now
works with TOS 1.4 (Color)
Swiftar Demo - Great shoot’em up
3 out of 10 levels are active. (Color)
For Dungeon Master
#511 - Maps for Levels 1-7
#512 - Explicit Hints and Character Set on
the leve above Chaos with the
best equipment selection.
#590 - Game Disk Organizer
Saved game file of characters with a
Firestaff weapon.
#720 - Maps for Levels 8-14
For Chaos Strikes Back
#898 - Maps for Levels 1-10
#899 - Walk thru of opening level. Dragon
Lair portraits. 5 Fantasy and 3 Sci Fi
character portraits. Prison List.
Spells and Potions List and more!
#1015 - Cartographer Demo
Maps out or Edit your Dungeon
Master or Chaos Strikes Back Saved
Games. Demo fully functional on
levels 1 & 2. (1 Meg RAM)
Utilities
#399 - Degas/Degas Elite Printer Drivers
#400/800 - 3 1/2" Disk Labeling Programs
#438 - Vanterm V3.0 - Shareware Terminal
#443 - Intersect RAM Baby, Amortization
#514^ Monochrome Emulator V3.0 - Run
^ Mono programs on Color monitors
#688/866 - H.P. Deskjet/Laserjet Utilities
#588 -
#596 -
#769-
\#83?>
#944
#957
#960
#962
#963
#980
#985 -
#1012
#1024
#768/938 - NeoDesk Icons
#801 - Label Printing Programs
Cassette Label Maker, Label and
Envelope Printer and more
#888 - Atari ST Subjects (Book) Programs
#929 ST VIRUS KILLER V3.11 Detect
and eliminate 15 different Viruses.
Guards against future spreading
Viruses.
#938 - NeoDesk Icons, Recoverable
Trashcan V1.2, Quick NeoDesk INF
Loader, NeoDesk Canvas 0.55 Beta
#940/941 LaserBrain V1.31 - Epson
Emulator for Atari SLM804 Laser
Printer. (Mono Only/DBL)
Additional Fonts on #1001-1003
#950 24 Pin Printer Emulator - Written
for printers without a letter quality
mode.
Deskjet Disk Labeling Program
Menu Master Set up menus to
automatically load programs on
your own disks.
#951 - DC Show It V1.1, Head Start V1.1,
Little Green Item Selector V1.6C
#952 Address Labeler V2.0 - Create,
Print and Store address labels
DCopy V3.4 Multifunction Utility
ARC, DeARC, Copy & more. Shell
program included for mouse control
#953 - SGS Net Demo V1.21 - Inexpensive
networking system for the ST
#988 - Fast Copy III, NX-1000 Set Up
H.P. Deskjet Print Utility V1.4
#991 - Label Printing for H.P. Deskjet and
Avery 5260 Labels, Desktop
Formatter, Disk Sector Editor
#1008 - Icondesk - Set up different looking
icons for different file types.
79 icons and icon editor included.
#1009 - Diamond Back II w/Cache Demo
Bible on Disk
King James Version
Single Sided Pkg (17 Disks) $34.95
Double Sided Pkg (8 Disks) $24.95
Desktop Publishing
#500/600 - Publishing Partner Fonts
#599 - PageStream Fonts
Binner, Futura Black, Hal, Lubalin,
Futura Extra Bold Condensed
#737 - Calamus V1.09 Demo - Fully
functional except for Save
(Mono/1 Meg RAM/DBL)
#758/759/994 - Calamus Fonts
#870 - PageStream Fonts
Atari, Baby Teeth, Lucida
Old English, Revued
#895 - PageStream V1.8 Demo (DBL)
#935 Desktop Publishing Utilities
Convert to IMG V1.20 - Converts
Degas, Neochrome, Spectrum, Art
Director, Mac Paint and TNY pics
to IMG format
Demos from Wiz Works
Fontverter Demo - Convert fonts
between PageStream and Calamus
PageStream File to 300 DPI IMG
file conversion
#1028 PageStream Font Editor V0.8
Now you can edit and touch up
those PageStream Fonts. 20 page
manual included on disk. Also
included: Improved Postscript
Screen Fonts: Book, Chancery,
New Century Schoolbook, Palatino
and Times
Applications
#810 - SHEET V2.5P Very well polished
Shareware Spreadsheet.
#811 - Documentation and sample files for
Sheet V2.5
#907 - Wordflair V1.01 Demo (DBL)
#965 - Checkbook V1.09, Almanac (Color)
#989 - Paperless Accountant
#999 ST Writer V3.8 - Simple easy to
use word processor with extensive
documentation on disk.
Spell V2.8 - Stand Alone Spelling
Checker. H.P. Deskjet Driver
#1026 - B/STAT V2.36 - Powerful graphics
and statistics program. (DBL)
Childrens Programs
All Children's Programs Require a Color Monitor
#551 - Kid Shapes
Graphics design program patterned
after a magnetic set. For ages 2-8
•#552 - Kid Shapes Plus
As above, but for older children.
Larger number of choices for more
complex pictures. For ages 8 & up.
#667 - Benjamin’s ABC's
Teaches young children the letters
of the alphabet with digitized
speech (DBL)
#699 Kid Adder - Uses pictures to teach
addition.
Kid Color - Learning game for 3-7
year olds. Uses the mouse to
point to boxes with a certain color.
Kid Story V1.4 - A silly version of
the Little Red Riding Hood. Allows
children to create a story.
#726 - Wolf & The 7 Kids - Adventure for
children ages 5-9, based on the
Grimm's fairy tale with several
possible endings to the story.
Numerical Go Round - Quizzes
children on Addition, Subtraction,
Multiplication and Division in a
game setting.
#920 - Simply Math, Picture Puzzler
#982 - Body Shop: Human Anatomy Tutor
MIDI
#966 - MIDI Music Maker: Plays numerous
music formats (EZ Track, Music
Studio, etc.) Also converts to MIDI
.—\ File Format 0 Files
(#967^) Cosh Sequencer - 16 Voice MIDI
" Recorder V2.1. From Europe. This
is the one everyone is talking about
JT
Call or Write for our FREE 64 Page Catalog!
Introductory Offer on above Disks
1-4 Disks $3.99 Each / 5-14 Disks $3.49 Each / 15+ Disks $2.99 Each
Not valid with any other special offers.
idt
Games
Bat Man 22.95
Bloodwych 27.95
Bloodwych Data Disk 19.95
Bloodwych Hint Disk 14.95
Breach 2
Cartographer
Chaos Stnkes Back
Chaos Hint Disk
Chronoquest II
Clue
Codename: Iceman
Colonel's Bequest
Double Dragon II
Dragon's Breath
Dragon's Lair
Dungeon Master
Editor
Hint Book
Hint Disk
F 19 Stealth Fighter
Federation
Forgotten Worlds
Hero's Quest
26.95
19.95
16.95
14.95
34.95
24.95
34.95
36.95
24.95
39.95
39.95
24.95
19.95
9.95
16.95
38.95
29.95
19.95
35.95
Hunt for Red October 32.95
Iron Lord 33.95
Jack Nicklaus Golf 29.95
King's Quest IV 35.95
Klax 24.95
Leisure Suit Larry 2 34.95
Leisure Suit Larry 3 34.95
Lombard Rally 29.95
Manhunter: NY 32.95
Manhunter 2: SF 32.95
Monopoly 23.95
Omega 34.95
Paperboy 24.95
Police Quest 29.95
Police Quest 2 34.95
Populous 2995
Promised Lands 16.95
Red Storm Rising 32.95
Risk 23.95
Sim City 32.95
Space Quest 29.95
Space Quest 2 29.95
Space Quest 3 34.95
Space Rouge 30.95
Starflight 29.95
TV Sports Football 29.95
Tetris 26.95
The Third Courier 32.95
Their Finest Hour 38.95
Ultima V 35.95
Universal Military
Simulator II 35.95
Wayne Gretzky
Hockey 28.95
Xenomorph 36.95
Utilities and
Applications
Canvas 19.95
CodeHead Utilities 18.95
Computer Guide
to the Solar System 39.95
DC Desktop 24.95
DC Utilities 2.0 19.95
Diamond Back II 32.95
Rrst Word Plus 56.95
Flash VI.6 16.95
Call for New Titles
G+Plus
20.95
HotWire
24.95
HotWire Plus
33.95
Hyperchart
139.95
Hyperdraw
44.95
Hyperpaint
27.95
Imagecat
19.95
LDW Power
82.95
Looklt & Pop It
22.95
Mavis Beacon
Teaches Typing
34.95
Maxifile
22.95
Midimax
34.95
Multi Desk
18.95
MultiViewer Graphica 34 95
Music Studio '88
34.95
NeoDesk 3.0
41.95
NeoDesk CLI
19.95
Phasar 4.0
57.95
PnntMaster Plus
25.95
Quartet
49.95
Quick ST 2
12.95
Quick Tools
17.95
Stalk the Market
48.95
Synchro Express
69.95
T racker ST
42.95
Turbo ST
28.95
Universal Item
Selector III
10.95
Virus Killer
14.95
Word Up 3.0
57.95
Wordflair
64.95
Desktop
Publishing
Calamus
159.95
Font Editor
52.95
Outline
154.95
PageStream 1.8
99.95
PageStream 2.0
CALL
Softlogik Font Disks 24.95
Safari Font Disks
24.95
Accessories
Mousepad
5.95
Mouse Master
25.95
Monitor Master
32.95
Drive Master
30.95
Tweety Board
34.95
Atari ST Mouse
49.95
Best Mouse
49.95
Cordless Mouse
89.95
IMG Scan
69.95
SIMM 1 Meg (STE)
69.95
Z RAM
119.95
Supra 2400 Modem
109.95
VIDI ST
139.95
Atari SF314 Drive
159.95
Future GTS-100X
139.95
Future GTS-100
159.95
IB 5 1/4" Drive
199.95
Spectre GCR
229.95
128K ROMs
129.95
Dust Covers
520ST
8.95
520ST FM/1040ST/ ST 8.95
Mega Keyboard
8.95
SF314/354 Drive
8.95
ST Monitor
16.95
SLM804 Laser
24.95
Atari ST Book
of Tips, Instructions, Secrets and Hints for
the 520, 1040 and Mega ST begins where
the Atari Owner's Manual left off,
providing step by step instructions that
helps both beginning and experienced
users to get the most out of their ST's.
$16.95
Atari ST Subjects
Topics covered include: Hard Drives,
Running IBM Software. Disk Structure,
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Drive, Assemblying your own Hard Drive,
Sector & File Editing, Binary/Hex/Decimal
Codes, ASCII File Problems, Escape
Codes and much more!
$16.95
Atari ST
Subjects
Write to: BRE Software, Dept. SRT, 352 W. Bedford Ave, Suite 104, Fresno, CA 93711
No Credit Card Surcharge. Visa/MC/Discover $15.00 Min. COD Orders Welcome. Phone Orders $20.00 Min. Shipping: P.D Disks $3.00 Ground. $5.50 2nd Day Air, Canada $3.50 Air
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^asTerCa^^
Your Atari ST
with the
HP LaserJet III
Printer
A key to good-looking documentation of any type
depends on output quality. Getting the utmost in
quality and convenience at an acceptable price con¬
cerns those of us involved in desktop publishing with
our Atari ST systems.
But wait until you read about my experiences/
adventures with the Hewlett Packard LaserJet III
printer!
Because the Atari SLM 804 laser printer was
impossible for me to get my hands on without a
lengthy wait, I selected the Hewlett Packard LaserJet III
printer from my local Computer Factory outlet in
downtown Milwaukee. You’ll find Computer Factory
sites in Albany, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New
York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Rochester, San Fran¬
cisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.
Before deciding on the LaserJet III, I called the
store and talked to the manager, John Meyer. He was
most receptive to the idea of me bringing my entire ST
system to the store and trying out various printers
before deciding on one to purchase. So, I unhooked
my ST system, placed the components in boxes,
packed them into the car, and headed downtown.
John, Robin, Nate, and everyone else at the
store—including the repair technician—were curious
about the Atari ST. I demonstrated some of the
capabilities of Soft Logik’s PageStream and of Ditek’s
Calamus. They loved what they saw! Sample docu¬
ments printed out on the floor-model LaserJet III were
tremendously superior in quality to what the LaserJet
IIP provides, due to what Hewlett Packard calls
“Resolution Enhancement” and builds into every
LaserJet III. By quality, I mean the minimizing of those
little step-like jagged edges especially noticeable on
curved and slanted objects, whether text or graphics.
So I decided on the III and about a month later I
laid out $1,649 (an incredible value) plus tax and took a
brand new, unopened LaserJet III home in its box.
That’s when my troubles began. After unpacking the
printer, hooking everything up, and reading some of
the directions, I booted up PageStream and tried to
print a page. The program bombed. Nothing printed.
Calamus didn’t bomb, but went through the print cycle
without producing a printed page.
Attaining Near-Compatibility
Involves Some Tricks
by Dennis J. O’Boyle
John at Computer Factory and I decided that the
best thing to do was bring everything back and start a
trouble-shooting session. He assigned his technician,
a workbench, several other Ills and some IIPs to us in
the repair center of the store, and we went to
work—for over four hours. Power on. Power off.
Hook-up, unhook, re-hook. Wait for the programs to
run their print cycles. Try different cables. Try different
computer systems—Computer Factory sells many
IBM-type systems. They would output to the II I
purchased, but the ST would not John asked if I was
interested in an IBM clone. No, the ST is not a boat
anchor, John!
The floor model worked, however So I scrutinized
the machines while Robin went for some cold sodas
and I found that mine was manufactured in March
1990; the floor model was produced in February 1990.
Inside the rear paper output ramp is where you’ll find a
tag attached to the printer with tiro d.ite of manufacture
and other information.
Now, often in the world of manufacturing,
engineering departments will change a part. Or ven¬
dors may change, or the parts th«y supply companies
like Hewlett Packard might bn configured differently
enough to still be within spec ifiod tolerances but
perhaps slightly "off" for ST purposes That’s my
theory, anyway. And I had Bill a Customer Service
Representative on Hewlett Packard's Personal Peri¬
pherals Assist Line (208-323 2‘>‘>1), going as crazy as I
was trying to find out what was changed between the
two months. He didn't find any difluionce in bills of
material, etc., so I was basically alone again with my ST
problems. Ever get that feeling 7
John at Computer Factory traded me the floor
model and an extra toner < aitridge for my March
LaserJet III. So, I was pioductivo with the III, and I loved
it. Until I had a problem.
Pages that were text .. had multiple
graphics would not print completely with either Cala¬
mus or PageStream. I had to add a ono megabyte
memory board to the punt i k another
$199, but I saved around $100 or more because
Hewlett Packard charges a high price for their own
memory boards. PageStream lequites the upgrade.
Calamus gets by about 99% of the timo without it, but if
Page 14
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
you’re doing a resume or a report with minimal margins
and lots of text in a 12 point sized font or smaller, or
multi-graphics per page, you’ll need to get the extra
memory.
After solving the memory problem, I encountered a
strange situation with printing 8.5” x 14” (legal size)
pages. No luck in either Calamus or PageStream
following the “manual feed” directions for the printer.
Sometimes only the 8.5” x 11” portion of the page
would print. A printer prompt asking to load the legal
paper tray continued to appear in spite of following the
bypass instructions in Hewlett Packard’s manual.
Realizing that the printer and/or my software would
not cooperate with my desires, and knowing that the
continued production of flyers and brochures manda¬
ted the purchase of the legal-sized paper tray anyway,
I shelled out another $79 for one. But when I got the
tray home, booted up the programs and printed,
nothing happened again.
PageStream seems to move everything far up and
far to the right, leaving very little on the printed page.
One time it jumped my font size from 60 points to
about 300 points and all it printed was part of a word. I
gave up and switched to another program.
Ca/amus would print anything as long as it fell
within the “minimal margin” parameters for legal size.
Interestingly, Ca/amus only allows 10.79” of the 14”
length or width to be used. So what good is using legal
sized paper anyway?
So here I am, stranded in Milwaukee, alone with
my ST problems again, without a way to print out 8.5”
x 14” pages. Hewlett Packard, Soft Logik, and ISD
Marketing, the Canadian distributor of Calamus, could
offer no help. Personnel at the software companies
said they were printing to LaserJet IIPs with no
difficulty, and that the III should work just as well. But it
doesn’t, guys!
I think what we have here is a failure to communi¬
cate. Any suggestions?
Summary. The Hewlett Packard LaserJet III printer
with what the manufacturer terms “Resoultion
Enhancement” provides substantially superior quality
over other 300 dots per inch output laser printers. The
quality appears to be about 450 dots per inch to most
people.
Atari ST system compatibility with the printer
seemingly depends on the printer being manufactured
in February, 1990. Seven machines made in March did
not produce printed pages while two February-made
units did.
Software applications also affect compatibility. For
desktop publishing with Soft Logik’s PageStream and
Ditek International’s Ca/amus, a printer memory
upgrade of one megabyte is required to print pages
heavily laden with text and/or graphics. PageStream
takes too long—up to 10 minutes or more—to p/ot
and print a page. Calamus is much quicker, and usually
prints out a page in about one minute.
Legal size pages (8.5” x 14”) would not print out
using the bypass and manual feed instructions pro¬
vided with the printer. The use of the proper legal size
paper tray also failed to produce the promised results.
Elements would move quite far off the page or resize
themselves in PageStream. Ca/amus worked flawlessly,
but has a built-in 3.21” minimal margin preventing full
use of the 14” page dimension.
Excellent service and support is available locally at
a Computer Factory retail store for the printer.
Manufacturers of the hardware and software were
unaware of the problems encountered. There was
some attempt made to assist, but no results have yet
been attained. Perhaps with further development of
specific printer drivers for the Hewlett Packard LaserJet
III by Soft Logik and Ditek International, the difficulties
with compatibility between their software packages and
the LaserJet III will be eliminated. Ditek International
also needs to provide greater printing dimensions on
its 8.5” and 14” page size.
TRACKER/ST
The Ultimate Mailing List/Mail Merge/Person Tracking Software
Trocker/ST is an exciting new application which
combines traditional mailing list capabilities with a
full built-in mail merge system, database style
reporting, and much, much more.
"This is a GREAT
program and it has
cut my mail list time
by over half. I just
wish I would have
had this program a
couple of years
back!!!-
—B.G., Texas
PHONE: 1411-555-im I I4U-555-7741 I |411-555-tH7
CPTE60RY: jHEHOER I RftW: £□ DOTE: H/25/H I ID »: l»MRH
MOTES: H«» wake » Urge pure lust! See wore In loin Notts, |
SOURCE: 1NEHSPRPER HD I L0H6 NOTES: @ -
ZEIJ
♦Full mail merge system built in, with word processing functions like
cut & paste, bold, italic and underline.
♦Computer aided entry saves you thousands of keystrokes (ancf
lots of time )-up to 10,000 keystrokes saved per 250 names!
♦Label settings for single, 2 and 3 across labels, and laser printed
labels. Edit these and add your own for custom label formats.
♦One-step "subscription aging" automatically tracks remaining
time in a membership or subscription.
♦Unique Quick Letter option for those occasions when you need
to send a single "almost form letter." Great for follow-up letters.
♦ Unlimited notes for each person in your files.
♦Easy importing of names and addresses from all popular data
management packages into Tracker/ST.
See your local dealer or order from:
Step Ahead Software, Inc.
496-A Hudson Street, Suite F39
Color or monochrome
monitor. One mega¬
byte of RAM and a
double sided drive
required. Hard drive
recommended.
New York City, NY 10014
Call 212-627-5830 for phone
orders or more information.
a
'W'lr-V' Softwa
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 15
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
Word Up 3.0
versus
Script
The Best Choice Yet?
By Christopher Anderson
Computers may still have a
glamorous air to them, but the truth
is that they’re as proletarian as a
hammer. Computer users, no mat¬
ter how advanced, are sheer typists
for most of their day. Like factory
work without the technical school
and the union wages. Time was,
nice people didn’t type—they dic¬
tated.
But by somehow convincing
otherwise intelligent people that
there is something cerebral about a
machine that forces you to memo¬
rize the position of 26 randomly
scrambled letters, computers have
bullied their way onto our desks,
probably never to leave again. What
93.8% of ST users do with them,
according to a recent Atari Explorer
poll, is write. And some of us write
all the time, which makes us espe¬
cially sensitive to word-processing
software, until recently a weak area
for the ST. Like many ST owners, I
also use an IBM clone. I try to stick
to the ST as much as possible, but
when I’m two hours and 3,000
words away from a deadline (like
right now), I switch to the IBM. A
simple, fast program (like XyWrite,
which actually still uses a command
line, if you can believe it) on an
ordinary PC with a decent keyboard
is about a zillion times faster in the
real world than, say, Word Writer on
the ST. And with an IBM you won’t
get distracted and start playing with
desk accessories, either.
The problem is that ST word¬
processing programs are three to
five years behind what’s available
on the IBM and the Macintosh. Try
Microsoft Word on either machine,
and you’ll see what I mean. The
state of the art in ST word proces¬
sors was, until recently, Word Per¬
fect 4.1, a buggy and crudely por¬
ted version of a program that came
out three years ago on the IBM.
Two New Ones
In the last months, however,
everything has changed. Two new
word-processing programs—one
relatively simple but almost flaw¬
lessly executed, the other packed
with features—have been released
for the ST. The first, Script (from
Megamax) is essentially a MacWrite
clone, which means a medium-
complexity but polished and
speedy WYSIWYG (this is the last
time I'm going to spell it out:
what-you-see-is-what-you-get)
program for monochrome monitors
only. The other is Word Up 3.0, a
significant update to an already
good program, and once its authors
at Neocept clean up some lingering
bugs, a program that promises to
be one of the best word processors
available on any machine.
Both programs are graphical,
which means they have displays
that can accurately display on¬
screen what the printed page will
look like. Word Up uses standard
GDOS fonts, while Scr/ptuses spe¬
cial high-quality bit-mapped fonts
shared only by Megamax’s Signum
document processor. Both can mix
pictures and text.
Because these programs
seamlessly incorporate page-layout
features like font size and spacing-
-without declining to the com¬
plexity of desktop publishing (DTP)
programs—they offer professional-
quality pages to the average user.
And although they sacrifice some
standard DTP features, they’re both
fast and simple enough for daily
word-processing. In fact, both are
better word-processors than almost
anything else in the ST market,
even without their page-layout fea¬
tures. Both, for example, automati¬
cally reformat text as you type,
something that even Word Perfect
waits until you leave the current line
to do. (And don't even mention
Word Writer and its FI 0 key.)
Script is the more friendly and
basic of the two Although it’s still
missing some desirable features in
its fust incani,ition (a quick conver¬
sion from the original German ver¬
sion), it is well dosigned and intui¬
tive, with a definite Macintosh fla¬
vor. Because it uses custom text-
diawinq routmos instead of GDOS,
Sc/tpts screen performance is quite
fast, sometimes even perky, as in
the case of scrolling Printing qua¬
lity is as good as most desktop
publishing pi. m|i.hh-, it includes a
simple, but usually competent,
spell-checker.
Word Up 3 0 (which I’ll simply
call Wo/d ( iittuHiqh it's a vast
improvement over previous ver¬
sions) manages to bo much heavier
on the features, while sacrificing
veiy little in the way of speed or
ease of use. It comes with a spell
‘ !■' I ' • • luni:, both by
far the best available for the ST. Ten
GDOS fonts are Included and oth¬
ers are widely available,
To give an Ideu of the relative
ment 4 the two piograms, it’s
instructive to compare them in the
arees that mtttei w iet speed, ease
of use, features, reliability, and print
quality.
Page 16
Current Notas
Vol. 10, No. 8
CN Review
Atari ST/Mega
Speed
On-screen swiftness is what
matters most with a word-proces¬
sor, especially if you’re going to
use it for the majority of your
writing. Both of these programs are
not only fast enough for deadline-
pressure keyboard-pounding, but
they compare well with word¬
crunching standards like Word Per¬
fect. Word Up has two modes, one
using the fancy GDOS fonts on¬
screen, the other a plain text mode
that uses the fast and easy-to read
system font. Either can be the
default and most of the program’s
features can be used in both.
Although Word Ups screen
performance is generally not as
sprightly as Scripts, in text mode
the two are approximately equal
and as fast as most other full-
featured ST word-processors.
Using a software accelerator like
Turbo ST, Word Up passes Script
(whose custom text-drawing rou¬
tines are not improved by Turbo ST)
for general typing and approaches
Word Perfect. Unfortunately, the
versions of Word Up available in
early September when this review
was being written are unstable with
Turbo ST. Neocept has been
releasing updates and bug fixes on
nearly a weekly basis for the last
month and is aware of the problem.
Given the solid reputation of the
company and the overall quality of
the program, it’s probably safe to
assume that Word Up and Turbo ST
will eventually be a speedy team,
perhaps even by the time this
reaches print.
Both Script and Word Up can
print in either graphics or text mode
(using the printer’s built in fonts).
Speed wise, the two are evenly
matched in both modes (six to
seven minutes per page on an HP
DeskJet in graphics mode; draft
mode is limited mostly by the
speed of your printer). Both are
considerably faster than most
desktop publishing programs,
although the quality of the final
page is comparable.
Ease of Use
Script takes the edge here,
thanks to its Mac-like interface. It
uses “rulers,” bars of icons dis¬
played near the top of the screen,
that help you change the format
(justification, margins, tabs, etc.) of
the paragraph under the cursor.
Rulers can be cut and pasted from
one paragraph to another to give
them identical formats.
Word Up uses the more tradi¬
tional ST style of highlighting text,
than picking style and format
choices from a menu. It allows the
use of macros (of a sort) to speed
the process up, achieving some¬
thing like the “paragraph tags”
found in some DTP programs. By
selecting the return marker before
the paragraph to be formatted, then
picking a pre-specified format from
a list, Word Up can approximate
Scripts rulers, albeit with a little
more effort. Unfortunately, neither
program can change style options
like font type or point size, as
easily. Restyling‘text calls for the
usual highlight and pick-menu-
item process—no great labor, but a
little less elegant.
Block selecting in both pro¬
grams is Mac-like, in which you
drag the mouse to highlight an area
(various shortcuts, including dou¬
ble-clicking on a word or a para¬
graph also work). Script wins this
round with speed. Its block high¬
lighting is unusually responsive;
there is almost no lag between
mouse position and the highlight.
Word Up, on the other hand, seems
to want to redraw the entire high¬
lighted area every time you drag
the mouse over another line. Even
with Turbo ST installed (at your
peril, for the moment) that delay
can be distracting.
Features
Word Up takes a clear lead
here. It allows the text to be for¬
matted into any number of columns
and different sections, each of
varying numbers of columns, can
be on a single page. Although the
columns are shown in the correct
width and horizontal position on the
editing screen, they are placed one
after another vertically to speed up
editing. {WordPerfect, which bogs
down completely when redrawing
multiple columns, could take a tip
from Word Up on this.)
Word Up also features a fast
page-preview mode that is just a
menu click away. When one tog¬
gles the page preview for a look (no
editing in that mode, however),
columns appear just as they will on
the printed page. A reformat-col¬
umn command adjusts all the col¬
umns in a section to about the
same length, avoiding tiresome
edits.
Both programs allow footnotes
{Scripts are at the end of each
page, Word Ups are at the end of
the document) and headers and
footers,actually has a header
and footer command, Word Up has
a left, right and either “master
page” on which you would put text
or graphics that you wanted
repeated on every matching page).
Word Up has a full mail merge
facility, while Script has no pro¬
visions for mail merge. Both pro¬
grams can give a word count and
both can open up to four docu¬
ments at the same time. Text and
graphics can be cut-and-pasted
between the windows.
Although both Script and Word
Up have a spell checker, the simi¬
larities end there. Script won’t let
you spell check a single word, and
its dictionary doesn’t know most
contractions. It flags every
hyphenated compound word, all
numbers, any word beginning or
ending with a quote mark, and it
won’t check a typed-in correction.
Megamax is aware of the limitation
in the spell-checker (it was added
at the last minute for the US
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 17
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
market). Version 2.0 of Script, which
is now available in Germany and
will be available here in November
or October, has a brand new spell¬
checker among other improve¬
ments, according to Megamax.
Word Ups current spell¬
checker, in contrast, is the best
available for the ST. Licensed from
Merriam-Webster, the dictionary
almost always guesses the correct
word, but offers intelligent sugges¬
tions when it can’t. It checks about
200 words a second, and can be
left on while you type (either flash¬
ing the screen or ringing the bell
when it detects an error).
Equally important to a writer,
Word Up has an excellent the¬
saurus (which just suggested
“royal,” “first rate,” “bully,” and 19
other synonyms for “excellent”). It
offers several meanings, allowing
you to choose the one closest to
what you’re looking for, then pick
from a list of words of the same
meaning. If you shell out an extra
$25 for the large thesaurus, you can
select words of related meaning,
related opposites, or antonyms. (An
extra large dictionary is also avail¬
able, but I can’t believe you’ll need
it, given the stellar performance of
the one that comes with Word Up)
Word Up imports and exports
text in Word Writer, 1st Word Plus,
and ASCII formats. Script imports
and exports only ASCII, although it
comes with a conversion program
to convert WordPlus documents to
Script format.
Font options also divide the two
programs, highlighting their dif¬
ferent intended audiences. Word
Up allows its fonts to be scaled
from almost any size between 2
and 74 points. A dialog box shows
what the font looks like at the
selected size, permitting the user to
pick fonts by eye. While Script also
allows the user to select from a
graphic display of fonts, its fonts
can’t be scaled, and each point size
is a separate file that must be
loaded before it can be used. If
you’re only likely to be using one or
two faces and sizes, Script may be
enough, and those fonts can be
loaded automatically. Word Ups
font flexibility may sound like a big
advantage, but one should keep in
mind that the scaled fonts do not
print as well and take longer to
display on-screen. Most users are
likely to find that several faces and
sizes are enough.
Of course, that assumes that
the users are satisfied with the fonts
included with Script. If their eye is
anything like mine, they may not.
The program comes with a single
font in three sizes and three faces
(normal, bold, and italics). Unfor¬
tunately, the included font, known
as Rockwell, is a somewhat plain
serif that tends to look spidery both
on the screen and on page. There
is no option for using the system
font and Script does not include a
non-proportionally spaced font,
which would make for a much
easier-to-read screen display in
cases where precise layout is not
crucial. Megamax does offer
several optional fonts (at $15 to $50
each), one of which is a non¬
proportional face.
Graphics
In both programs, pictures are
treated like just another—albeit
big—character. You can delete
them with a backspace or delete
key, and they move around like any
other character during text editing.
Script only directly imports graphics
from its sister program, Sketch (a
drawing package that is sold
separately) and those in STad for¬
mat (a standard I must admit I’ve
never heard of). A utility program
that comes with Script can convert
between Sketch, Degas PI3, IMG,
and MacPaint files. Once imported,
pictures can be cropped and scaled
to three different resolutions,
although not resized.
Word Up directly imports Degas
(all resolutions), Neochrome, IMG,
and GEM files. The last format,
produced by drawing (rather than
painting) programs, prints at the
highest printer resolution possible
and offers the best graphics quality.
Unfortunately, Word Up still
seems to have some trouble with
GEM files, so watch for updates. An
ability to modify the graphics once
they’ve been imported is essential,
and is something Word Up excels
at. Pictures can be enlarged or
reduced to any size, and a simple
click on one of the borders restores
the original proportions of the pic¬
ture at its new size. Both programs
can crop graphics, although only
Word Up can restore the picture to
its original state.
Reliability
Once one turns off Turbo ST
(sigh), both Script and Word Up are
practically bullet proof. Given a
reasonable amount of memory (at
least 1 Mb is recommended for
each), neither should crash. Both
companies are working to resolve
the problems with Turbo ST
(,Scripts are just cosmetic). Neo-
cept is still woikmy to resolve some
problems with Wotd Up and Turbo-
Jet, the printer driver that must be
purchased separately from the
company to use Word Up with a HP
LaserJet, DeskJet or the Atari laser
printer (Dialt mode works fine,
however.) Stay tuned.
Print Quality
Although Word Up relies on
GDOS's bit mapped fonts, which
usually compare poorly to the out¬
line fonts used by DTP programs
like Calamus and PageStream,
Neocept's OUttom GDOS fonts and
drivers appear to have bridged that
gap. Print at 300 dpi is far better
that Publisher ST, another program
that uses GDOS fonts, and
approaches outline quality.
Scripts print in graphics mode
is also exemplary, although, as
noted, its fonts could use some
woik (Megamax says that it plans
Page 18
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
CN Review
Atari ST/Mega
to include more fonts with the
program in the future.) In draft
printing, however, Script fares far
less well. To sort of simulate the
on-screen layout in proportional
mode, it inserts apparently random
spaces between words. The result
is a classic bad compromise—a
page that looks only vaguely like
the final version, and is nearly
impossible to read. Because Script
has no onscreen draft mode, you’ll
do best by sticking to the graphics
mode in printing. Without a page
preview, there’s no way to know
how what a text-mode printout is
going to look like. Chances are, it
won’t look good.
For a program that is aimed at
least partially at utilitarian word pro¬
cessing, it’s unfortunate that Script
effectively forces you to wait for a
slow graphics printout to get decent
copy. (On the other hand, Mac-
Write, Scripts model, did no better.
Because the early Apple Imagewri-
ter printer had no internal font, all
printing was in graphics mode. Sur¬
prisingly, it seemed worth it at the
time. Times, however, change.)
Printing on an Atari laser printer is
much faster, of course, and the wait
time would likely not be a problem
(I haven’t tested it, however.)
But even for users who do little
printing and transmit their product
by modem, Script is still a proble¬
matic choice. Although it is perhaps
the easiest to use ST word pro¬
cessing program, there’s no point in
staring at a fancy (and distracting)
on-screen font if you’re not going
to print with it. And despite Scripts
speed, it would be faster in a text
mode.
Currently, Script is best suited
for users who do a lot of high
quality printing. Its interface is un¬
equaled on the ST, and it is a
well-rounded (albeit modestly fea¬
tured) word processor in most other
respects. Version 2.0 holds great
promise, however.
The One To Catch
Word Up, on the other hand,
stands out in both regards. In draft
mode, it’s in the same league as
Word Perfect and the other top ST
non-graphic word processors. In
graphics mode, it lags Script only
on speed and surpasses it in flexi¬
bility. Feature packed and elegantly
designed, Word Up 3.0 earns my
vote as the top ST writing program.
To put my typing fingers where my
mouth is, I’ve switched to Word Up
from Word Perfect for daily writing.
(When deadline looms, however,
I’m back at the IBM. The ST will
have to get a better keyboard
before I abandon the IBM entirely.)
Once Neocept works out the prob¬
lems with Turbo ST and Turbojet,
Word Up is going to be a hard
package to catch.
FEEL THE SPEED!!
Quick ST II
speeds up screen graphics faster than hardware accelerators '
speeds up all fonts, including GDOS fonts
requires less than 25K of memory and runs on any ST or STE
supports all screen resolutions, including Moniterm
supports custom desktop backgrounds and fonts
The screen shot on the
right shows a typical ST
desktop with Quick ST’s
desktop background
feature installed. Supports
.PI2 and .PI3 DEGAS
pictures.
Also shown is the Quick
Manager tool manager,
free with Quick Tools.
Desk fi l e View Options
M .if
; Quick Index 2.8
I Quick View 2.0
IYI - is\
X
828487 bytes uyd in 20 i1
It
fl FILLS
I X 0UICKST 18D
1 X XF0RHER2 255
\ REAOHE 1ST 7124
1 OUICKST BftK 251185
NOISTRUC DOC 2(41
0REG DOC 80101
0STII DOC son
OUICKST LRD 410
FIXOIIICX PRG 1(82
HRC PR6 74240
0IHDEX16 PRG 18567
0ST2CUST PRG 178J7
0
i
j
«r KIV,UP
« *
T7.
/A
10 UTILITIES + QUICK MANAGER
Quick Teds
- includes 10 useful Tools, including a command line interpreter,
'fast file viewer, speed benchmarker, label maker, file finder,
environment editor, and more. Each Tool can run as .PRG or .ACC.
- includes Quick Manager, which supports 10 desk accessories,
displays the time and date, free RAM, and TOS version.
- requires less than 70K of memory and runs on any ST or STE
Branch Always Software
14150 N.E. 20th. St. #302
Bellevue, WA 98007
Available at most Atari ST dealers.
If ordering direct, add $3 s/h. Save
$5 when ordering both products.
Try the Branch Always "Softwear'
T-shirt - $9.95 M/L/XL.
SOME LIKE IT..rS HOT!
The CodeHeads announce:
"When the START editorial staff first saw
HotWire. our collective reaction was Wow!’"
By far the fastest, easiest way to run
programs on the Atari ST...from a floppy
disk or from a hard drive!
Build menus for all your most commonly-
used programs. Load new menus with a
single keypress or mouse click!
New Ledger function records time spent in
programs of your choice.
Passwords may be used to restrict
unauthorized access to certain programs.
New on-screen clock, appears in the
programs that you choose.
Unlike other shells. HotWire works correctly
with all programs, just.like the GEM desktop.
A seamless interface offers direct access to
MultiDesk and MaxiFile.
Full-featured file-handling utility lets you
move/copy/del ete/rename/touch/lock/hlde
any combination of files and/or folders.
Runs as a desk aocessory or as a program
in any resolution.
Incorporates every file/disk feature of the
GEM desktop plus much more.
Intelligent disk copying routines.
Rename folders - Print directory listings.
Store comments about any file/folder.
Unique and intuitive user interface designed
for easy, speedy operation.
Customizable for your style of use.
Keyboard equivalents for all operations
Quickly select from up to 20 of your
most-used paths.
Even runs programs and loads documents.
Here’s what our users are saying about HotWire and MaxiFile:
'The HotWire/MaxiFile combo has changed the way I use my ST.”
"I haven’t used the standard GEM desktop in weeks."
"Without HotWire and MaxiFile I’d be totally lost on the ST.”
"...a tribute to assembly excellence." - "MaxiFile is a wonder!"
• "HotWire and MaxiFile really 'beat up on the competition’!!"
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HotWire Plus (includes MaxiFile). $59.95
MaxiFile.$34.95
HotWire.$39.95
G+Plus - a replacement for Atari GDOS.$34.95
MultiDesk - load unlimited desk accessories.$29.95
CodeHead Utilities - a collection of useful programs.$34.95
MIDIMax - a powerful MIDI tool for performers.. $49.95
Phone: (213) 386-5735.
Visa, Mastercard, AmEx
accepted. Shipping
charge: US $2, Canada S3,
Europe $5. CA residents
add B.5% sales tax.
CodeHead Software
P.O. Box 74090
Los Angeles, CA 90004
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 19
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
W ordf lair V ersion 1.01
Goldleaf Publishing’s Document Processor
Review by Milt Creighton
Wordf/air, the latest entry into
the maturing ST word processor
market, is a GDOS-based program
that aspires to compete with the
likes of WordUp rather than Word¬
Perfect. You might well wonder just
how Goldleaf expects to gain a
foothold this late in the game,
especially at a list price of $99.95.
The answer lies in Wordf/aifs,
design. It is essentially a product
that appeals to a specialty market
that has not yet been addressed
adequately by its competitors.
Before diving into the depths of
Wordf/aifs menus, let me make a
few general statements about the
program’s design and suggest
some of the resultant ramifications.
GDOS-based
Yes, the GDOS monster rears
its ugly head once again. This time,
however, it has been largely tamed
by the installation program included
on the Atari distribution disks in¬
cluded with Wordf/air. The installa¬
tion is performed automatically and
painlessly. The only problem you
might have is trying to find a GDOS
printer driver for your dot matrix or
laser printer. (Also included is a
specially configured version of
G+p/us should you prefer the
CodeHead clone.) The SMM804 is
the only driver included on the Atari
distribution disk. Goldleaf does offer
a few other GDOS printer drivers
(such as the Epson FX-80), but
other than those few it will be up to
you to supply your own. Once the
printer driver is secured, there is still
the problem of installing it and,
should you have a laser printer or
24-pin dot matrix, you will also
have to install new printer fonts and
modify your ASSIGN.SYS file. This
is not a job for the first-time user.
The thing to do is get your dealer to
install Wordf/air for your particular
printer BEFORE you leave the
store. Having said all that, there are
other ramifications of using a
GDOS-based document processor
for your correspondence that you
should appreciate before you buy.
GDOS is the portion of the
GEM operating system that controls
the output from your ST to your
printer. It is essentially a graphics-
based interface similar to the one
used by the Apple Macintosh. It has
a number of advantages, but chief
among them is the ability to use a
number of fonts, styles, and sizes
instead of being restricted to your
printer’s native fonts. It is even
possible to access international
characters from
within the pro¬
gram, provided
your GDOS font
set includes
them. GDOS’
primary dis¬
advantage pro¬
ceeds directly
from its greatest
advantage: since
it must print each
character in gra¬
phics mode, it
makes for very slow printing on
anything but a laser printer. Also,
since the characters it prints are
bit-mapped and the larger sizes are
obtained from doubling the dimen¬
sions of smaller fonts, larger
characters can be very uneven,
displaying prominent jagged edges.
Import! ng G ra phi cs
Wordf/air makes good use of its
graphics printing and layout capa¬
bility and permits the importation of
graphic images for use within
Wordf/air documents. At the present
time Wordf/air can only import GEM
images and metafiles (those with
IMG and GEM file extenders),
although there are public domain
programs available with good
graphic conversion routines. On the
down side, the importation process
is painfully slow and there is cur¬
rently no easy way to optimize the
size of the images. Nor is there a
way to hide an image once it is
imported. Redrawing a page (which
happens automatically occa¬
sionally) brings everything to a
dead stop whilo the image redraws.
I found the process to be excep¬
tionally slow, even with the T16
accelerator board installed!
Regions
Wordf/a/r gains its unique
advantages through the creation
and manipulation of fixed and float¬
ing regions within documents.
Within the borders of regions one
can import graphic images, prepare
and style text, draw graphs, and
perform basic spioadsheet and
database functions it is also pos¬
sible to link regions so that calcula¬
tions drawn from a data file and
manipulated within a calc region,
for example, can be fed to a pie
chart in a graph region. The regions
Desk File Edit Fornat Record Font Stule Page Help
5 B355B5111 a 11 Pi \HRDFLflIR\EXMlPLE$\CflLEHD(lR.»F^ gggggg g g j
June 1990
Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday j Thursday
Friday
Saturday
I
1 ;
Jure
Birthdays
lurch
2 !
Mists of
Irehrd Gala
Opeiug
3j
Softball
league play
4 i
5 j
Rental
bflliigs due
n
Volleyball
tryouts
7j
Employee
Information
meeting
<T]
Motler of
Fearl takeoff
10 I
ii!
12!
13!
14]
15!
16 S
Wordf/air Screen Shot
Page 20
Current Notes
Voi. 10, No. 8
CN Review
Atari ST/Mega
can be fixed at any point on the
page or they can “float” along with
text placed on the basic tapestry of
the document. It is the regions that
make Wordf/air unique among the
document processors currently
available within the ST market. They
will be examined in greater detail a
bit later in the review. Suffice it to
say at the moment that you must
use care not to overlap regions
(you’ll get an error message if you
do). Nesting a region within another
region is permitted, however.
Standard Features
On the screen, Wordf/air looks
like a cross between 1ST Word P/us
and Ca/amus. The menu bar at the
top of the screen contains the
mostly familiar word processing
headings, while the icons and hori¬
zontal and vertical rulers are
reminiscent of desktop publishing
programs. Let’s take a look at
what’s behind the menu headings.
The File Menu
Not many surprises here. You
can create a new file, open an old
one, close a file and start a new file,
save a file, save a file to a new
name, or revert back to the last
saved file. This menu also sum¬
mons the page setup dialog box
(including such items as paper
type, multiple column capability [up
to 9!], paragraph indent, and margin
settings), allows access to the print
option, permits the import of an
ASCII text file or a graphics file,
exports an ASCII text file, permits
saving your setup, and allows you
to quit. The menu not only lists the
commands for mouse users, it also
lists the keyboard equivalent for
each of those commands. The print
control box allows the selection of
the number of copies to print, print
selected pages, activates the com¬
mands to bring in data from a
merge record file and permits the
selection of one of two word wrap
options: (what-you-see-is-what-
you-get [WYSIWYG] or optimized
—something Goldleaf calls an im¬
proved version). The only real com¬
plaint here is that the import text
command does not permit the im¬
port of files from other ST word
processors. A simple ASCII option
just doesn’t cut it, I believe. I would
like to have seen file conversions
for at least WordPerfect and Word-
Writer ST, not to mention STWriter
and WordUp.
The Edit Menu
The Edit Menu includes an
“Undo” command for rescuing in¬
advertent deletions (just one level
though). It also has normal block
operations (Cut, Copy, Paste, and
Clear) that apply both to blocks of
text and to entire regions (Copy
only works for text). Wordf/air also
has good Search and Search and
Replace options, including whole or
partial words, matching or ignoring
case, and operations over the entire
document or just
within a single
region. You can
Search or Search
and Replace car¬
riage returns, tabs,
or form feeds (very
useful if you can
only import ASCII
files). Cutting or
Copying text places
it on a clipboard
which can also be
viewed from the Edit
Menu. Using the
Clear command deletes the text
without placing it on the clipboard.
The Format Menu
The Format Menu includes
commands to display horizontal
and vertical rulers, to show or hide
region boundaries, and to toggle a
snap-to grid on and off. Also in this
menu are a series of commands for
horizontally and vertically aligning
regions or setting standard spaces
between selected regions. Another
selection summons a dialog box
that sets drawing pen thickness.
You can draw lines in Wordf/air, but
the drawing capabilities are pretty
limited.. There are only three line
thicknesses to choose from. Lines
can be rotated with the mouse by
manipulating one end on the desk
top. Another option permits selec¬
tion of arrows. The “Frame” com¬
mand summons another dialog box
that is used to frame a selected
region with a solid border of varying
thicknesses (three choices again).
You can also select a frame with
rounded or square corners. In addi¬
tion, under this menu are com¬
mands to create and activate multi¬
ple headers and footers. Headers
and footers are special types of
Write Regions that can be placed
anywhere on a page. You may have
different headers and footers for
odd and even pages and you
create a region for page numbers if
you choose.
One of the more powerful and
unique commands in Wordf/air also
appears on this menu. It is the
command to “Float” or “Unfloat”
regions. Floating a region such as a
framed quotation ties that block of
text to a particular point in the
background text. As you continue
to add or delete text on the back¬
ground that appears before the
affected region, the quote floats
along like a log in a river. Unfloating
the region, on the other hand, ties
the region to a particular spot on
the page. The affected region
becomes more like an island and
Paper Type;
Colur^.s:
I US Legal I I R4 Letter I I B5 Letter
Nunber I l j I Spacing I 0.00 I in inches
Margins in inches
Top
1.00 1 Left
Paragraph 1 Q.G
Indent
Bottom 1 1.00 I Right 1 1.80 I
I OK 1 1 Help 1 1 Cancel
Page Setup Dialog Box
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 21
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
+-
X-5-
TITLE! ICRLC1-1
Decinal Places: l~Ol
1 Paste I
Formula:
OVB
1HT
EXP
~PlT
FU
nn run rw
rwi rwi rwi rsoRn
OK
] I help I I Cancel I
Calc Region Dialog Box
text added or deleted upstream on
the background flows around the
quote. At the present time, only
Calc and Write regions can be
floated. You can’t float graph
regions yet and that means import¬
ed images can’t be floated either.
Presumably, a future enhancement
will take care of the matter.
Setting Up Regions
The “Setup Region” command
invokes one of a number of dialog
boxes that lie at the heart of
Wordf/air. These dialog boxes per¬
mit you to customize Background
Write, Graph (image), Calc, and
Write Regions. For Write Regions
the dialog box requires naming the
region (on the Title line), selecting
the justification of text within the
box (left, right, centered, or justi¬
fied), and setting the line spacing at
1,1.5, or 2 spaces.
The Calc Region dialog box has
space for a region title, selections
for standard or comma format for
each calc cell (selecting “Comma”
will automatically insert commas in
numbers 1000 and higher), symbols
(none, dollar, or percent symbol
shown in each cell), alignment of
cells (left, right, or center), number
of decimal places, and the insertion
of a mathematical equation for
manipulating the cells. The equa¬
tions entered identify the Calc cells
to be used and specify the mathe¬
matical operation you wish to have
performed.
Wordf/air can
utilize addition,
subtraction, mul¬
tiplication, divi¬
sion, and
exponentation
operations. A
number of for¬
mulas are already
available and can
simply be pasted
into the formula
box. These in¬
clude such ope-
rations as
averaging a list of numbers, Future
Value calculations, natural
logarithms, and Net Present Value
computations among others.
Graph Regions can be linked to
the results of Calc Regions. The
Graph Region dialog box includes a
Title box, selection of one of three
types of graphs (bar graph, pie
chart, or line graph), labels for the
horizontal and vertical axis, and
data set boxes. The data set boxes
can contain numeric values or the
titles of the Calc Regions that will
feed the output of formulas to the
Graph Region. The latter is dynamic
in nature such that changing the
input data will automatically be
reflected in the output of the graph.
Lastly, the data sets can be indivi¬
dually labeled and will appear in the
completed graph if the region is
large enough to accommodate
them.
The Record Menu
The Record menu contains a
number of commands for creating,
modifying, and managing the data
bases that feed the Calc and Graph
Regions. They include creating new
files, opening an old one, closing a
file, and saving a selected portion
of a larger data base to disk. In
addition, you can add a new
record, change or delete an old
record, or select (mark) a record in
a data base in order to create a
subset of that data base. You can
also sort the records in a data base
alphabetically or numerically. You
can even undo the sort if you
desire. Finally, the File Info com¬
mand displays a number of para¬
meters about a selected data base.
The Font Menu
The Font Menu permits selec¬
tion among the GDOS fonts that
have been loaded into your com¬
puter’s memory when the system
was booted (or when Wordf/air was
loaded if you are using G+p/ud).
The fonts that are available to
Wordf/air depend on what your
ASSIGN.SYS file calls forth. The
font selection can apply to an entire
text region or just to selected text.
The Style Menu
Like the Font Menu, the Style
Menu is standard stuff. You can
select such typestyles as plain,
bold, italics, underline, outline, su¬
perscript, or subscript. Like the font
selection, the typestyle can apply
to entire text regions or just to
selected text. In addition, you may
select the size of your text by
choosing from among the available
point sizes. The number of point
sizes you have available will
depend on what sizes are specified
in your ASSIGN.SYS file. Like the
font and typestyle selections, the
size of the type can apply to entire
text regions or just selected text.
The Page Menu
The Page Menu permits moving
from one page to another within a
multipage document. You may not
simply scroll from one page to
another like you can in most word
processors. In this regard at least,
Wordf/air operates more like a
desktop publishing program. The
commands move you forward or
backward in the document one
page at a time, or you can move to
the first or final page in the docu¬
ment. There is no way to move to a
selected page on this menu—but
see the Page Icon. In addition,
there are commands to force a
Page 22
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
CN Review
Atari ST/Mega
page break, insert a page (blank or
text-filled), and cut or paste a
page. Finally, there are several mis¬
cellaneous commands in this menu
including one to specify the units of
measurement to be utilized
throughout Wordf/air (inches, centi¬
meters, or picas) and the Grid
command. The Grid command sets
the spacing of the dotted lines of a
graph paper grid that you can lay
over the Background Write Region,
or a column grid placed similarly for
aligning elements vertically on a
page. The column grid permits
specification of the number of col¬
umns and the spacing between
each column.
The Icons
The icons are operated by
simply clicking on them with the
mouse. The first icon (from left to
right) permits creation of a Fixed
Write Region. The Calc Icon lets
you create a Fixed Calc Region
while a Graph Icon allows creation
of (you guessed it) a Graph Region.
The Title Icon displays the regions
on a page along with the titles that
you gave them in the Setup dialog
box. The Grid Icon toggles a grid
on or off over the Background Write
Region. The Page View Icon tog¬
gles between the normal view and
a full-page view. ( Wordf/air runs
only in high and medium resolu¬
tion.) The Help View Icon creates a
second window to the right of the
current document for display of
help text. The Drawing Icon acti¬
vates the drawing pen which can
be used to draw lines. The Vacuum
Icon removes unwanted regions
from the Background Write Region
while the Page Icon, which displays
the current page number, can be
used to go directly to a selected
page. The Record Icons permit you
to move through the records of a
data base.
The Rulers and Help
The Horizontal Ruler allows the
setting of margins, indents, and tab
stops. To access the on-line help
function simply drop down the help
menu and select an item.
The Manual
The Wordf/air manual is one of
the high points of the package. It is
well written, clear, to the point, and
offers three progressive tutorials
that ease you into the program
without a ripple. A series of hints
and warnings throughout the
manual suggest shortcuts or offer
helpful advice to avoid pitfalls. The
Appendices include a list of key¬
board equivalents to mouse-
accessed commands, templates for
several types of forms, Page
Design Guidelines, and a very
complete index. It is one of the best
efforts I have seen to date.
Other Goodies
A few keyboard combinations
hidden within the program don’t
have mouse commands. <ALT>
<M>, for example, displays avail¬
able memory.
Major Shortcomings
x No spellingchc^ker.
x No thesaurus,
x No hyphenation dictionary,
x No text file conversion utility,
x No graphic conversion utility,
x Limited page numberingoptions.
x No data base file conversion utility.
Planned Upgrades
Goldleaf has already released
one maintenance upgrade and, by
the time you read this, will surely
have released another. Registered
owners can order Wordf/air Version
1.1 for $5. Version 1.1 is 75K
smaller in size and fixes some
problems associated with the su¬
perscript and subscript typestyles. It
also includes a graphic conversion
and manipulation utility, improved
speed, and more keyboard equiva¬
lents.
Wordf/air ii\% due out sometime
this quarter. The cost for registered
owners to upgrade to the new
version is expected to be $20
(versus a planned retail price of
$149). Wordf/air H will reportedly
contain a spelling checker, the¬
saurus, hyphenation dictionary, and
allow the import of data base files
using comma or tab delimiters. In
addition, it will have improved data
base capabilities and improved
graphic handling routines (possibly
including a hide feature).
Further upgrades are planned.
A new version of GDOS was
announced in Germany by Atari in
August. The new version uses scal¬
able outline fonts rather than bit¬
mapped fonts, resulting in greatly
improved quality of print, reduced
memory requirements, increased
number of memory-resident fonts,
and nearly unlimited type sizes.
Goldleaf is already planning to in¬
corporate this new GDOS in either
the release version of Wordf/air // or
in a future upgrade.
The Bottom Line
Wordf/air can’t compete with
WordPerfect, but it really isn’t
meant to do so. Wordf/air is a
hybrid, lying approximately midway
between a word processor and a
desktop publishing program. It is
just what Goldleaf advertises it to
be—a document processor. Its
GDOS roots slow printing to a crawl
on many dot matrix printers (maybe
unacceptably so) but is probably
fast enough on a laser printer. The
bit-mapped fonts are generally
high quality as long as you steer
away from the larger, doubled point
sizes. Wordfiair’s most severe
drawbacks won’t be overcome by
the 1.1 upgrade, but eventually will
be if Wordf/air // fulfills its promise.
Overall, I would rate the current
version useful since it does things
no other ST program will do, the 1.1
upgrade (sight unseen) rates out as
good, and Wordf/air // is potentially
a “must have" addition to your
software library.
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 23
The
Magic Juice!
Last month the Alchemist threw
out a bunch of names of people
who made major contributions to
the development of computers.
Most of those names were probably
familiar to you, but maybe some
weren’t. This time the Alchemist will
fill you in on who all those folks are,
including a few obscure facts about
even the familiar ones.
Famous Names
Thomas Edison—World’s
greatest inventor. He invented the
light bulb, electric power gener¬
ation, and the electric bill. In 1892
J.P. Morgan formed General Elec¬
tric by merging Edison Electric
Light Co. with a competitor. While
fiddling around with light bulbs in
1883, Edison discovered thermionic
emission but didn’t know what it
was good for.
Nikola Tesla—Yugoslavian im¬
migrant who left Edison’s employ to
pursue ideas on alternating current.
His patents were acquired by
George Westinghouse, whose
company became GE’s arch-rival.
Tesla gave us 60-Hz AC power and
the concept of an “electronic grid”
that provides power, communica¬
tions, entertainment, and informa¬
tion.
Lee DeForest—He used Edi¬
son’s discovery of thermionic emis¬
sion to invent the vacuum tube in
1907 and made early contributions
to radio.
George Boole—A 19th century
English mathematician. He invented
Boolean algebra, the basis of binary
logic upon which all modern com¬
puters are based.
Charles Babbage—A 19th
century British engineer, invented
the cowcatcher for trains and built
the first mechanical computer.
Herman Hollerith—Employed
by the Census Bureau in 1890, he
invented data input using punched
cards. In FORTRAN, a blank or
undesignated character is repre¬
sented by H (Hollerith character). In
1924 his Tabulating Machine Co.
adopted the name by which we
know it today: IBM.
John Mauchly—Invented the
first true electronic computer,
ENIAC, during WWII. ENIAC
employed the binary logic of Boole
and 18,000 vacuum tubes a la
DeForest: when ENIAC booted up,
the lights in Philadelphia went dim.
William Shockley—Invented
the transistor at Bell Labs, 1947.
Left Bell in 1955 to head up Shock-
ley Semiconductor division of
Beckman Instruments. The com¬
pany didn’t last long but gained
fame for attracting the cream of
American semiconductor talent.
Jack Kilby—Invented the in¬
tegrated circuit at Texas Instru¬
ments, 1959.
Robert Noyce—Godfather of
the microcomputer. Co-inventor of
the 1C, he left Shockley in 1957 to
start up Fairchild Semiconductor,
which became the fountainhead of
the American semiconductor in¬
dustry in Silicon Valley. He left Fair-
child in 1968 to start up Intel, which
produced the first RAMchip in 1970
and the first commercially success¬
ful 8-bit microprocessor, the 8080,
in 1974.
Charles Sporck—Left Fairchild
in 1967 to head up National Semi¬
conductor.
Nolan Bushnell—Started the
videogame craze by inventing
“Pong” and, with the founding of
Atari in 1972, fired the opening
salvo of the home computer revo¬
lution. By 1980 Bushnell was a
retired millionaire, and Atari sales
under the ownership of Warner
Communications were $100-million
a year.
The Two Steves—Steve Jobs
and Steve Wozniak, high school
chums and co-founders of Apple
Computer. Jobs quit Atari in 1977 to
start up Apple, which was named to
commemorate the summers Jobs
spent picking apples.
OK, with this list of famous
names the Alchemist concludes his
mini-course in the History of High-
Tech. Now we can get down to
some serious Alchemist business.
Computer Medicine
In the drugstore you can buy
some stuff called Neosporin oint¬
ment, which is your basic mixture of
“wonder drug" antibiotics: poly¬
myxin, bacitracin, and neomycin.
Neosporin is great for promoting
rapid healing of minor cuts, burns
and scrapes. Only one problem
with Neosporin. it only works on
living critters, i.e, people.
Computers, like people, also
suffer their little hurts, but Neo¬
sporin applied to an ailing computer
will only make a big mess and not
help the computer at all. Much has
been made lately of the computer
“virus," but that’s a software illness,
and, in any event, 8-bit machines
appear immune (so far) to that
particular computer malady. A sig¬
nificant threat to a computer’s phy¬
sical health comes from the
environment: dirt, moisture, and
corrosive nasties in the air. (Extra¬
neous radiation and “dirty” electri-
Page 24
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
city also threaten your computer’s
health, but I’ll deal with those in
later columns.) If you’ve ever
experienced mind-warping data
losses caused by funky switches or
cables which appeared to be con¬
nected but really weren’t, your
machine had developed a touch of
“environmental ague.” Oftentimes,
radical surgery to replace the
offending part was the only cure.
Now the Alchemist will share
with you one of his most treasured
discoveries in the field of computer
medicine, a kind of Neosporin for
your computer. It is called Cramo/in,
but the Alchemist frequently refers
to it as The Magic Juice. Cramolin
(gee, the name even sounds like
medicine) promotes rapid healing
of minor computer “sores.”
The Magic Juice
Cramolin is a special liquid
developed for the computer indus¬
try by a company called Caig
Laboratories, which makes elec¬
tronic chemicals and specialized
soldering equipment for the indus¬
trial hi-tech manufacturing market.
Caig’s older literature refers to Cra¬
molin as a contact lubricant, but the
Alchemist feels that’s a misnomer.
The stuff should more properly be
called a contact conditioner, for
reasons that will become apparent
later. More recently, Caig has been
promoting Cramolin as a contact
“de-oxidizer,” but that term is only
a partial descriptor.
Now, just about every retail
electronics outlet sells contact con¬
ditioners. But Cramo/in is in a class
by itself. Under no circumstances
should it ever be confused with that
horrible “tuner spray” stuff you buy
at Radio Shack. Tuner spray really
IS a lubricant, a bunch a goopy oils
dissolved in freon. Which is why
whenever you use it on anything,
the same problem comes back with
a vengeance a few months later.
About the only thing you
accomplish with that greasy kid’s
stuff is to push the dirt to a different
location and present the metal
contacts with fresh opportunities to
corrode. Upon exposure to air,
many lubricants gradually oxidize to
acidic carboxylates or dry out and
polymerize to form nonconductive
gumballs. Cramolin is nothing like
these kinds of contact lubricants.
The Magic Juice is supplied in
two different forms: there is Cram¬
olin CR-10, which is the Red Juice,
and Cramo/in CR-20, which is the
Blue Juice. You apply the red stuff
to old contacts which need clean¬
ing. For new contacts, or ones
which have already been cleaned
with CR-10, the Blue Juice is
applied to inhibit future corrosion.
The two juices come in nice little
2-dram vials (about 5cc’s) com¬
plete with an applicator brush in the
cap, like fingernail polish.
What Is It?
Caig Labs won’t tell you what
exactly Cramo/in is, but they do
claim it’s nontoxic and nonflamm¬
able, harmless to plastics, free of
acids, electrically nonconductive,
stable to extremes of temperature
and electric arcs, and repels mois¬
ture. The red and blue colors are no
doubt commercial dyes. Caig ad¬
vises that Cramo/in should be
stored in glass containers away
from light. Physically, the Magic
Juice could be described as a thin
oil with a faintly sweet, musky
smell, the Red being slighly more
pungent than the Blue. That this oil
is no lubricant becomes apparent
when you use it.
Last year I got tired of unplug¬
ging my XEP-80 and reconnecting
the regular XL video output to the
monitor every time I switched be¬
tween software that used the XEP-
80 and software that used the usual
40-column display. So, in true
Alchemist fashion, I built myself a
little switchbox that allowed me to
change display inputs just by push¬
ing a rocker switch. After a few
weeks the XEP-80 display started
getting noisy, with fuzz and snow
and little flashes of light on the
screen. I got out my bottle of Red
Juice and dabbed some on the
switch. True to its name, the Magic
Juice instantly restored my display.
But the rocker switch no longer
switches quite as easily as it did
before I applied the Juice. After just
a few switchings I felt the famliar
increase in switch friction that
characterizes a Cramolin-treated
connection. As the Juice magically
eats away layers of metallic sulfides
and oxides, you can feel the con¬
tact wiping action grow more effi¬
cient: the contacts develop a
"grab.” No oil-based lubricant
behaves like this!
Cramo/in never ceases to mys¬
tify me. The stuff has an outright
affinity for just about any metal, and
it migrates. If you treat your joystick
port with it and then plug in a
joystick, after a day or so every
square millimeter of exposed metal
on the joystick connector will be
found coated with a microthin film
of The Juice. According to Caig,
that’s the way it’s supposed to
work. If you place a little Cramo/in
in the bottom of a small metal
container, it slowly creeps up the
inside walls, turns corners, and
eventually finds its way to outer
surfaces. Now you see why the
8-Bit Alchemist calls it Magic.
How does it work? Basically,
the Red Juice “dissolves” away
corrosion deposits. The Blue Juice
adheres to metal surfaces and pre¬
vents contact between the metal
and corrosive gases in the air. The
thin nonconductive film it forms is
only a few molecules thick, but
electrons can still pass through via
a mechanism akin to quantum
mechanical tunnelling. The
Alchemist hasn’t verified this; I only
know the stuff works.
The Seven Percent Solution
The key to using Cramo/in is to
use as little of it as possible. The
thinner the film, the better it works.
As supplied in the little vials, it is far
too concentrated and has to be
diluted first. Caig recommends
dilution with a certain type of freon,
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 25
but for household storage in glass
containers, freon’s high vapor
pressure presents an unacceptable
explosion hazard. The safe bet,
which the Alchemist uses, is to
dilute The Juice with trichloroeth-
ane.
Here’s how to do it: first, go to
the local hardware store and pur¬
chase a small container (1 pint or
less) of trichloroethane. Trich-
loroethane is a widely used com¬
mercial solvent sold under a variety
of trade names such as “Carbona,”
“Carbo-Chlor,” or “Carbo-Trichlor”
and is typically found in the depart¬
ment where furniture-stripping and
varnish solvents are sold. A pint of
trichloroethane will run you $3-$5.
Next, go to the drugstore and pur¬
chase two 3-oz. “travel size” bot¬
tles of “Listerine” mouthwash; cost
is about a dollar per bottle. While
you’re at the drugstore, pick up a
glass eyedropper (my druggist gave
me one for free). Pour out the
Listerine, wash the cap and bottles
with hot water, and soak off the
labels from the bottles. If you have
some rubbing alcohol, it’s a good
idea to rinse the bottles and caps
with that; otherwise, place the bot¬
tles in a warm place for as long as it
takes to completely dry them. Label
one bottle “7% CRAMOLIN CR-10 in
TRICHLOROETHANE II HARMFUL IF
SWALLOWED!” and the other bottle
“7% CRAMOLIN CR-20 in TRICH¬
LOROETHANE II HARMFUL IF
SWALLOWED!”
Now pour the entire contents of
the small vial of Cramo/in Red into
the bottle labelled “7% CRAMOLIN
CR-10.” Using the eyedropper, rinse
out the small vial a few times with
the trichloroethane solvent and add
the washings to the bottle. Then
add trichloroethane to the bottle up
to the neck, cap it, and shake it a
few times to mix. With the eyed¬
ropper, refill the small vial with
dilute Red Juice. Rinse the eyed¬
ropper with fresh solvent when
you’re done. Follow the same pro¬
cedure for diluting Cramo/in B/ue.
The small vials with brushes in the
caps are your working solutions for
applying Cramo/in, the 3-oz. bot¬
tles of stock solution should be
stored away in a dark place beyond
the reach of children. The eyedrop¬
per and leftover solvent should be
stored along with the stock Cramo-
Hn solutions.
In the course of using the solu¬
tion from the small vials you will
eventually contaminate the solution
in the vial. Metallic particulates and
other gross matter in the bottom of
the vial degrades The Juice and
spreads contaminants to new sur¬
faces.
If too much junk collects in the
bottom of the vial it is best to
discard the remaining solution,
rinse the vial with a litt/c fresh
solvent, and replenish The Juice
from your stock solution. This might
seem wasteful, but it isn’t. You can
refill the little vial over a dozen
times from the stock bottle, and
each vial is good for several hun¬
dred applications. Just a little Magic
Juice goes a long, long way. There
is no point risking contamination of
a fresh connection by using junky
Juice when a whole vial of the 7%
solution only costs about a buck.
For most people, the bottles of
stock solution will probably last a
lifetime.
Using Magic Juice
Cramo/in should be applied
wherever there is any type of
mechanical connection in your
computer system. Cable connec¬
tors, joystick ports, plugs, jacks and
sockets are obvious candidates.
Switches are another place where
Cramo/in can work wonders.
Unfortunately, Atari often used
a sealed type of switch in much
equipment (especially for power
switches), so The Juice won’t help
in those situations.
Inside your computer are
numerous other places to apply The
Juice. I always dab some Blue
Juice on chip sockets before in¬
serting chips. Adjustable potenti¬
ometers and ROMcart slots are
good for a shot of Red Juice, while
the parallel output contacts should
be treated with Blue. In the XL/XE
machines the flimsy plastic ribbon
connector from the keyboard to the
circuit board is a frequent source of
intermittent problems. Cramolin Red
applied to the keyboard connector
socket is a sure cure.
Troubles with ROMcarts are
more often due to corroded edge
contacts than to defective ROMs.
You can restore an intermittent
ROMcart by first inserting a paper¬
clip in one side of the slot and
pushing back the plastic protector
with your finger. This will expose
the edge connector of the circuit
card inside the cartridge. While
holding back the plastic protector,
rub the exposed contacts on both
sides of the card with a pencil
eraser to remove gross corrosion
(after just a few swipes the contacts
will look visibly brighter). Then apply
Blue Juice to the contacts. If the
ROMcart still won’t work, dis¬
assemble it. If the ROM(s) are sol¬
dered to the card, then you pro¬
bably have a bad ROM. If the
ROM(s) are socketed, remove them
(keep a note of which ROM was in
which socket) and treat the sockets
with Blue. If the cartridge still
doesn’t work after this treatment,
you have a defective ROM or a
damaged circuit card.
On several occasions the
Alchemist has used Cramo/in to
solve bizarre behavior caused by
intermittents in 1050 disk drives.
Aside from the SIO and power
jacks, the 1050 has dozens of inter¬
nal mechanical contacts that can
eventually develop problems. The
drive select switch should be treat¬
ed with Red Juice, worked back
and forth 15-20 times, then treated
with Blue and worked again. LSI
chips should be removed from their
sockets and the sockets treated
with Blue Juice. There are 7 or 8
multi-pin connectors between the
drive mechanism and the circuit
board; these should all be treated
Page 26
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
with Cramo/in Red with a followup
treatment of Blue.
There is one type of electronic
component upon which Cramo/in
should NEVER be used: variable
capacitors (the 1050 has one trim-
cap). Trimcaps don’t have
mechanical wipers like trimpots do,
so there is no reason to use a
contact conditioner on one. These
capacitors use air as their dielectric.
Cramo/in has a different dielectric
constant than air; if Cramo/in film
finds its way to the “leaves” in a
trimcap, it will change the set value
of the capacitor and disrupt the
circuit. Like any good medicine,
Cramo/in has its contraindications!
Getting the Juice
Unfortunately, The Magic Juice
isn’t the easiest stuff to find. Audio
fanatics and “tweak freaks” are
most likely to know local sources of
the stuff if any exist in your area. (A
thorough Cramo/in treatment will
completely rejuvenate a tired sound
system.) Cramo/in is sold by some
audio shops and tweaky high-end
audio salons; in my area it is also
sold by jobber parts shops that
cater to the professional electronic
repair trade.
You can contact Caig Labora¬
tories directly for product informa¬
tion, prices, and purchases.
Address: 1175-0 Industrial Avenue
Escondido CA 92025-0051; phone
(619)743-7143. For $17.50 plus
costs Caig will sell you the Elec¬
tronic Maintenance Kit which con¬
tains the little 2-dram vials of Red
and Blue Juice. The kit also con¬
tains a bunch of odd little tools,
applicators, lint-free cloths, tissues
and such—but I have never found
much use for that stuff. The Two
Juices are also sold in 6-oz. spray
cans: Cramo/in R5 (5% solution of
Cramo/in Red] sells for $8.25 and
B5 (5% Cramo/in B/ud) goes for
$8.50.
The Alchemist has been using
Cramo/in liquid and sprays for
about 7 years. I swear by it. If I had
a nickel for every time Cramo/in got
me out of an electronic jam, I would
be a Wealthy Alchemist. I use it on
computers, video gear, hi-tech
chemistry lab instrumentation, my
audio system, my testbench equip¬
ment, household appliances, and
my car. It’s great stuff. Try some.
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October 1990
Current Notes
Page 27
'Gone?"
My Memory
Where Has All
Nope, that’s neither a song title nor a sign of
advancing age—just the plaintive cry of an Atarian who
has discovered that his/her favorite application won’t
run any more for lack of it. Actually, the phenomenon
isn’t limited to Atari users; it can happen on any
computer system from PC to mainframe.
“Why?” you ask. (At least the Junkyard Pussycat
did; the idea and the title of this column were his
suggestion). Today’s computers do have lots more
RAM than we had in the “good ole days” of the 16KB
Atari 800. Everything, from IBM clones to STs, sells with
1MB or more. After all, 1KB = 1024 bytes, and 1MB =
1024KB: 1024 * 1024 = 1048576 bytes. That’s a lot,
isn’t it? Not necessarily.
Memory Management
The ST’s operating system is installed in ROM, but
it also needs some RAM just to keep track of what’s
happening: I/O buffers, display memory, and so on.
The operating system also has all the tables and
functions needed to manage the system’s RAM; when
a program is run, TOS figures out how much memory
is required to get the application loaded, reserves the
memory, loads the program, and transfers control to it.
If the application needs more memory, it simply
asks the operating system for it. TOS locates the
requested amount of RAM, reserves it, and tells the
application where it is. If the needed memory is not
available, the requesting program gets an error mes¬
sage. This is where bad things can happen to you—it
depends on how thorough the programmer was in
detecting and handling such errors.
An application can release memory it doesn’t need
any longer by calling on another TOS service routine.
When the application is finished, TOS releases system
resources used by the application. Thus, if you look at
“free RAM” before and after running an application,
you should see the same number.
Some Memory Eaters
Those desk accessories and the programs in your
AUTO folder need RAM in order to load and run. By
definition, DAs load at boot time and stay in memory,
hanging on to at least some of the RAM they grabbed.
Some of them use a lot, too.
A ramdisk accessory like RAMBABY needs enough
space for itself (the program), and for the simulated
STARTING
BLOCK
by Richard Gunter
disk. Make a 500KB ramdisk on your 1040, and there
goes half of your memory in one swoop. LaserBrain
(Epson emulator for the SLM804) needs upwards of
1MB.
AUTO programs vary even more widely. Some of
them do their thing and go away entirely, as does
Superboot. Others can’t go away. A ramdisk program
or hard drive cache or print spooler will keep a piece of
itself, plus the buffer/ramdisk space. That memory is
tied up until you reboot and is, therefore, unavailable
for other purposes.
GDOS is a sneaky rascal: it gloms onto 14-15KB at
boot time. BUT, it also loads the printer driver and its
fonts when you print, so that 15KB is a bit illusory.
Symptoms of memory shortage can be as obvious
as a brick through the window (a nasty message from
an application—just before it aborts), or as subtle as a
program simply not working right.
Gathering Data
For all the data in the accompanying table, I used a
little (7KB) desk accessory called FREERAM. That’s so
the free RAM figures would be self-consistent. In the
first section, everything is cumulative; that is, I added
something to an empty machine, took a reading with
FREERAM, and added the next item.
Free (unused) RAM is shown in bytes and KBytes,
and program sizes likewise. The KBytes figures are
rounded up to the next integer.
Let’s examine in detail what happens to available
RAM as an ST user (your humble servant) sets up his
system configuration.
Building a Configuration
The first entry in the table is the computed maxi¬
mum memory available on a Mega 2: 2MB, or 2097152
bytes. We never see a number that high in practice,
because GEM needs 157KB right off the bat (note this
figure includes FREERAM.ACC). The hard drive handler
is the next entry at just under 2KB. The rest of the first
section shows the AUTO programs and desk acces¬
sories that I use most often. You can see how free
RAM decreases as each item is added.
The last item in my standard configuration is the
Diablo Emulator and the Setup accessory that goes
with it— a whopping 291KB. Whew!
Page 28
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
This is my “normal” configuration, and I have a
little over 1 million bytes left over for any applications I
want to run. Now what?
print. Dropping Hotwire out of the configuration
released enough memory to get it done. Publisher ST
gave no warning—just didn’t print right.
As you can see from the second section of the
table, Word Perfect, Phasar 4.0 | and OuickC/S have
plenty of room to run.
Serious Hog Time
My problem child is Publisher ST. In general, all
DTP packages are memory-hogs, so that it’s really not
Publisher ST’s fault.
As the last section of the table shows, I use a
different configuration for publishing. The basic setup is
Hotwire, U/S Hi (minus the accessory), and the 40-
folder fix. I leave out everything else; CONTROL,
calendar, etc.
GDOS, set up for Publisher ST’s native mode,
takes up only about 15KB. Publisher ST uses about
336KB, with no document loaded. Last month’s article,
which included three picture files, took another 87KB.
Looks pretty good, eh? Still have more than a
million bytes left. Well, yes and no.
This configuration is sufficient to produce and print
most of these columns. I still have the occasional
failure, such as a recent two-page column. It had more
picture files than usual, and one of the frames wouldn’t
Memory Usage
- Mega 2 ST
Free
RAM
Program Size
Comments
(Bytes)
2097152
(KB)
2048
(Bytes)
(KB)
Computed total RAM
1937020
1892
160132
157
GEM + FREERAM.ACC
1935320
1890
1700
2
Hard drive handler
1921990
1877
13330
14
FOLDR100
1897830
1854
24160
24
CONTROL Accessory
1860360
1817
37470
37
UIS III (AUTO)
1856060
1813
4300
5
UIS III (ACC)
1804770
1763
51290
51
Hotwire 2.2
1542630
1507
262140
256
CodeHead Ramdisk (253K)
1437460
1404
105170
103
M-Cache (200 x 4)
1391930
1360
45530
45
Calendar Accessory
1094850
1070
297080
291
Diablo Emulator
Total Used: 1002302 bytes, or 979 KB.
<<
Standard
” Applications
774980
757
319870
313
Word Perfect
662160
647
432690
423
Phasar 4.0
838120
819
256730 251 QuickClS
Memory for Publishing
Free
RAM
Program Size
Comments
(Bytes)
1833230
(KB)
1791
(Bytes)
(KB)
Hotwire, UIS (auto), foldrIOO
1818550
1776
14680
15
GDOS, Publisher ST
ASSIGN.SYS
1474560
1440
343990
336
Publisher ST loaded (no doc)
1386490
1354
88070
87
Publisher ST w/ last article
1471790
1438
361440
353
Uitrascript (no GDOS)
A couple of years ago, a friend showed me a
Christmas newsletter that he’d done, with little snow¬
flake images scattered here and there. I liked the idea
and tried it myself. It didn’t work out; my two-page
document just wouldn’t print properly on a Mega 2, but
the original printed fine on a Mega 4. On the other
hand, some four-page documents work fine.
Uitrascript requires 353KB just to load. Again, that’s
deceptive, because Uitrascript also needs LOTS of
memory to process a postscript file.
For postscript, I prefer to run Publisher ST, “print”
the document to disk, then simply run Uitrascript
without rebooting. Although GDOS, Hotwire, etc., are
still loaded, that works most of the time. Unfortunately,
sometimes it doesn’t work, and I must reboot and run
Uitrascript all by itself.
The moral? Keep a close eye on the memory
you’re tying up with those nifty goodies, and be
prepared to use different system configurations for the
real memory hogs.
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October 1990
Current Notes
Page 29
Junkyard
iPussycat
by John Barnes
With two “national” user group shows and at least
one regional event on the calendar for September and
October, this looks like a good time to ask “Just what
is an AtariFest?”
The Junkyard Pussycat has watched a number of
these events from both near and far. Walking around at
ankle height, Pussycat style, sometimes reveals a
different perspective.
Is an AtariFest a computer show, a flea market, or
a social outing? Are the Fests marketing exercises,
media events, or educational forums?
Fests as County Fairs
AtariFests are really all of the above blended
together in a way that suggests a county fair. The
midway is well populated with merchants luring people
out of the passing crowds to purchase their wares.
Monitors displaying the latest tours de force beckon
the user into lurid peep shows. Visitors to the game
room get a spin that feels like a trip on a carnival ride.
The user groups trolling for new members play the role
of the local Lions club. The disk library tables, like
church suppers, feed the masses cheaply. Like county
fairs, the demonstration rooms provide serious users
with a chance to evaluate the merits of the latest
agricultural implements. The swap rooms feature
homemade baked goods. The performances in the
seminar and MIDI rooms take the place of the bull
riding, tractor pulls, and country and Western shows.
New computer systems, hard drives, and graphics
boards are paraded before the public like carefully
groomed 4-H steers at an auction.
AtariFests are noisy and full of bright lights, in¬
digestion, and fun.
Fests as Revival Meetings
The county fair metaphor, however, misses the
religious fervor that sometimes rears its head at Atari¬
Fests. 8-bitters, 16 bitters, and Spectre groupies all
preach the one way to true salvation with the fervor of
evangelists at a revival meeting. Those who have been
born again stand up to reaffirm their faith. The conver¬
ted proclaim the joys of having seen the light.
The techies converse in tongues, with their talk of
RAMs, and ROMs, DAs, RCS’s, and other mysteries.
The apostates, who proclaim the end of the world
because of the greed of priests and bishops, are
roundly jeered by the faithful. Soothsayers declaim
their prophesies that “Piracy will be the end of us all”
and the congregation joins in prayers to exorcise these
demons.
AtariFests, like revival meetings, provide food for
the soul (or at least the conscience).
The Grass Roots
The county fair and revival meeting comparisons
suggest a distinctly homespun flavor. The first Atari¬
Fests were put on by people in user groups who
simply felt a need to share with others of their own
kind. The most successful shows appear to retain this
grass roots orientation. Indeed, some participants who
are used to grander affair ometimes experience a
certain “culture shock” on encountering the home¬
brewed atmosphere of an AtariFest.
As the fame of some events has spread, mer¬
chants, developers, and users from far and wide have
scrambled to get on the band wagon. Some of the
shows, like the WAACE event, have been forced to
make more elaborate logistical arrangements, which
has led to a more commercial (hence, more expensive)
format.
Grass roots participation remains important, how¬
ever, because the Atari marketplace is simply not
lucrative enough to support large expenditures for
marketing. Volunteers are needed to expand the edu¬
cational content of the shows with demonstrations,
public domain software, and assistance to other users.
Is It a Computer Show?
As much as some people would like an AtariFest to
resemble a formal computer show along the lines of a
Mac World, or a Federal Office Systems Expo, there is
no way to support these kinds of things from the Atari
user base. Atari computers are simply not found in
organizations that spend tens or hundreds of thou¬
sands of dollars a year on computer hardware and
Page 30
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
software. There are no professionals who can justify
travelling across the USA to be brought up to date on
the latest in operating systems, applications software,
hardware, or system management techniques for Atari
computers.
The major show approach may be more successful
in Europe, where this year’s Duesseldorf show is said
to have attracted 50,000 or so visitors and a healthy
contingent of U.S. developers. Of course, Duesseldorf
is at most an overnight train ride from anywhere in
western Europe, and 50,000 people represent just 8
percent or so of the user base in this area.
Many real computer expositions do not permit
selling at the show, they exist simply to present
information and to establish sales contacts to be
followed up later. There are perhaps two or three Atari
developers who could afford to operate in this way.
Are Fests Effective Marketing?
AtariFests are important to small developers
because they get a chance to expose their products to
a broader audience and to generate some excitement
in the media and by word of mouth. For a “national”
AtariFest it costs each vendor about 15 cents to 75
cents to expose his wares to each attendee, depend¬
ing on the costs of travel, booth space, advertising,
lodging, and shipping.
A 1/4 page ad carried for half a year in Current
Notes costs about 10 cents per subscriber, which is
comparable to costs in other Atari media. Therefore,
participation in one national AtariFest costs about the
same as a concerted advertising campaign in the Atari
magazines. This would seem to be worthwhile if the
vendor’s presence at the Fest generates enough
excitement to attract favorable attention.
Organizations selling primarily to distributors may
not find AtariFests to be as useful as trade shows when
it comes to marketing.
Fests as Media Happenings
Once we recognize that the reports from each Fest
are analyzed in minute detail we can begin to appre¬
ciate the extent to which these events are made for the
media. Debuts of new products, live appearances of
new but still unavailable hardware, and new personali¬
ties are all chronicled far and wide. The reportage
tends to become rather stylized, with a laundry list of
attending vendors being the dominant feature. Atten¬
tion to detail is necessary here to ward off accusations
that one player or another has been slighted. Fest
attendance is taken seriously as a barometer of market
trends.
Some of the media personalities become players
themselves. Publishers, editors, and columnists delight
in hearing how their work has attracted the attention of
the masses. Recognizable figures like GEnie Sysops,
online magazine publishers, and print columnists find
themselves surrounded by their fans on the show floor
and at the parties.
The post-event feelings of these media stars
provide an important index of success. Of course, the
media thrive on an audience, so the number of
attendees is once again an important clue to success.
Shopping Frenzy
The multitude of tables at which vendors are
pushing their wares is reminiscent of flea markets
everywhere. We have seen ruthless competition and
small scale price wars at past Fests.
Festgoers fuel this tendency by using their success
in bringing home bargains to gauge the quality of an
event. Some visitors are very persistent in the way they
wait, vulture-like, to pounce on product that is unloa¬
ded at a loss near the end of a show so that the
vendor does not have to pack it up and carry it home.
National developers and dealers also feed the
shopping frenzy by measuring the success of their
participation in terms of the quantity of product moved.
If the earliest Fests had this aura, it was limited to
finds in the swap rooms or from strictly local develo¬
pers. We now find mail order houses travelling from
state to state trying to outdo one another in the
discount department. This situation is bound to stabil¬
ize as “survival of the fittest” narrows the field.
Regional Fests or swap meets seem to be able to
generate good will by keeping the scope of their
operations limited.
The buying frenzy has a flip side: products bought
in the heat of battle, without any real understanding of
their quality or function, may prove useless once they
are unpacked at home. Such “bargains” turn out to be
something quite different. Memories in the Atari com¬
munity seem to be short, and the merchants seem to
have few compunctions about selling something they
know to be of less than quality. “What the user asks for
is what the user gets” seems to dominate the mer¬
chandising philosophy.
In the face of this, we can only counsel consumers
to look before they leap. Magazine reviews, user group
experience, and the track record of the vendor are all
factors that have to be taken into account.
Whether the flea market atmosphere represents a
healthy market is questionable. It is, however, a fact
that successful dealers report that a significant fraction
of their annual profit comes from the Fests.
New Product Hype
Being crowded media events, AtariFests seem to
call forth hyperbole to make individual products stand
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 31
out from the crowd. Novelty is also an important
attraction for visitors.
“Introductory Specials” on products that are totally
new to the marketplace may require that the user
invest time and money in upgrades and fixes. Some
Atari developers have the staying power to provide this
kind of support, others do not.
Products brought to market before their time risk
tarnishing the reputation of developers. Some have
learned this lesson, and they avoid the notoriety that
attends the highly visible release of a crippled product.
They also forgo possible favorable reactions. There are
risks on both sides of this line.
Fests are a good way for a person to see for
himself what is really happening with new products.
The Educational Side
Some of the best action at AtariFests takes place
off the display floor, in the demonstration rooms. The
pace is slower here and there is more time to delve
into a subject. Users who need help should be able to
find it from someone who has experience in a particu¬
lar area. Given the variety of products and problems
that are out there it is, however, unreasonable to
expect detailed help on arcane matters.
Vendors often spend some time in the demonst¬
ration rooms because the sales floor, with its con¬
stantly changing audience and distractions from nearby
exhibits, is too unstructured a setting for detailed
exposition.
Demonstration rooms are a benefit to Festgoers,
as they offer a respite for the wallet and aching feet,
as well as a chance to soak up some new knowledge.
The Social Side
AtariFests should also be fun. They bring together
interesting people who share common likes and dis¬
likes. Many have absorbing tales to tell. In the times
when the show floor is still, these people may let their
hair down and tell a few war stories.
The Fest is also a good time to renew acquaint¬
ances from one’s own and other user groups. There is
no particular rush to get to bed for the next day’s work
or school, as there is with the monthly group meeting.
Online personalities and authors become flesh and
blood at a Fest. Sometimes they are what one might
expect and at other times the real person can be
something of a surprise from the way you had pictured
him.
Enjoy
The Pussycat, therefore, sees AtariFests as much
more than computer expos or shopping expeditions.
Fest visitors who take some time to look behind
the scenes and beneath the surface will likely find a
rather complex, interesting, and enjoyable world.
Where are the Applications?
J. Andrzej Wrotniak used his column in the July/
August 1990 Current Notes to explore (elegantly) a
phenomenon that has often bothered the Pussycat as
he scanned the MacConnection and MacWarehouse
ads in the glossy rags characteristic of the Macintosh
press: Why do those people have such a rich selection
of applications while ST users have such slim pickings?
The ST Toolbox columnist was being much too
modest when he failed to mention his own experiences
as an ST programmer. Andrzej’s E/ Cat is one of the
most sophisticated mathematics programs available for
any machine. He has also written an extremely power¬
ful program for exploring astronomical phenomena.
These programs did not appear out of the blue. They
were natural byproducts of projects that he was work¬
ing on as a professional programmer for a large firm,
working under government contract. Et Cat evolved out
of an effort to use Atari ST’s as workstations for
displaying telemetry data from satellites.
In short, he was using the machine to solve
problems in the real, working world.
There were other early instances of ST usage in
laboratories and schools, but the depth of support
available for these efforts was soon surpassed by the
efforts of the giants like Apple, Xerox, Microsoft, et al
and the ST’s are now relegated to the curiosity shelf. Is
there a lesson there? The Pussycat thinks there is.
We should not expect to see practical applications
for ST’s as long as the machines are invisible in the
workplace and the classroom and as long as we lack
the tools to program them effectively.
The Phantom Review
The Pussycat once shared Andrzej’s view that
reviews for poor products served no useful purpose
except to antagonize or hurt the poor developer who
had failed in his mission. The Pussycat now accepts
the public’s need to be informed about these products
as well as about the good ones. There are some
segments of the Atari press in which the reviewers fail
to recognize shortcomings, and the reviews published
there mislead the consumer. Once a developer pushes
a product out the door, that product should be able to
withstand the harsh light of reality. Enough said.
Electronic Fare Wars
Two of the major online services dealing with the
Atari community have recently announced changes to
Page 32
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
their pricing. Reductions in standard rates are coupled
with tantalizing offers that dangle significant cost
reductions before the eyes of the user who signs on
for added packages of services.
GEnie, which has the most active Atari member¬
ship, is reducing its connect charge for 2400 baud
service from $10 to $6 per hour. It is also offering a
package called “Star*services” at a fixed rate of $4.95
per month.
Delphi, which has been doing a lot of advertising in
Current Notes and ST Informer recently, has reduced
its basic connect time charge to "Charter Members”
via the Tymnet service to $5.40 per hour for both 1200
and 2400 baud. People who sign up or reopen their
accounts after 1 September now have to pay $6 per
hour. There is also a $5.95 monthly minimum, which
provides one hour of service.
Delphi also offers a program called “20/20 Advan¬
tage” that provides up to 20 hours per month of
connect time for a fixed monthly fee of $20 with
subsequent hours billed at $1.20 per hour. This may be
attractive to those who use the service a lot.
The forces that are driving these apparent bargains
are not clear, but competition from the Prodigy service
run by Sears and IBM may be one factor. The fee for
this is a flat $9.95 per month, but the service is
currently not as well oriented toward computer users
as are GEnie and Delphi.
It is also possible that the “bargains” are too good
to be true. GEnie’s Star*services does not appear to
cover expensive services like the ST Roundtable Bulle¬
tin boards, file areas, or roundtable conferences. It is,
however, supposed to cover electronic mail, which
should make this a more useful facet of the service.
Some of the reference services may also prove to be
more useful at the lower rates. Placing administrative
services under the Star plan should make them more
useful. It also appears that Star*services will be the
basic mode of using GEnie after 1 October, so that
there will effectively be a minimum charge of $4.95 per
month. This should not have a serious impact on any
reasonably regular user of the service.
Inactive accounts must be a problem for both
services and the monthly minimum charges should
smoke these out.
Delphi’s 20/20 Advantage plan may offer some
incentive toward increased usage, but their offerings
are not as richly rewarding to ST users as are GEnie’s.
Downloads are harder to find and there are fewer
offerings. Delphi’s "forums,” resemble the message
threads on local BBS’s more than they resemble
GEnie’s Bulletin Boards. This means that it is harder to
dig out old data on a topic, and the quality of the
discourse is lower because the message threads tend
to get off the track quickly. The traffic is also pretty
light.
The membership of the Atari ST Sig on Delphi is
pretty small, which leads to a certain repetitive quality
in the message postings. Pseudonyms (or “handles”)
are much more common on Delphi than on GEnie, and
this lends a somewhat surreal quality to the informa¬
tion.
Delphi runs on VAX mainframes, which makes
online help much more meaningful. Keyboard input is
buffered, which helps keep things moving. General
Videotex Corp, the owners of Delphi, sell a nice
paperback guide to the services and techniques for
accessing them.
It would unfair to pass judgement on either service
until the new rate and service structures have been
thoroughly tested. This little note is just the Pussycat’s
way of alerting his friends that something is happening.
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(X tober1990
Current Notes
Page 33
Idling, Part 2
by Dave Small
C01990A11rights reserved.
[Last month, Dave started explain¬
ing the various phases of creating
something. He discussed the
Bump into Doors Stage, The Blind¬
ing Inspiration Stage, The Rush
Stage, the Babbling Stage, and,
The Oh, Geeze, This is Going to Be
a Lot of Work Stage. At the end of
this last stage, you finally have a
product. Now, it’s time to let other
people see what you’ve created.
The story continues. . . -JW]
Showing It Off
It happens many different places.
At a friends house; at a user group
meeting; at a show. You pop in the
floppy, double click on the icon, and
run your baby. This is a very emotional
moment for the creator, and it always
tickles me when I see someone trying
to act as though it doesn’t matter to
him what others say about his baby.
(If it truly doesn’t matter to him,
the program is probably not worth buy¬
ing. A programmer is supposed to inter¬
face human beings to computers, right?
If you get someone who cares nothing
for humans, he is not a programmer;
there’s not a word in the language yet
for what he is.)
Be prepared for many people not to
understand it (“Mac emulation? Who
would want to run Mac software to
begin with?”). Also be prepared for
people who will only understand frag¬
ments of the concept. (“Speeds up
disks, huh? What’s a ‘disk’ anyway?”)
Finally, be prepared for those who will
understand, but won’t give you any
acknowledgement for solving the rid¬
dle, for making your hack available to
them. (“Oh, all you did was write some
device drivers for the Mac.”)
There are many jaded people in
computers who think any latest bril¬
liant innovation is worthless; most of
the people who write computer col¬
umns end up this way, usually after
getting burned a few too many times.
Be prepared for a few reviews saying
your idea is trash.
(Small’s Law For Surviving
Reviews: Any reviewer who doesn’t
acknowledge that there is some good
and some bad in any product is not
worth listening to. Thus, anyone who
judges an entire program-creation “A
piece of ” is not worth listening to;
nothing is entirely bad. Similarly,
someone who raves about a program
being “insanely great” is worthy of not
being read. Also, remember, a music
critic is someone who never learned
how to play a guitar. If this reviewer is
so hot, how come he’s not writing
software?)
But ultimately, the public has to
understand what you’ve done if you
want anything to come from it.
“If you cannot”in the long run-
-tell everyone what you have been
doing, your doing has been worthless.”
-Schrodinger
(Schrodinger ranks as one of the
very best ever in physics.)
And that’s one reason I do articles.
What’s the point of doing something if
no one ever finds out about it?
Selling It
I don’t even pretend anymore that
I write this stuff to sell, in a near¬
mercenary manner. Truth is, I write and
create both articles and programs for
the rush of creation, that’s all. It’s really
pretty entirely selfish.. . except that I
hesitate to call anyone who hangs in
there through the teeth-grinding stage
“selfish.”(Masochistic?)
I happen to be married to someone
who’s pretty good at selling (Sandy),
and got lucky. We happened to know
someone who has customer service at
state of the art (Barb),and a program¬
mer who has as much energy for all-
nighters as I did at 22 (Doug). Add to
that a few people who freelance for us,
and you've got Gadgets.
So all those little ideas I’ve had
(and now, that others contribute, too)
add up. Some ideas end up as articles
for magazines; for unknown reasons, I
seem to be able to get the ideas of the
programs across in an article’s restricted
size, which magazine editors like.
I’m quite aware that other pro¬
grammers aren’t so lucky; they sell their
goodies to programming shops for a
(tiny) percentage, or give them away as
shareware, again for a tiny return.
Many come under the heading of
“starving artists.” But 1 know many
who do their programmingfor the love
of it, and I can relate to that.
I have to tell you, it took me
not-very-long to get the Mac emulator
to pop up the “SadMac” icon, which is
a startup screen that pops up when a
Mac’s powerup diagnostics find out the
Mac is sick. That hooked me. I wanted
more. And 1 probably would done
the Mac emulator regardless.
One of the reasons I retain hope
for the Atari ST is that it’s a fine
machine to crvateX hings on. The learn¬
ing curve for it isn’t too bad, compared
to some, and it can be downright sim¬
ple to program if you need it to be.
And there are always going to be
people writing programs, pushing the
envelope, for the love of it.
Selling Out
I don’t say this with any scorn at
all meant or felt. Some people can’t
make enough to live on programming
Page 34
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
and creating, and regrettably, there’s no
public subsidy for them. Thus, they
have to peddle their creativity to
someone else, programmingfor a living.
They do exciting things like, oh, spel¬
ling checkers for a product that is later
killed by company management in a
political dispute ... ideas for programs
that are mangled by “marketing,” the
absolute bane of programmers any¬
where (“Can’t you make it look, well,
THIS way?” Marketing is where people
who can’t program work).
I’ve done this, so I know how
lucky I am at the moment with
Gadgets (and it gives me definite moti¬
vation to keep it going!). I can recall
the utter frustration of having some
good ideas, but just no time or energy
to create them, at the end of a day of
The Office. It is so hard to summon up
the energy after a day of fending off
marketing dweebs that have “Some
Concerns” with your program and who
“Want Weekly Meetings For Input.”
I can’t say freelancing or having
your own company has a good repu¬
tation in the world. College tends to
point you straight towards working at
a company, with a perception that it’s
the Right Thing to do. I thought so--I
went to CDCafter college.Incredibly,!
was dumb enough to go to Silicon
Valley; yes, I lived in San Jose, when
Sandy was moving to Austin, Texas
after college. I had a definite priority
screwup there, which I corrected just
four months later; 1 moved.
Some people do start this way, get
tired of being told that It’s The Profes¬
sional Thing To Do, and start creating
on the side. It gets them by. 1 started
this way; my first article for Creative
Computing was written on a T.I. mini¬
computer, because I needed a back¬
space key so badly (my typing is
awful), and printed out on a T.I. printer
on a weekend. It all sorta started there.
Again, I happened to get lucky.
Not everyone does. But luck is “where
preparation meets fortune”; you have to
at least give luck a chance to happen,
and most people don’t.
In the meantime, I see really novel,
great things in the public domain/share¬
ware collections (Current Notes has a
really good collection of these, running
into the hundreds of disks!).The only
difference between some of those pros
and myself is I write ...
Burning Out
A far more subtle danger is burning
out on it all. I’ve seen it happen again
and again. It’s happened to me several
times, and the recovery was slow and
painful; don’t tell anyone, but I’m just
comingout of that phase right now.
I mean, imagine sitting in an SR-
71 Blackbird, just idling. All this ...
POWER ... is around you. Two big
turbofan engines just waiting, idling
around you, all under your control.
There’s just nothing better than sliding
the twin throttles forward through the
afterburner detents and the exhausts
form standing-wave diamonds in the
air and you’re feeling yourself
SHOVED back into the seat as you
accelerate, pull back on the stick, go
through twenty thousand feet, thirty
thousand feet, forty thousand feet ...
what a Rush!... levellingout at seventy
thousand, Mach 3.
•
There’s only so much of this
adrenaline you can take; only so many
times you can push that hard Young
people can take it more often than
older people; that’s why young people
fly jets at the edge of the envelope,
and drive there as well.
When 1 was younger, 1 put a Cor¬
vette engine (327, 365 HP"the car-
burated version of the fuel-injected
engine) into a light chassis Chevy. And
I accelerated a lot. By coincidence,
there was sometimes another car next
to me accelerating, too, but officer, we
weren’t RACING!
Having done my share of driving in
this manner, I’m now more of a quiet
driver who just wants to get there. 1
don’t often pull into the left lane,
downshift to third, and floor it, hearing
the scream of the 427 high (11:1 Com¬
pression engine through the headers,
the pull of acceleration, these days.
I’ve done it enough times already.
In a way, it’s “growing up.” In a way,
its a tragedy. As Heinlein put it, “Its
amazing how much growing up resem¬
bles being too tired.”
Computers can burn you out.
Why? Above all else, I believe it’s
because debugging is such a negative
thing for people. You are looking for
YOUR mistakes; if you want to be a
“good” programmer, you must train
yourself to focus your attention on
your goofs. (Not your good stuff.) Com¬
puters, remember, don’t say ANY¬
THING when your program works; for
instance, all a “C” compilergives you if
you don’t screw up is a new command¬
line prompt. No “good job.” No
nothing.
Any psychologist can tell you
what happens to people who only look
at the grim side of life. I mean, imagine
working for a boss who only says any¬
thing when you goof, if you want it
put in human terms.
This is fundamentally wrong for
people, and I think it burns out a fair
number of programmers, who only
know they’re no longer happy to sit,
scratching their heads, wondering what
they did wrong THIS time.
Burnout. It’s painful to want to
create and have a depression that pre¬
vents it; it’s hard to feel anger towards
the computer, and have that block new
ideas.
The solution is to stop, rest, wait,
hope and pray the old creative itch
comes back to you. Time heals all. Like
anything else, if you keep pushing at it,
it’ll stay away; you have to wait for IT
to come to YOU.
On a true rocket ride like, say,
Spectre has been, fast and furious, it
can become completely exhausting. So
many things to do, the phone ringing
and interrupting, other people to deal
with; it becomes utterly draining. The
only option at this point is a hole in the
floor with a cover you can lock. (I
make do with the bathroom door.)
The Spectre GCR disk reader
almost finished me off. I’m here to tell
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 35
ya, people, it was completely awful.
Oh, it’s easy to use—just stick that
Mac disk in there and it works, easy,
huh?"but implementing it was sheer
grinding-teeth-untiHhey-break.
1 ran into every bug 1 had ever
imagined, and many new ones. Many
“impossible” things happened. You
haven’t LIVED until you discover a
disk drive CAN go to track minus one,
and find no readable data, and that’s
Impossible because Everyone Knows
that there’s a head-stop to prevent the
drive from getting below track zero.
Wrongo. That sentence cost me a
week to find. The disk formatter was
pure hell. I’ll bet you didn’t know how
much disk RPM wobbles, but it’s a lot.
YOU try and write a formatter that
compensates for it. It has to last
exactly one track long to within 32
millionths of a second; too long, and
you overwrite your data at the start of
the track; too short, and you leave
OLD data on the track, to come back
and haunt you terribly.(“What?I have
TWO sector 10’s? THAT’S IMPOS¬
SIBLE!”)
Fortunately, Doug arrived at
Gadgets about this time, and through
sheer number of hours found some very
subtle bugs in the code and in the
formatter, and fixed them long after 1
literally could not stand to look at it
anymore. It got that bad for me. And it
took a long time for my programming
sense to come back after pushing
things thaj hard; I’ve tried to make sure
Doug gets credit for all the work he’s
done on the newer Spectre versions. It
surely hasn’t been all Dave.
I don’t think I ever want to work
quite that hard again. That whole
spring and summer are a blur to me.
I’ve discovered that channeling
your creativity towards ANYTHING
ELSE is helpful towards making it
come back for computers. For instance,
I write-and sometimes write about
stuff that leaves people shaking their
heads. I push the creative part pretty
hard. Playing a guitar, or a keyboard, or
a Hotz Box does it for me as well.
(Wait until I tell you about the Hotz
Box! Whew! At LAST, some genius
did object oriented music programming!
HyperCards Music is not a bad ana¬
logy....)
It’s honestly as though there were
some deep creative instinct inside that
is looking for a way out, like a volcano
trying to happen. If the “Computer”
way out is blocked, it finds another
way. For instance, I can find myself
often playing along a nice counterpoint
to the melody on the radio, which until
I got a Hotz box 1 was never fast
enough to express musically except
through a whistle.
And finally, when all else fails, you
/ 77 /zv/back off and ease up. “Cool the
engines down,” as the Boston song
puts it. And you must not let people
hassle you into getting going until you
are ready, unless you’re content to
create some really bad work, without
the necessary “pre-charge” time of
bumping-into-walls to make it really,
really good.
I’ve discovered that channel¬
ing your creativity towards
ANYTHING ELSE is helpful
towards making it come back
for computers.
Needless to say, this can be hard
on the people you work with. They’d
like to see you creating 9-5 each day,
“normally.” It just doesn’t work that
way, though.
As 1 sit here writing this article,
great things are happening. The Spectre
Burnout is fading off; the creativity is
opening back up. A new thing, some¬
thing I’ve wanted for at least ten years,
is coming into existence; I’m getting
lots of visualizing flashes for how I
want a computer to work-new ways
of doing things on a computer I’ve
never seen before. I’ve alluded to it in
previous articles, but I can’t even name
it now. Those around me like me
enough to insist that this one needs to
be patented, and I can’t patent it if I’ve
blabbed about it.
But to me, it makes Spectre look
like a tinker toy in terms of ultimate
impact. I honestly think it’ll change the
computer world, become a “given” part
that ANY computer will have to have
very quickly. (I realize this is not very
modest.)
The ideas are all there; I’ve had the
creative Rush of searching so hard for
how I want it to look-now, folks, the
teeth grinding part begins. Ultimately,
it’s just me and a computer, in a con¬
test of wills, with me trying to create
something good enough to send out
into the world, a wave to move com¬
puters everywhere.
You say, look, that’s aiming pretty
high. I say, if you don’t miss high
sometimes, you aren’t trying hard
enough. And if you don’t aim high,
you’ll never HIT high (rememberabout
giving luck a chance to happen?)
Wrap-Up
I'd like to thank the many kind
people who took the time (time is the
ultimate commodity) to send notes,
write letters, and whatnot on July’s
article, comparing Atari’s performance
to other computer companies. I really
never have time anymore to answer the
mail I get; I suppose it’s time to hire
someone to organize that process
(along with many others I’ve lost time
for as well).
There’s so much I haven’t talked
about, but this article is too long
already. The 68030 board story; whew,
you won’t believe it. I still can’t. (It’s
going okay, if you're wondering).
MegaTalk. My newest project, that
past issues of Current Notes will give
you the name of if you’re curious. The
hidden dedication page to Spectre 3.0-
-yes, Spectre 3.0 is alive and ticking.
The Atari TT.
All those article ideas and/or pro¬
grams arc sitting within me, looking for
attention.
1 guess it's time to go bump into
some walls, huh?
See you next time!
Page 36
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
The Ultimate Desktop
NeoDesk File Uiem Sort Options
D:\IC0NS\«.*
» x2| D:\DP\USCl^
n 1652901 butes
3 selected iti
RUGBK . USO
RUGBK .USU
RUGBKOBL.USU
RUGD .USO
RUGD .USU
RUGDOBL .USU
BOOKO .USO
CENTBI .USU
CENTI .USO
CENTI .USU
USO
USU
IJJitllllain Storage
jlCONl
main Storage
NeoDesk CLI
(Enter "HELP command name" or
for more help uii th a command
1> moue *.acc a:\
Batch File
NeoDesk ™ 3 is a complete replacement
of the boring, built-in desktop that comes
with the Atari ST. Its advanced, yet intui¬
tive, graphical interface will make your
computer both easier to use and much
more powerful.
It is the easiest and most affordable way
to realize your Atari’s true potential. Many
have called it “the ultimate upgrade for the
Atari ST”.
NeoDesk introduced the idea of placing
your commonly used programs directly on
the desktop while pioneering the concept of
assigning different custom icons for indivi¬
dual files and folders.
Now NeoDesk 3 takes you a step further,
introducing several new and original con¬
cepts which will make you want to scream
“I want my NeoDesk 3!”
In addition to keeping commonly used
files and programs on the desktop, you can
now also keep folders on the desktop. And
not to limit your creativity, with NeoDesk
t you can even write Desktop Notes ™ right
on t he desktop itself.
Only NeoDesk 3 allows you to look at
t wo different parts of the same window,
t hjinks to its amazing Split Window fea-
t m e Of course, each window can be set to
display text or icons, independently of any
■ >t her window. Each window can even have
ilit own sorting and text options.
NeoDesk is also smart, using all of its
available memory for file copying so that as
many files and folders that will fit into
memory are read in at once. No more use¬
less disk swaps, even hard drives benefit
from its speed and efficiency.
Add some of the other NeoDesk 3 fea¬
tures, such as a brand new Icon Editor, key¬
board equivalents, desktop picture, file
templates, Active Icons , and Hot Keys (exe¬
cute your favorite program with a single
key), then you have more than enough rea¬
sons to buy NeoDesk. But for those of you
who need a little more, read on.
NeoDesk 3 now offers a unique File Clip¬
board ™ which lets you temporarily hold
files and folders in memory while you are
busy doing other things. In a way, you can
think of it as an automatically expanding
and shrinking ramdisk.
You now also have the power of Macros ,
with which you can automate any series of
desktop operations like opening windows,
copying files, running programs, etc. These
can also have Hot Keys assigned to them.
NeoDesk 3 even has special support for
5 1/4" floppy drives and formats all disks
with the correct information so they work
on most MS-DOS computers.
From low resolution to ultra high resolu¬
tion, NeoDesk 3 supports up to 10 different
resolutions in each system.
Of course, these features would not be
useful unless they were easy to use. Rest
assured, NeoDesk 3 has been designed to
be “upwardly compatible”. Use NeoDesk
just like you used the original desktop, no
need to forget all that you have learned.
It doesn’t stop there. The included Re¬
coverable Trashcan lets you recover files de¬
leted with it at any time in the future. It
was created using the NeoDesk Developer's
Kit , which opens a whole new world of pos¬
sibilities. There’s also the NeoDesk CLI
(both available separately), a complete win¬
dow based command line interpreter which
allows you to create pop-up menus, auto¬
mate file operations, and much more.
No matter who you are, NeoDesk 3 has
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NeoDesk 3 and the NeoDesk CLI are
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NeoDesk, Desktop Notes, and File Clipboard are trademarks of Gribnif Software.
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
Red Storm Rising
Part II
by Don Elmore
I closed the first half of this
review (July/August CN) by promis¬
ing more details on stalking and
killing the Enemy. Well, after
rereading the previous article, I can
see that in an attempt to give the
reader an in-depth feel for the
incredible realism of the game, I
used up some three pages and
never really got much
beyond the beginning
or training actions.
Continuing in that vein
would make this review
longer than the 96
page instruction
manual! If you buy the
game, you will have
direct access to all of
the nitty-gritty details,
and if you don’t, you’ll
have little interest in
reading them here. So,
I shall try and limit this
coverage to the inter¬
esting play variables
rather than how to
acquire and compare
acoustic signatures of vessels in
order to identify your target.
The two remaining levels of
scenarios are a group of nine single
and multiple enemy targets, and the
“Red Storm Rising” (WW III) cam¬
paign. In the nine intermediate level
challenges, you deal with battle
situations ranging from a “one-
on-one” duel with a Russian
nuclear attack submarine to fighting
a “Wolfpack” of Russian subs, to
stalking and attacking a “boomer,”
a Russian ballistic missile sub¬
marine escorted by one (or more)
attack subs. Then, as you gain
experience and feel a bit more
adventuresome, you can challenge
multiple enemy targets; a task force
of Russian surface ships...or, the
submariner’s dream, a Russian air¬
craft carrier task force. The ultimate
is the “Red Storm Rising Cam¬
paign.” That consists of many dif¬
ferent missions and can last hours.
And the good news is that each
time you select the “Red Storm
Rising” option, you face new and
different targets in the simulation.
We’re talking virtually weeks and/or
months of activity without repetition
of scenarios. The WW III campaign
starts off with an animated
sequence describing the deterio¬
ration in global politics and very
nicely sets the scene for your
mission.
Unfortunately, there are no sig¬
nificant shortcuts or hints for the
intermediate and advanced level of
play. You will quickly learn that the
enemy torpedoes and missiles have
very functional warheads (remem¬
ber, in the beginning and training
modes, they don’t). Superiority
(read survival!) depends on who
has the better sensors and who
knows more about using them.
Each “encounter” generally con¬
sists of three phases. First, you
attempt to locate and identify the
enemy, then you attack him and
then you escape. Sounds simple
doesn’t it? Well, the first phase, in
almost every case, is the deciding
phase. If you can “acquire” the
enemy vessel without being
“acquired” in turn, then you have a
fair shot (pardon the pun) at suc¬
cessfully attacking him and
then escaping.
Believe me, there is
nothing more demoralizing
than having your attempts
at identifying your target
interrupted by your own
sonar crew announcing the
sound of enemy torpedo
tubes being fired, and a
torpedo homing in on you.
That’s when you quickly
forget about identifying
anything and you start
evasive maneuvers im¬
mediately....because you
can be sure that the enemy
torpedoes are every bit as
smart as yours, and if you can
sprinkle enough chaff, drop tacti¬
cally effective noisemakers and
quickly create a protecting
“knuckle,” you just might get away
(and fight another day). So, stealth
and a thorough knowledge of your
six types of sensors will give you
the necessary edge.
The manual has an entire sec¬
tion dedicated to the geopolitical
machinations of the WW III cam¬
paign. Any type of land war in
Europe Gust as in the cases of WW
I and WW II) would depend heavily
on reinforcements from America.
So, the Northern Atlantic sea lanes
take on great strategic (as well as
tactical) importance. Russian naval
forces targeted on the Atlantic con¬
voy routes must pass through the
The Role of the SSN: In wartime, the modern nuclear attack
submarine (SSN) is unique in its ability to perform almost any
naval mission effectively. Only an attack submari ne can ambush
enemy surface strike groups, seek out ballistic missile subs in
their well-defended bastions, deliver missile strikes from just
off the enemy coast, and take on hostile attack subs on their
own terms. As conventional war intensifies, SSNs are called
upon to complete these missions and many more, all vital to the
war effort. As an SSN captain in World War III, your perform¬
ance could spell the difference between victory and defeat for
the hard-pressed NATO forces.
Page 38
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
CN Review
Atari ST/Mega
Ocean
Surface
Helicopter with
■ Dipping Sonar
Enemy Surface Ship
US Sub
Towed Array
Ocean Bottom
Enemy £ ne ™y 0 L
Diesel Sub Nuclear Sub
VDS
T
Towed Array
Listening Equipment: Submarines have complex passive arrays mounted across largi
areas of their hull. In addition, most nuclear submarines can 'stream* a towed array oi
hydrophones behind them. Specialized ASW surface warships have the equivalent in a VOS
(varible depth sonar) that they trail in the ocean. Helicopters hover and lower active or
passive sonars.
Best & Worst Listening: Enemy diesel/electric subs can be the quietest warships m the
world when using their electric engines. Nuclear subs are somewhat louder because then
power plant (the reactor) must run constantly. Surface ships are loudest of all. Enemy
helicopters that hover and dip a sonar are virtually impossible to hear. They can be spotted
only by your radar, il they 'dip an active sonar, or from the sonobuoys they drop
Norwegian Sea Theater and transit
the GIUK gap (Greenland-lceland-
United Kingdom). This gap must be
kept clear of any and all Soviet
warships. Because of the presence
of both American and Russian naval
activity in the area, the gap quickly
takes on the appearance of a
gigantic fishbowl.
I know that I promised not to
burden you with technical details,
but...there are a couple of points
that should be covered. One is the
opening scene of the “Red Storm
Rising” campaign. It is a colorful
map of the Norwegian Sea Theater,
and it is a busy map, indeed. From
France at the bottom, to Greenland
and the Iceland ice pack at the top,
all land masses and waters are
* der surveillance by a continuous
_ jving stream of “sensors.” From
sea bottom to space; you got some
kind of coverage. SOSUS seabed
sensors detect enemy ships and
subs passing over a SOSUS line.
Surface vessels have a variety of
sensors. NATO P-3C “Orion” spot¬
ting aircraft locates enemy forces
that it flies over. The USSR Tu-142
“Bears” do the same for the Soviet
forces. And, both NATO and the
USSR military have recon satellites
orbiting the area constantly. Like I
said, a very busy screen.
The “photo” shows that I forgot
one of the sensors. You also have
helicopters with dipping sonars! The
VDS being dragged by the enemy
surface ship is a Variable Dipping
Sonar that ships drop off their stern.
The point is, approximately 100% of
tactical wartime activity is trying to
find and positively identify the
“enemy.” So, the quieter you can
become (sound absorbent hull sur¬
faces, less cavitation from better
designed propellers, etc.) the better
your chances of avoiding detection
by the enemy while you are locat¬
ing him (or them).
Well, basically speaking, there
is not much that I can add to this
end of the review, except to say
that I feel as strongly about Red
Storm Rising as I did when I began
the review. The details are incred¬
ible, the play never boring, the
variety endless....and on and on
and on. Still recommend buying it,
unless you have absolutely no
desire to command a submarine.
Debonair Software
We do few things. But we do them right.
Desk File List Hap Plot Find Options Help
3096 STARS
_ 3974 JPhJLLMi
Wane y 61 g I wm ~wm ■ 3099 STARS
I EpsHor 246°48 -47*3 - -
i 62Aqr 346°4Q -23°4
i 182°0r "50°4
i PhiLco 169°10' -3°3
•T23 65°3
Sighon 101°58 2°2
I EtaCan 74*19' 53°4
TauEri 41°17' -18°3
3
1156 D HlpCol H--1.36 6-V=-».12 B7»c
T’rti.i.runi/T.
.. :• •• • M.trJ ‘Vv*.
Star Base
Interested in astronomy?
This may be a program you
have been waiting for. More
than 9000 brightest stars.
Planets, Sun and Moon.
Various projections, refer¬
ence frames and magnifi¬
cations. Sort, select, find,
El Cal 1.3
How to improve a classic.
From senior high to Fermi-
lab, people are using it —
and coming back with new
suggestions. And we listen.
This new version adds sta¬
tistical weights and errors,
operations on data col¬
umns, random numbers,
See us at theAtariFest!!!
^|«l 20j ^ l 1 Rad 11 Rst j CIPjl ^ c 1 Te **1 l Lo adJpa^gJ
SOR ABS XGAU(Q,CUR(Y/2)) + A + BX*C#SQ X*D*CU X|-
p
p
I
1
w
*] _
i
| j GAU f CHIj |STU j [SHE]
am
1
HI He 1 pill HEHU |
la
*v m m...
xm
0.165907
n 45M f
vm
0.980649
10000
50000
30984
?5260
A*
07337
16850
V\
| | I l|Clc«r|[ H.lp | || HEHuT
C5SUCT1
Save
Both programs run on any ST or Mega, color or monochrome (Star Data requires 1 MByte).
MoniTerm and TOS 1.6 OK. Prices include one update.
To order, send a check or money order for $44 (El Cal), $43 (Star Base) or $81 (both) to
Debonair Software, P.O.Box 521166, SLC, UT 84152-1166
Outside continental U.S. and Canada add $5 for shipping. Utah residents add sales tax.
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 39
Toadfile 44.
Peace of Mind.
The Toadfile 44 - Keeping Streets Safe In East Los Angeles
Toadfile 44 F.VF.N LOWER
Pricing for World Peace!
Toadfile 44 (44MB Cartridge Drive, ST Ready).$799
Toadfile 44 Magnum (Toadfile 44 with 3 Carts).$969
Toadfile 44S (44MB Cart Drive, Case & Power Only).$699
Toadfile 44D (44MB Cart Drive Only, No Case or Power).$599
Toadfile 88X (2 44MB Cart Drives in One Box).$1429
Toadfile 44 & Hard Disk Mixtures
Toadfile 94 (44, 50MB HD 40ms time, ST Ready).$1169
Toadfile 94X (44, 50MB HD 28ms time, ST Ready).$1189
Toadfile 74 (44, 30MB HD 40ms time, ST Ready).$1099
Toadfile 74X (44, 30MB HD 28ms time, ST Ready).$1119
Toadfile 64 (44, 20MB HD 40ms time, ST Ready).$1049
Toadfile 64X (44,20MB HD 28ms time, ST Ready).$1079
Toadfile 109 (44, 65MB HD 24ms time, ST Ready)..$1249
Toadfile 129X (44,85MB HD 28ms time, ST Ready).$1249
Toadfile 129Z (44, 85MB HD 24ms time, ST Ready).$1299
Works with IBM
and Mac Emulation!
“1 * LOVE * the drive. AH Spectre development
is now being done on my Toadfile 44!”
- David Small, Gadgets by Small
“If you call up Toad Computers you’ll either
get Dave or Ray. They’re both great guys...and
fun to talk to. The Toadfile 44 is a well
designed (and don’t forget attractive) piece of
hardware.” - LeRoy Valley, ST Informer
“[This ad] is arresting, has eye appeal, gives a
thorough appraisal and fine presentation of the
product, the Toadfile 44 cartridge drive. In
addition to bits of humor, the items are highly
price competitive. Hats off. Toad Computers!”
- Frank Sommers, Current Notes
“Our manual is great.” - Dave Troy
Toad Computers
We’re Hip and Proud of It!
We thought we were hip when we introduced our Toadfile 44
almost a year ago - now we're sure of it. The Toadfile 44 was the
first widely available removable cartridge hard disk available for
the ST. Just think - switching 44 megabytes just like one of your
floppies - with speed (25ms access time and nearly 600K/s
transfer rate) that rivals the fastest fixed hard disks! Our quality
has allowed us tremendous success with the Toadfile 44, and
we're proud to say we've given thousands of ST owners true
peace of mind. With a two year warranty, and our reputation
behind it, it's easy to see why the Toadfile 44 gives people so
much peace of mind. Not to mention its backup ability. Not to
mention the quality ICD Host Adapter used inside. Call us for a
quick question session! Order when you're ready!
• Extra Cartridges Now $89!
• Ask About $99 3.5”
And 5.25” Floppies!
• Current Notes PD Library -
On Cartridge - Call!
• Toad Computers
World Peace Tour
T-Shirts Only $7.95!
$
ICD
%
'•ST aV)N
7
VISIT US at 556 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd. Severna Park, MD 21146
Call (800) 448-TOAD for Directions from Just About Anywhere!
TOAD COMPUTERS
NO CHOLESTEROL OR TROPICAL OILS - JUST GOOD HARD DISK FUN!
NEW TADPOLES!
SUPER LOW POWER MEGA INTERNAL DRIVES
Tadpole 21.$399
Tadpole 42.$459
Tadpole 100.$699
o'Our Tadpole series drives are designed
specifically for the Mega ST computers, and fit
inside the case neatly to make an attractive,
convenient, and less expensive hard disk
alternative. All of these drives have a 25
millisecond access time and consume very little
power. This means low heat dissipation, and no
wear and tear on your Mega or its power supply.
ICD FAST DRIVES
COMPLETE HARD DRIVES FOR THE ATARI ST
FAST 85 MB 28ms 5.25" Drive.$659 was $739
FAST 85 MB 24ms 3.5" Drive.$716 was $789
FAST 60 MB 24ms 3.5" Drive.$703 was $724
FAST 50 MB 28ms 3.5" Drive.$579 was $657
FAST 50 MB 40ms 3.5" Drive.$559 was $625
FAST 30 MB 28ms 3.5" Drive.$569 was $595
FAST 30 MB 40ms 3.5" Drive.$549 was $575
FAST 20 MB 28ms 3.5" Drive.$549 was $575
FAST 20 MB 40ms 3.5" Drive.$519 was $525
FAST 170 MB 24ms 3.5" Drives. $1199 was $1379
FAST 120 MB 24ms 3.5" Drives.$1149 was $1239
FAST 100 MB 28ms 3.5" Drives.$969 was $1049
FAST 100 MB 40ms 3.5" Drives.$929 was $949
FAST TAPE BACKUP.$769 was $769
FAST TAPE with 80MB 24ms 3.5" Drive.$1209 was $1239
FAST TAPE with 50MB 28ms 3.5" Drive.$1099 was $1119
ICD, Inc., a long-trusted name for Atari hardware makes a quality, under-the-monitor type
case and power supply unit, that includes the ICD Host Adapter we use in all our hard drive
products. This case is called the FAST case, and because of the high volume of hard drives
we sell, we can offer these ICD FAST drives at extremely low prices. We assemble the drives
ourselves, using quality Seagate drive mechanisms.
TOAD DRIVES
COMPLETE HARD DRIVES FOR THE ATARI ST
TOAI) 20 MB 28ms 3.5" Drive.$499 was $529
TOAD 20 MB 40ms 3.5" Drive.$479 was $499
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TOAD 30 MB 40ms 3.5" Drive.$499 was $539
TOAD 50 MB 28ms 3.5" Drive.$595 was $629
TOAD 50 MB 40ms 3.5" Drive.$575 was $599
TOAD 60 MB 24ms 3.5" Drive.$669 was $709
TOAD 85 MB 24ms 3.5" Drive.$709 was $749
TOAD 85 MB 28ms 5.25" Drive.$685 was $709
TOAD 100 MB Dual 50 28ms 3.5" Drives.$949 was $959
TOAD 100 MB Dual 50 40ms 3.5" Drives.$889 was $899
TOAD 120 MB Dual 60 24ms 3.5" Drives.$1139 was $1179
TOAD 122MB 5.25" Drive.$999
TOAD 170 MB Dual 85 24ms 3.5" Drives.$1229 was $ 1249
TOAD 170 MB Dual 85 28ms 5.25" Drives.$1199 was $1399
All of our Toad Drives use the ICD Host Adapter and are available in expandable shoebox-style or
under-the-monitor under-the-Mega type cases. All cabling and software is included, and
the Seagate drive mechanisms are warranteed for one lull year. Drives include a built-in
clock and fan. Drives are available without a clock for $10 less.
COME V
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Our store is strategically located between Baltimore, Washington, and Annapolis in
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DRIVE KIT PARTS
BUILD IT YOURSELF AND SAVE
ICD Advantage Plus Host Adapter.$99
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ICD ST Host & MFM Controller Kit.$199
ICD ST Host & RLL Controller Kit.$239
OMTI 3520 MFM Hard Disk Controller.$119
OMTI 3527 RLL Hard Disk Controller.$149
ICD FNST Hard Disk Kit (With Host Adapter).$259
ICD FNST Hard Disk Kit (No Host Adapter).$179
Shoebox Dual HD Case/PS. Host Adapter Ready.$109
Under-the-Monitor Dual HD Case/PS, Etc.$119
Under-thc-Monitor Single IID Case/PS, Etc.$109
Seagate ST296N 85MB 28ms SCSI Drive.$399
Seagate ST1096N 85MB 24ms SCSI Drive.$459
Seagate ST157N-1 50MB 28ms SCSI Drive.$379
Seagate ST138N 30MB 40ms SCSI Drive.$329
Cables: Controller to Hard Disk.$10
Cables: Host Adapter to Controller/SCSI Drive.$10
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ORDERS: (800) 448-TOAD QUESTIONS: (301) 544-6943
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These prices reflect a 4*e discount for money order, personal, or certified check. We accept Mastercard, Visa, and Discover. Maryland residents please add applicable sales tax.
ALL HD ORDERS QUALIFY FOR FREE SHIPPING IN CONTINENTAL VS!
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
The New Look in CLI’s
Plain Vanilla with Chocolate Sauce
by John Barnes
Mouse, Be Gone?
Command Line Interpreters
(CLI’s) are programs that require
you to tell your machine what to do
by typing out words instead of
clicking with the mouse. This is a
real “plain vanilla” way of interact¬
ing with your machine.
To some people, CLI’s are a
throwback to the days when decks
of punched cards steered jobs
through mainframe computers in
batch operations. CLI’s are still the
dominant scheme for interacting
with many, if not most, computers.
UNIX, DEC’S DCL (Digital Com¬
mand Language), and MS-DOS are
examples of operating systems that
use CLI’s for their user interface.
CP/M and DCL for DEC’S RT-11
operating system are examples of
CLI’s that work in very limited
memory. Good old AtariDOS 2.0 for
the 8-bit machines was a com¬
mand line interpreter, if a somewhat
primitive one. SpartaDOS is also a
CLI. Those available for the ST are
much more powerful, reflecting the
greater capabilities of the
machines.
This review will compare three
recent entries in this arena: TUi
from Silicon Mountain Software,
.ACCess from Rock Digital, and
Neodesk CL/ from Gribnif. Unlike
earlier, now unsupported, products
like DOS She// from Michtron and
DO-/T! from QMI, the new gener¬
ation of shells runs within a resiz¬
able GEM window. This gives them
a sportier feel, and it makes them
easier to get to when they are
needed. All can be used either as
desk accessories or as stand-alone
programs run from the desktop.
The freeware Gu/am shell pro¬
gram, which does not use a GEM
window, is included as a standard
for comparing performance and
value.
While the ST has several reli¬
able CLI’s, the Macintosh seems to
lack them, a fault that is deeply
regretted by some Macophiles. MS
DOS users, on the other hand, are
often frustrated by the need to type
out obscure strings of file names
and commands. Atari folks have the
best of all possible worlds: freedom
of choice.
Unfortunately, only a few pro¬
grams for the ST make full use of
this flexibility. A notable example is
Tempos, the text editor of choice
for many programmers, which is
equally comfortable being invoked
from a command line or the GEM
desktop.
The true ST missionary turns his
nose up at CLI’s because they
avoid the use of mice, dialog
boxes, drop down menus, and the
other trappings of GEM. {Ed: The
first time we’ve ever been ca/ied a
missionary. -FS\
When to Use a CLI
A CLI might come in very
handy on those days when your
mouse is inoperative.
Also, people who are more
interested in getting work done than
in talking about their machines fre¬
quently find CLI’s useful. There are
a number of very fine utility pro¬
grams and applications that are
much more comfortable in a com¬
mand line environment (See “Atari’s
Ugly Ducklings” in Current Notes
Vol. 9 #5). Tricks like listing a disc
directory to a text file or running a
complete sequence of tasks with¬
out human intervention (batch ope¬
rations) are bread and butter to
power users. Command line pro¬
cedures are also self documenting,
a matter that is vital to software
development efforts.
Even neophyte users some¬
times find the kinds of menus that
can be built using CLI’s more con¬
venient than WIMP (Window-Icon-
Menu-Pointer) interfaces. CLI’s are
excellent for automating repetitive
tasks performed on production
computers, which are usually
manned by “computer operators.”
as distinct from “computer users.”
Millions of secretaries across the
land fall into this category.
Atari’s TOS, like most modern
operating systems, has output
redirection and piping mechanisms
embedded in it that GEM applica¬
tions do not use, but these are
readily accessible to CLI’s. These
functions are very helpful when
stringing together a series of jobs
that pass their output from one task
to the next.
Why Three of Them? Why
As DAs?
The three products being
reviewed here differ somewhat in
their approach. They also differ with
respect to installation requirements,
memory usage, complexity, and
capabilities. The idea of a CLI as a
desk accessory (DA) gets a mixed
reaction from this reviewer.
Because TOS does not support
“reentrancy” the repertory of com¬
mands that can be executed inside
a desk accessory window invoked
Page 42
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
CN Review
Atari ST/Mega
Table 1 - Comparison of CLI’s
Product:
TUI
.ACCess
Neo CLI
Gulam
Cost
$30
$30
$30?
: Freeware
Memory Requirements
69K
80k
125k+
~100k
Versions j
DA,.prg
DA,.tos
DA,.ntp
•prg
Functionality
Aliasing
No
No
No
Yes
Batch Procedures
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Command Repertoire
Fair
Fair
Good
Excellent
Comments
“REM”
None?
in 1
“#’ anywhere
Control Structures
None
Fair
V. Good
V. Good
Environmental Vars
No
No
Yes
Yes
Error reporting
Poor
Poor
Good
Poor
Function Support
None?
Fair
Good
Good
History Retrieval
Last 3
Last 1
Last 1
Many
Inline Editing
Good
None?
Good
Good
Launch GEM Appls
No
Maybe
Yes
Yes
Launch ,TOS,.TTP
Yes
Maybe
Yes
Yes
Online Help
Weak
Fair
V. Good
Good
Operators
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Other DA’s
NO?
NO?
Yes
N/A
Parameter Passing
Fair
NO?
Yes
Yes
Remains on Desktop
No
No
Yes
N/A
Scroll Window
Good
Fair
Poor
N/A
Scroll speed
Fast
Medium
Slow
Fast
Standardization
Fair
Fair
Good
Good
User-defined Variables
None
Yes
Yes
Yes
Window resizing
Keeps
Keeps
Clobbers
N/A
Documentation
Text
Poor
Poor
V. Good
Good
Table of Contents
Good
Poor
Good
None
Index
Good
None
None
None
Appearance of Docs
Poor
Fair
Good
Disk
Value of Contents
Fair
Fair
Good
Good
Usage of Examples
Poor
Poor
Excel.
Fair
from a running application is pretty
limited. Most functions in this class
can be executed more quickly and
simply using Universal Item Selec¬
tor, Multifile, or the Litt/e Green Fi/e
Selector. Few, if any, utility pro¬
grams of any real value can be
launched within a desk accessory
that is running under an application.
The idea of having the GEM
desktop available at the same time
as one is running a CLI does,
however, have some attraction.
There is a public domain desk
accessory CLI that is not included
in this review because it is simply
too buggy to be taken seriously.
Tl/J~ A Textual User Inter¬
face. TU/ comes from James
Stamm, a dentist who shares a
practice with his wife in Huntington,
West Virginia. The Stamms have
also built a collection of dBMAN
procedures for handling their dental
practice. Silicon Mountain Software
is a side venture that they have
formed to market some utilities that
they have found useful over the
years.
.ACCess. .ACCess started out
as a classroom project on the part
of Eric Mahurin’s work toward a
degree in Computer Engineering.
The product was introduced com¬
mercially at the 1989 WAACE Atari-
Fest. Current Notes staffer, Andrzej
Wrotniak, was given a copy at that
time. He reviewed it in Current
Notes (Nov. ’89). There are no
major changes to the conclusions
of that review. The product is
included here because it has to be
considered in the broader picture.
NcoDcsk CLI. This is another
effort from the Gribnif Software
team, with Dan Wilga doing the
programming. In contrast to the
others, this program runs as a desk
accessory only, and it requires
NeoDesk2.05 to run.
Gulam. This program is free¬
ware that I downloaded off the
Internet. It was written by Prabhaker
Mateti at Case Western Reserve
University back in 1988. Gu/am is a
classical CLI shell. It is a stand
alone program which, when it is
invoked from the desktop, takes
over the user interface completely.
Functionality and Perfor¬
mance
Table I lists some of the per¬
formance characteristics of the
CLI’s that were reviewed for this
project. This table is intended to
convey a feel for the similarities and
differences between the products. It
is not intended as an exhaustive
characterization of each of the pro¬
grams.
The meanings of the rows for
cost and memory requirements are
obvious. The designations in the
“version” row indicate the different
ways in which the proogram can be
invoked. In the case of NeoDesk
CLf the .NTP extension represents
a mode, as yet unimplemented, in
which the program can be launched
directly from the NeoDesk shell.
Aliasing is a technique for
defining symbolic names to repre¬
sent more complicated character
strings. For example, I use the
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 43
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
following alias under Gu/am. “alias
ed c:\tempus2.prg.”
This permits me to invoke Tern-
pus to edit an ASCII file by simply
typing ‘ed file.ext’ on the command
line. This is a very handy capability,
which greatly simplifies the work of
using a command line interface. A
more limited version of the same
thing can be achieved by using the
batch processing and parameter
passing capabilities (a means of
assigning specific values to sym¬
bols imbedded in a batch pro¬
cedure) of TU/. .ACCess and Neo-
Desk CL/.
The “Batch Procedures”
capability is fundamental to a CLI,
but it is not very useful without
parameter passing. A batch pro¬
cedure is a plain ASCII file contain¬
ing a series of commands to be
executed in sequence. The overall
batch processing capability of a CLI
is a function of other factors, which
will be discussed later.
The Command Repertoire of
a CLI is defined by the variety of
available commands that it makes
available to the user. All of the ones
listed here provide commands like
“dir,” “type,” “delete,” “mkdir”
(Make directory), “rmdir” (mkdir’s
opposite number). Less common
ones include “free” (to give the
amount of free memory), or “for¬
mat.” This varies greatly from one
CLI to another, and buyers are well
advised to make sure of what they
are getting.
Any decent CLI should support
the inclusion of Comments in
batch files. This makes the files
(particularly complex ones) more
readable. TU/ and NeoDEsk CL/
require that comments be placed
on separate lines, which somewhat
diminishes their value.
Control Structures allow the
flow of batch processes to be
altered in accordance with logical
decisions based on the existence
or non-existence of conditions.
Examples of control structures in¬
clude “lf..Else..Endif” or “While.”
The importance of this capability is
determined by the complexity of
the task at hand.
Some programs require that
Environmental variables be
defined. A typical such variable is
“path,” which specifies a list of
paths to be searched when looking
for a file. Users of TeX need this
capability because it is the means
by which the various modules
locate their font files. The values of
environmental variables must
sometimes be changed in mid¬
stream, so that “set” and “unset”
commands must be used. The im¬
portance of this feature is deter¬
mined by the kinds of programs
that the user employs.
Any CLI that gives a cryptic
message when the user types a
command incorrectly posesses
poor Error Reporting, as does
any program that simply crashes
when it is abused.
Function Support refers to
the range of built in functions that
the shell posesses. Examples in¬
clude “%date” (type out the current
date and time) or “%exists” (which
checks to see whether a given file
is available).
History Retrieval refers to the
ability to recall previously used
command lines. This can save a lot
of retyping. When devising batch
files it is nice to be able to save a
sequence of command lines and
edit them up into a permanent
procedure. TU! allows the user to
view the last three command lines
using the arrow keys. Gu/am allows
the user to scroll through the last 30
or so lines.
Given that many of us are poor
typists, it is important to have a
good scheme of Inline Editing of
command lines. The backspace,
arrow, and delete keys should have
natural meanings in doing this.
Good inline editing also facilitates
the reuse of recalled commands for
slightly different purposes.
A CLI that cannot launch
applications is useless. One should
not expect to be able to do this
when the CLI is being used as a
desk accessory while a GEM appli¬
cation (the only kind that allows
desk accessories) is running. When
the GEM desktop is running, any
CLI worth its salt should allow the
user complete freedom to invoke
GEM, .TTP, or .TOS applications.
The applications should start up
smoothly, run smoothly, and exit
gracefully. The two rows of Table I
that refer to this characteristic show
that the various products differ
greatly with respect to this.
Since a CLI user is not continu¬
ously presented with reminders of
allowable actions, it is essential that
a CLI provide some amount of
Online Help. A simple “?” at the
“>” prompt should bring up a list of
commands. A statement like “help
xxxx” should bring up a brief
description of the meaning and
syntax for the command “xxxx.”
To set up conditions to be
evaluated by control structures,
some means of evaluating expres¬
sions must be provided. This
requires the use of Operators to
connect elements of the expression
which may yield arithmentic or
Boolean (true/false) values.
NeoDesk CL/ is the only one of
these products that allows the user
to access another desk accessory
while it is active. This is a nice
touch, as it greatly facilitates
switching between the CLI and
other activities.
Parameter Passing is useful
when batch files are used as a
means of adding new commands to
the command language. One could,
for example, devise a FORTRAN
command by writing a batch script
like the following:
edit %l.for! Revise source code
f77 %l.for! Compileit
Page 44
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
CN Review
Atari ST/Mega
Figure 1 - TU/ Scroll Window Expanded to cover desktop. Typing "?"at ”>”
prompt displays command repertoire.
f771 %1! Link it
rename % 1 .prg% 1 .tip! Give it a
.TTP extension
%l.ttp 1 ! Execute it using 1 as an
input parameter
exit ! Return to the calling shell
By typing “fortran progname” in
response to the “>” prompt, the
user would open the source code
“progname.for” for editing, cause it
to be compiled, link the resulting
module with others to make an
executable image, and so forth.
This edit, compile, link, execute
cycle is usually done over and over
again during the development of a
program. There is no reason to
keep typing the same statements
over and over and there is no
reason to go chasing the mouse all
around the screen to invoke the
various pieces.
The “!” in the above example
represents a delimiter for inline
comments. This example also
shows how permitting the com¬
ments to appear on the command
line itself makes the batch file
easier to understand.
The batch file given in the
above example launches .TTP
applications and could not, there¬
fore, be run inside any of the desk
accessory CLI’s while another
application is running. If “edit” in¬
vokes a GEM application then TU/
would not be able to handle the
job. .ACCess might be able to
handle the job if it did not cause
any of the applications to crash.
NeoDesk CL/m\\ handle this prop¬
erly when run outside an applica¬
tion. The job is a piece of cake for
Gu/am or, for that matter, the old
QMI Do-it! shell that I used to love
before I got Gu/am to work for me.
Figure 1 shows the Scroll
Window that TU/ puts up on the
screen. This program does a nice
job of handling this window. It is
quick and easy to scroll backwards
and forwards for a good distance to
view text that has rolled off the
screen, although I did experience
problems with a text file that was
more than 80 columns wide. The
window resizes quickly and cleanly.
ACCess does almost as well, but
its window holds far fewer lines.
NeoDesk CL/, on the other hand,
erases the contents of the window
when resizing, and text that has
scrolled out of the window is gone
forever. CRTL-S and CTRL-Q can
be used to stop And resume scrol¬
ling in all four programs.
NeoDesk CL/ wraps the text
rather than letting it go beyond the
boundary of the screen. This allows
all of the text to be seen, but
readability is sacrificed.
The Scroll Speed of TU/ is
really fast, although my use of
QU/CK ST // may have had some¬
thing to do with this. This makes the
program useful for displaying short
text files, although Erich Rosen-
quist’s STeno DA is clearly better
suited to this purpose. The scroll
speed of .ACCess is so slow as to
be nearly unacceptable.
User Defined Variables
serve the same purpose in CLI
scripts as they do in other pro¬
gramming languages. A CLI that
supports these gains an extra mea¬
sure of flexibility with regard to the
tasks it can undertake.
Documentation is a critical
issue for products like these,
because they are anything but in¬
tuitive to use. Good documentation
is well written, logically organized,
and easy to use. Topics must be
covered in adequate detail, with
liberal use of examples.
The manual should, in principle,
tell the user everything he needs to
know about using the product. The
documentation for 7Z//and .ACCess
is much too terse, more like a
glossary, with one or two line
definitions of the commands.
It should be easy to find
material in the manual. A good
table of contents is important. A
good index is vital because it also
tells the authors much about how
well they have covered their
material.
The table of contents for
.ACCess is much too short, espe¬
cially given the absence of an
index. Both of these contain long
lists of VT52 escape codes without
spelling out why this material is
useful or important.
The NeoDesk CL/ manual is in
keeping with Gribnif’s tradition of
preparing attractive, useful guides.
The lack of an index is, however,
more serious than the developers
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 45
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
believe. A Command Line Interpre¬
ter is a programming language.
Underlying ideas crop up in several
places and it is important to be able
to cross-reference them. With
Gu/am you get what you pay for,
except that the document on the
disk is well written. Since the entire
document is on disk, it is easy to
use a text editor to browse around
in it (I have aliased “HELP” so that
it brings up Tempus with
GULAM.DOC in the workspace).
This ease of access partly makes
up for the lack of an index or a
table of contents.
NeoDesk CL/ provides about 10
interesting examples of files of
varying complexity. The other
products could benefit from the
presence of a few good examples
of batch files on their disks.
.ACCess and NeoDesk CL/ both
depart from the established syntac¬
tic conventions of existing com¬
mand line languages to such an
extent that the user has trouble
getting oriented in the proper way
to write batch procedures.
Which, If Any, Should I
Buy?
Given the availability of other
non-desk-accessory CLI’s, none of
these ranks as a “must have”
product.
If NeoDesk CL/ were a slightly
more polished program, it would be
an obvious choice. Its poor hand¬
ling of the text window is a serious,
but easily remediable, drawback. Its
history recall function also needs
improvement. It is a memory hog
because it requires that the outer
NeoDesk shell be locked into
memory all of the time. This should
not be a problem for people with
expanded memory. NeoDesk CL! is
clearly a promising, if not yet
mature, product. I am keeping an
eye on it for a future purchase.
Those people who are not now
using NeoDesk and who do not
want to shell out $60 or so for
NeoDesk and NEO-CL/ should
recognize that 7Z//and .ACCess are
both flawed in ways that make them
difficult to recommend. The minor
benefits to be gained by installing
these desk accessories do not out¬
weigh the aggravation. If memory
limits are a serious consideration,
then forget about installing a desk
accessory and run DO-/T/ from the
GEM desktop. The shell takes up
only about 30k bytes, it does the
job for most applications, and it is
out of the way when it is not
needed. This product may be hard
to find since QMI has left the scene.
Gu/am is the CLI of choice for
cases where DO-/T/ fails.
It is possible to save some
money by using PD command shell
DAs, but my experience with these
has not been good.
People who have plenty of
memory and who insist on having
quick access to a CLI shell may be
able to achieve this by using
Revo/ver from Intersect to establish
a modest memory partition with
Gu/am running in it. This recipe may
fail if any of the user’s applications
are incompatible with Revo/ver. For
me it is sufficient to have Gu/am
among my desktop icons in Neo¬
Desk so that I can get to it easily.
I find it amusing that ST devel¬
opers are reinventing this particular
wheel at a time when the rest of the
world is moving wholeheartedly
toward Graphical User Interfaces
(GUI) similar to those that ST users
have known and loved since the
beginning. Putting these things into
GEM windows without adding any
other functionality amounts to put¬
ting chocolate sauce on plain
vanilla ice cream and calling the
result a hot fudge sundae.
Imagine...
You are busy in a GEM application. The phone interrupts. With a
few clicks, you pop down an accessory, enter the caller’s data, check
your calendar, schedule a meeting, address an envelope, and send the
caller’s data to your word processor to head the confirming letter.
You touch a few keys to select and display the cards of associates
you want at the meeting. The accessory dials your phone to let you
inform them. Satisfied, you get back to your application, knowing the
accessory will remind you of the meeting. Now that’s efficiency!
e pk A 14 | I /> The secret to
® ® W productivity
THE ’Rolodex’ and appointment calendar
for your electronic desktop
• Powerful enough for your business • Friendly enough for your family
• Instant access to thousands of ’cards’ • Import existing data
• Print envelopes, address books, phone lists, label sheets, and agenda
• Superb 60 page manual • Any color or mono Atari ST
$34.93 plus $2 S&H to US and Canada, $4 international.
Send check or m.o. to: GT Software
12114 Kirton Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44135-3612
Page 46
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
Choice
Current Notes Mi
• ftkirtitn fai
- Runs Windows
« Free 1 Meg of
included.
* 1 Meg of mem.
used by your /
Talon
Technology
243 N. Hwy 101, Ste.11
Solana Beach, CA 92075
( 619 ) 792-6511
FAX (619) 792-9023
out of the box.
■ Omniswitch functions a
monitor switcher for sfc
ard Atari monochrome
Atari ST/Mcga
CN Review
TRACKER/ST
The New All-Purpose Track-Everything Program
Review by H. Earl Hill
Tracker/ST is an AtariST pro¬
ductivity program from Step Ahead
Software (Nevin Shalit) combining a
traditional mailing list, a built-in mail
merge system, database-style
reporting, and a tracking program
all in one. It was developed using
the SuperBase Professional DML
from Precision Software and uses
the SuperBase Professional Run
Time System. It has a full GEM
interface with drop down menus,
click on buttons, and keyboard
equivalents for all its functions. It
allows an unlimited number of in¬
dividual files (one for your user
group, one for your sales list, etc.)
Tracker/ST\s, intended for users
requiring an integrated mailing list,
mail merge, and database, e.g.
newsletter editors, small busi¬
nesses, religious and school
organizations, musicians, clubs,
bowling leagues, etc. For member¬
ship groups, Tracker/ST can adjust
membership or subscription time
plus assist in printing out personal¬
ized renewal notices. File size pre¬
sents no limitation to the count¬
down feature. For home use, it can
keep track of events such as wed¬
dings and reunions to keep lists,
keep notes on individuals, etc.
Tracker can create, edit and save
different label formats for printing.
Also, it offers a built-in text editor
and report formats, plus versatile
file importing and exporting ability.
Installation
Tracker/ST comes on a double
sided disk loaded with the main
files and auxiliaries. Tracker s un¬
protected and can be installed on
floppies and/or hard drives. It runs
on color or monochrome (TOS
versions up to 1.6) and also sup¬
ports the Moniterm large-screen
monitor. A meg of RAM is recom¬
mended as well as a hard drive, the
latter because of the size of Tracker
and the heavy disk access; other¬
wise, loading and similar functions
are rather slow. Correct installation
requires only careful attention to the
procedures detailed in the manual.
RAM disks are a good idea to
use with Tracker if you have the
memory and only floppy drives. An
installed RAM disk can be specified
within Tracker and will be accessed
by some functions of Tracker. For
example, the program uses the
RAM disk for cutting, copying and
pasting text, in building letters, and
in mail merges. Some functions,
however, operate outside of the
RAM disk (e.g., storing names) and
thus are not accelerated.
Printer drivers for most com¬
mon printers are included. These
include Epson 9 and 24 pin, NEC
24 pin, Atari SLM laser printer, HP
DeskJet, and many, many more.
LaserBrain and self-created printer
drivers are also supported. Ten
preset label formats for 1, 2, and 3
across and laser printed labels are
available. These may all be used as
either pre-set label formats or edi¬
ted and customized, such as for
condensed printing. Besides labels,
Rolodex< R > cards can be printed.
How It Does It
The “hows” of Tracker are
many. The manual, to be discussed
later, has 116 pages and goes into
great detail on how to use all its
functions. An excellent tutorial sec¬
tion is also included for kick-start¬
ing it. Tracker, although a ‘friendly’
program, is not exactly what you
would call a simple program. Its
many ingredients demand familiari¬
zation via the tutorial, followed by
study and working with the feature
descriptions.
Because of the depth and
power of Tracker our review of its
features must be in the nature of a
summary overview. As befitting its
GEM nature. Tracker has, three main
screens and one secondary screen.
The first of the main screens is the
Entry Screen; there you create new
Update Extras
Settings
Page 48
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
CN Review
Atari ST/Mega
databases, plus enter, edit and
delete names. The second is the
Power Station screen. Here you do
the reports, print Mail Merges and
Labels, and set up new label for¬
mats. The final screen is the Quick
Letter screen. Here you set up a
Mail Merge template for form letters
using info from the Tracker files.
Additionally, Tracker has a rather
powerful text editor. This is where
you create your Mail Merge tem¬
plates and Quick letters, and where
the Long Notes for the Tracker files
are created. You move between the
main screens via the Extras menu
bar selection.
The Entry Screen
The Entry Screen is the key
area where you enter names, im¬
port and export names, and create
new databases. It has a fairly typical
database type layout with fields for
names, addresses, phone numbers,
categories, source, etc. This is
where you can also enter Long
Notes via the Text Editor. Similar to
other databases, once you have
established your records, you can
scan, search, add, delete and edit.
The Entry Screen contains six menu
bars called File, Edit, View, Set¬
tings, Update and Extras.
The File menu bar lets you
create databases, load them, delete
them, and rename them. As with
the majority of functions, there are
keyboard alternates for the com¬
mands. Here is also where you
Import and Export database files,
including those of Tracker. ASC//,
Zoomracks //, DataManager/ST,
SuperBase, and DBMan. By the use
of defaults for the Entry screens,
and a Personal Settings info base,
you can save a lot of keystrokes
when your database contains
several hundred names. The num¬
ber of names is limited only by disk
space; 1,800 names per floppy disk,
45,000+ on a hard drive.
Edit contains selections to add
names, modify entries, view Long
Notes, and delete entries. Tracker
allows unlimited Long Notes for
each person in the system—these
are NOT limited to a few characters
or words.
As with common databases,
you can view names in various
fashions, such as next, previous,
search, rewind, etc. A convenient
and powerful feature is found in the
Browse command. It lets you see
all the names in your current data¬
base and allows selectable field
displays.
Settings lets you, what else?,
set the commands for how names
are displayed (e.g., by sorting), set
personal info, set Entry Defaults,
and a host of other good things.
Update is also as it implies,
with the exception of the Count¬
down command. This lets you do a
one-step subscription or group
membership adjustment to auto¬
matically adjust the remaining time
with a single command.
The Extras menu bar of the
Entry Screen contains a “clean up”
feature. It also is where you can
count the number of entries in your
database, print single labels, and
delete Long Notes. This also lets
you access the Power Station and
Quick Letter modules. All modules
have this Extras menu to move
among them.
The Power Station
The Power Station is where you
print and display reports, print
labels, and do Mail Merges. The
main horizontal display area shows
the “filters,” such as “only names
from a certain state.” Filtering can
be quite detailed and specific, and
can involve sub-filters and even
other filters found in “grouping”
categories for fine-tuning reports. It
is one of the most useful and
versatile features. To optimize its
use, reference to the manual would
be recommended.
The Power Station contains six
menu bars covering Reports, Main-
Sort, Filter, Grouping, Mail-Merge
and Labels/Extras.
On the Power Station Screen
you have three rectangular “Set¬
tings” boxes to: (1) Run Report, (2)
Mail Merge-Print, and (3) Labels-
Print. Run Report sends reports to
screen or printer, including easy-
to-use grouping, sorting, counting
and summarizing. Reports can be
sorted on any field or grouped on
any field. For example, users can
easily set up a report that groups
the names in their file by state, and
sort them within each state by rank.
M-Merge has settings for such
things as margins, and offsets for,
e.g., the date. Finally, Labels-Print
has the settings for the type of
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 49
Atari ST/Mcga
CN Review
Desk
Recipient
Letters Extras
label, margins, number of labels
across, and printer selection. All of
these Settings functions work in
conjunction with the drop down
menu bars. Labels may be printed
alphabetically, or sorted by Zip
Code for bulk mailing. The Power
Station is aptly named, and has to
be used with the manual instruc¬
tions (a full 30 pages) to adequately
handle Tracker.
Quick Letter/Text Editor
When a full merge is not
necessary, the Quick Letter com¬
mand can be used. This allows
combining a mail merge template
with a single name in a file to create
a one-time, editable letter. Quick
letters let the user add personal
comments to standard mail merge
templates, for business reply mail,
etc.
The Quick Letter feature is ideal
for using any Mail Merge template
for “almost form letters” and busi¬
ness reply mail to anyone in the
TrackerfWes. You can edit the letter
freely before printing it without dis¬
turbing the contents of the mail
merge template itself. Quick Letter
is much like a conventional word
processor with the exception that it
can call templates containing data¬
base info and also call selected
persons from the ‘names’ database.
However, Quick Letters cannot be
saved. Quick Letter has a very
powerful ability, using the Ruler, to
effortlessly reformat the text. No
more “FI0!” Additionally, different
margins can be quickly set for
individual paragraphs.
The Text Editor comes into play
when you enter Long Notes for a
name, or when you create or edit a
Mail Merge template or build a
Quick Letter. Overall, it is similar to
the Quick Letter feature in oper¬
ation. There are several attributes of
the text editor, however, that mark¬
edly differ from ordinary word pro¬
cessors. Specifics of these impor¬
tant differences and how they apply
to the text editor are detailed in the
manual and are essential reading.
The Text Editor’s menu bar
contains four selections: Project,
Edit, Style and Options. Project is
specific to Tracker and has selec¬
tions for saving Long Notes and
templates, for printing documents,
and switching to previous screens.
The Edit and Style menus are
essentially similar to conventional
word processors. Bold, italic, and
underline are supported as well as
variable margins. The final feature is
the Options menu, which has the
Ruler, a help box for keyboard
commands, and an insert/typeover
toggle.
The Manual—Surprise,
Surprise!
Tracker’s manual and program
were written by Nevin Shalit. Nevin
is, of course, well known as a writer
for ST Informer. Doubtless this
experience has helped teach him
what is good and bad about
manuals. So it is no surprise that
the manual is exemplary of what
program manuals should be, rather
than a sad example, as is so often
the case. If it were an assignment
for school it would certainly get a
mark of A+.
The manual contains three main
chapters and six Appendixes. Fol¬
lowing the chapter on Getting Star¬
ted is an excellent Tutorial chapter.
Following this are the Reference
pages where each main function is
covered in detail. The Appendixes
have info on such good things as
Printer Drivers; Preparing Files for
Import; Tracker Field Lengths;
Paths; etc. This concludes with a
detailed index. The entire docu¬
mentation is quite understandable,
and each section is well delineated.
Printing is first class, and the
manual has all the needed
explanatory figures (screen dumps)
to correspond with the descriptive
text. And as if all this isn’t enough,
the manual is spiral-bound so it
can lie flat. Would that all manuals
were this good!
Support, Mods and
Improvements
Free customer support is avail¬
able from the company for regis¬
tered users. The serial number is
your entry to phone support. Letters
are promised answers as soon as
possible. Tracker also is supported
on GEnie on the ST Round Table. A
quarterly newsletter is also in the
works for users. Step Ahead has
many plans to continually expand
and improve Tracker, attested to by
the fact that this reviewer received
a substantial update within a week
of receiving the first version. Sug¬
gestions are most welcome.
Some changes or additions this
reviewer would like to see would
Page 50
Current Notas
Vol. 10, No. 8
Atari ST/Mega
\
CN Review
_
include a summary card of all the
keyboard commands. Also, a Help
screen available from the main
screens besides the Text Editor.
The Quick Letter and Text Editor
need a block delete function. With a
program of this size and depth,
small bugs are bound to surface as
users work with it. I ran across
some of these but this is where
customer support becomes so im¬
portant. All indications are that Step
Ahead will be very receptive to
suggestions, bug reports, etc., and
consider these in issuing revisions.
Tracker, at the time of this
writing had problems, as mentioned
in the README.TXT, with TOS 1.4
and the click-on buttons not work¬
ing correctly so that the keyboard
commands had to be used instead.
However, a new revision, 2.03,
makes all of Tracker/ST’s buttons
work on all versions of TOS. This
upgrade is going out free to all
users (they don’t even have to send
in their original disks!) The
README.TXT also has current info
on two new features involving page
width/length setup and improved
filtering, plus help on using Neo-
desk with Tracker, a further exam¬
ple of customer support.
Tracker is by nature, a fixed-
field database. This is at the same
time both its strength and its weak¬
ness. The Entry Screen, being
essentially frozen, restricts the user
to the set fields, their positions, and
their lengths. One example of this
restriction is the field length of the
Zip Code, where additional num¬
bers cannot be added. On the other
hand, Tracker can use this fixed-
field template to save thousands of
keystrokes for computer aided
entry. A “construction set” would
be handy for mods of the Entry
Screen, but probably could not be
done due to the interlocking nature
of the various functions. Some of
the limitations that can occur with a
fixed-field database, unless built in
from the beginning, are things such
as: (1) Inability to indicate how
many packages of magazines
(issues) would go to each specific
postal zone (a function of the Zip
Code), and (2) Inability to track a
subscription fee paid and when it
was paid and the revenue per issue
(this can vary for one or two year
subscriptions, e.g.).
Summary
Tracker/ST is an integrated,
GEM interface application combin¬
ing the features of a mailing list,
mail merge, and person-tracking
software program. It should appeal
to the beginning Atari 16-bit user
who needs an easy-to-use pro¬
gram with a minimum of setup and
training, and to the experienc- ed
ST/Mega user who needs the full
power of an integrated application.
Tracker provides the user with a
personal database which can be
extended to a number of additional
functions. These include:
ft Merging letters to all the names
in the database;
☆ Printing of labels from the
names for virtually any type of
label or printer;
A Printing the newer 2- and
3-across labels;
ft Names in the system limited
only by disk space;
ft Unlimited number of individual
files;
ft Unlimited notes, both short and
long;
ft Full reports with grouping,
sorting, counting and
summarizing;
ft Specific filters for fine-tuning
output;
ft Advanced import and export
capability; and last but not
least,
☆ A unique Quick Letter feature
for “form letters” and business
reply mail.
Tracker/ST should find its niche
with religious/school organizations,
theater/music groups, newsletter
publishers, clubs, the local PTA and
Cub Scouts, etc. It may be a little
pricey for some smaller users; per¬
haps for them a “Junior” version of
Tracker may need to be developed.
Tracker may be too restrictive for
heavy, real-world use in a business
environment, although for some¬
what simpler applications such as
user groups it would appear to have
much to offer and the potential to
be the ‘tracker’ program of choice.
Software version reviewed: 2.03.
f,Tracker/ST ($79.95}. Step Ahead
Software, inc., 496-A Hudson
Street, New York City, NY 10014.
(212)627-5830.
Construction
Estimator
Construction Estimator 2.0
(Color or Monochrome)
Very easy to use, make estimates for
house, driveway, small building etc.
Creates quantity and cost totals
Functions include: footings, stem wall,
floor slab, blockwall, rebar, ceiling ana
floor joist, woodwalls, floor ana roof
sheeting, cut & stack roof, sheetrock,
roofing, soil excavation.
ASCII file^ave & load. Also creates
LDW Power compatible files so you can
use a spreadsheet to further modify
your estimate.
$39.95
Michael C. O’Massey
9910 U.S. 395 North
Reno Nevada 89506
(702) 972-3659
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 51
i For all your A tori computer needs...
ComputerVisions
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SAT - 10am - 5pm
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ALTERNATE REALITY CITY 14.95
ATARI PLANETARIUM .... 19.95
ARCTIC FOX . 9.95
ART & FILM DIRECTOR... 19.95
AUTODUEL . 19.95
BACKGAMMON . 14.95
BATTLESHIP . 9.95
B.E.S.T. BUSINS.MGMT.. 75.00
CALIFORNIA GAMES. 14.95
CARRIER COMMAND . 14.95
CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING 9.95
COMBAT COURSE . 13.50
DEATH SWORD . 9.95
DEVON AIRE . 19.95
DIVE BOMBER . 9.95
FINAL ASSAULT . 9.95
FIRST WORD. 9.95
GBA BASKETBALL . 14.95
GFA BASIC 3.0 . *9.95
GOLDEN PATH (TOS 1.0). 1.95
GUILD OF THIEVES . 9.95
IMPOSSIBLE MISSION 2.. 9.95
KNIGHT ORC . 4.95
METROCROSS . 9.95
MOEBIUS . 19.95
OCP ART STUDIO. 9.95
OGRE . 14.95
PROJECT NEPTUNE . 14.95
QUIZ WIZARD. 9.95
RED STORM RISING . 29.95
SENTRY . 4.95
SKY FOX . 9.95
SPACE STA. OBLIVION... 9.95
SPITFIRE 40 . 19.95
STARRGLT DER. 9.95
SUB BATTLE SIMULATOR.. 9.95
SUPERSTAR ICE HOCKY .. 19.95
TECHNOCOP . 19.95
TEMPLE APSHAI TRILOGY 9.95
THE GAMES. 9.95
THE PAWN. 9.95
TOWER TOPPLER . 9.95
TRACKER (TOS 1.0) .... 1.95
ULTIMA III . 24.95
UNIVER MILITARY SIMU.. 14.95
WARSHIP . 9.95
WINTER GAMES . 9.95
WIZARDS CROWN . 29.95
WORD QUEST . 4.95
WORLD GAMES . 9.95
WORLD KARATE CHAMP ... 9.95
(SOME LIMITED 'QUANTITIES)
We have over 1000 titles
in stock. If you don’t see
what you want.... GIVE US
A CALL!
A
ATARI LYNX
THE PORTABLE COLOR
ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM
INCLUDES CALIFORNIA GAMES
$179.95
ADDITIONAL ACCESSORIES:
NYLON FANNY PACK .
34.95
ELECTROCOP .
31,50
BLUE LIGHTNING .
31.50
GAUNTLET (1-4 PLAYERS)...
35.95
GATES OF ZENDOCON .
31.50
CHIPS CHALLENGE .
31.50
m
JRI PRODUCTS
GENLOCK DEMO UNITS (2 ONLY)
REQUIRES MEGA 2/4 SYSTEM
$400
RAM+ 1-4 MEG MEMORY UPGRADE
$125.00
(REQUIRES SIMMS)
4096 COLOR BOARD
WITH VIDEO SHIFTER
$99.00
THE VERY BEST
MOUSE
SELECTION!!
LOGITEC . 39.95
STANDARD ATARI . 45.00
BEST ELECTRONICS . 49.95
GOLDEN IMAGE WITH PAD 59.95
OPTICAL WITH PAD . 89.95
CORDLESS . 129.95
MOUSE PARTS:
MOUSE MAT . 8.95
ATARI MOUSE CABLE. 7.9 5
* * * SPECIAL VALUES * * *
(some limited quantities)
DISCOVERY CARTRIDGE OPTION 0 . 125.00
DISCOVERY CARTRIDGE OPTION 2 . 199.00
TRANSLATOR ONE (FOR SPECTRE 128) ... 249.00
MAGIC SAC PLUS WITH 64K ROMS . 39.95
DVT VCR TAPE BACKUP SYSTEM . 99.00
CASIO MT-24 KEYBOARD WITH MIDI . 99.00
SUPERCHARGER (IBM EMULATOR) . 425.00
64K MAC ROMS (SET) . 5.00
128K MAC ROMS (SET) . 129.95
ATARI ST DIAGNOSTIC CARTRIDGE . 39.95
A TA RI ST A CCESSORIES
MOUSE MASTER .... 39.95 CLOCK CART .. 39.95
MONITOR MASTER .. 49.95 VIDEO KEY ... 99.95
DRIVE MASTER .... 49.95 TWEETY BOARD 59.95
WF. CARRY A FULL LINF. OF PRODUCTS FOR THF.
ATARI ST INCLUDING FIELD SERVICE MANUALS.
POWER SUPPLIES. KEYBOARDS. DRIVE MECH’S,
CABLES, CONNECTORS. MEGA SPRINGS, COMPOSITE
MONITOR CABLES, SOUND AND VIDEO DIGITIZERS,
SCANNERS, DATA SWITCHERS, LASER PRINTER
TONER, GAME HINT BOOKS, INTEGRATED CIRCUITS .
ATARI PORTFOLIO
SMALLEST HAND-HELD
DOS COMPUTER
WEIGHS ONLY ONE POUND!
COMES WITH FILE MANAGER
CALL FOR PRICES
WE CARRY A FULL LINE OF
ACCESSORIES & SOFTWARE
PARALLEL INTERFACE . 49.95
SERIAL INTERFACE . 79.95
32k MEMORY CARD . 79.95
64K MEMORY CARD . 129.95
128K MEMORY CARD . 199.95
AC POWER ADAPTER . 9.95
NYLON CARRYING CASE . 22.95
PC CARD DRIVE . 99.95
DOS UTILITIES . 80.95
FINANCE PROGRAM . 80.95
FILE MANAGER . 26.95
HIGH SCORE
JOYSTICK
BY COLECO VISION
THIS HEAVY DUTY JOYSTICK
Si rs ON YOUR DESK TOP FOR
EXTRA CONVENIENCE.
IS SW1TCHABLE FOR LEFT OR
RIGHT HAND. HAS SPECIAL
RAPID-FIRE BUTTON.
COMES WITH IT’S OWN
SHOULDER STRAP CARRYING
CASE WHICH INCLUDES ROOM
TO CARRY YOUR GAMES
A GREAT BUY AT ONLY
$ 14 .95
(WORKS ON ALL ATARI COMPUTES)
>>> BOOKS «<
FOR THE ATARI ST
ATARI ST VOL. 1: VDI .. 19.95
ATARI ST VOL. 2: AES .. 19.95
ATARI ST VOL. 3: TOS .. 24.95
MTDT AND SOUND FOR ST 17.95
WITH DISK . 34.9 5
ATARI ST BOOK (TURNER) 16.95
ST SUBJECTS (TURNER) .. 16.95
BASIC SOURCE BOOK . 5.00
ATARI ARTIST . 16.95
WITH DISK . 29.95
KIDS & THE ATARI ST ... 14.95
ST APPLICATIONS . 16.95
MORE ST APPLICATIONNS . 16.95
PROGRAMMING IN C . 19.95
FROM BASIC TO C . 16.95
ELEMENTARY ST BASIC ... 14.95
B&C COMPUTER VISIONS * 3257 KIFER ROAD * SANTA CLARA, CA 95051 * 408-749-1003
800/XE/XE SOET W si RE T IT EES OX E> IS K
ENTERTAINMENT
12 ADAMS ADVENTURES .. 14.95
ADVENTURE TRI LOGY. 14.95
ALIANTS . 17.95
ASSULT FORCE 3D. 19.9 5
AUTO DUEL (64K). 26.95
BEYOND CASTLE WOLF_ 14.95
BANDITS . 5.35
BISMARK . 26.95
BLOCK BUSTER . 7.95
BLUE MAX . 9.95
BOP 'N WRESTLE . 13.50
BORODINO:1812 . 22.50
BOULDERDASH CONSTR.SET 9.95
BRUCE LEE . 8.95
C'EST LA VIE . 7.95
CASTLE WOLFENSTEIN.... 14.95
CONAN THE BARBARIAN .. 8.95
CONFLICT IN VIET NAM . 9.95
COSMIC TUNNELS . 9.95
CROSSFIRE . 9.95
CRUSADE IN EUROPE _ 9.95
CYCLE KNIGHT . 8.95
D-BUG . 4.95
DALLAS QUEST . 7.95
DELUXE INVADERS . 7.95
DECISION IN DESERT ... 9.95
DROP ZONE . 9.95
DR. MTNDWARP . 9.95
ELECTRAGLIDE . 8.95
F-15 STRIKE EAGLE _ 9.95
FIGHT NIGHT . 17.95
FORBIDDEN FOREST . 7.95
FORT APOCALYPSE . 9.95
GALAHAD n HOLY GRAIL .. 5.95
GRAPHIC ADVENTURES 16 26.95
HARD HAT MAC . 7.95
HERACLES . 26.95
JAWBREAKER . 4.95
KICK.START . 8.95
KNICKERBOCKERS . 13.50
KENNEDY APPROACH . 9.95
LAST V-8 . 8.95
LORDS OF CONQUEST _ 13.50
MASTERS OF TIME . 9.95
MERCENARY . 14.95
MICROLEAGUE BASEBALL . 35.95
MONTEZUMA'S REVENGE... 14.95
MOUSE QUEST. 17.95
MOON SHUTTLE . 7.95
MR. ROBOT . 9.95
NATO COMMANDER . 9.95
NIBBLER . 12.95
NINJA . 8.95
OIL'S WELL . 9.95
PENS ATE . 14.95
PHAROAH'S CURSE ... 9.95
PIE MAN . 14.95
PINBALL CONSTR SET ... 13.50
PIRATES OF BARB. COAST 17.95
PITFALL/DEMON ATTACK . 13.50
PROTECTOR II . 9.95
PREPPIE I 4 II . 9.95
RACING DESTRUCTION SET 13.50
SEVEN CITIES OF GOLD . 13.50
SILENT SERVICE . 9.95
SOLAR STAR . 9.95
SPEED KING . 8.95
SPIDERMAN . 5.35
SPITE a. MALICE (400/800)9.95
SPY VS. SPY I 4 II ... 9.95
STARBASE HYPERION _ 7.95
STARFLEET I . 44.95
STAR RAIDERS II . 17.95
STOCK-MARKET . 22.50
STRIP POKER . 26.95
SUMMER GAMES . 7.95
SUPER HUEY . 9.95
SUPER BOULDERDASH .... 13.50
TAX DODGE . 9.95
TALLADEGA . 9.95
TEMPLE OF APS HA I . 9.95
THE HULK . 7.95
THEATRE EUROPE . 8.95
TOP GUNNER . 9.95
TRAILBLAZER . 26.95
TRIVIA QUEST . 35.95
ULTIMA III . 35.95
ULTIMA IV . 5 3.95
UNIVERSE . 44.95
VIDEO POKER . 8.95
VIDEO VEGAS . 17.95
WAR GAMES . 14.95
WAR GAMES CONSTR SET . 26.95
WINTER CHALLENGE XL/XE 13.50
WIZARDS CROWN . 19.95
WOMBATS I . 12.95
ZAXXON . 13.50
PROGRAMMING
CLSN PASCAL . 35.95
DOS 2.5 . 7.95
DOS XE. 10.00
DISK I/O . 26.95
FORTH (HOFACKER) . 19.95
LIGHTSPEED C . 35.95
TOP DOS 1.5 . 26.95
PRODUCTIVITY
ANIMATION STATION _ 79.95
ATARIWR1TER+/SPELLCHK. 29.95
ATARIWRITER U0
REQUIRES XEP80 _ 44.95
ASTROLOGY . 7.95
AWARDWARE (1050) 13.50
BANK STREET WRITER_ 9.95
BLAZING PADDLES . 31.50
BOOKKEEPER/KEYPAD .. 17.95
COMPUTE YOUR ROOTS ... 35.95
DATAMANAGER . 8.95
ELECTRONIC CHECKBOOK . 8.95
FAMILY FINANCE . 6.95
FORMS GENERATOR . 21.50
HOME ACCOUNTANT . 19.95
HOME FILING MANAGER. . 6.95
INVENTORY MASTER . 80.95
LETTER WIZARD . 29.95
MONEY MANAGER . 8.95
MUSIC CONSTRUCTION SET 13.50
NEWSROOM (1050 64K). 13.50
NEWS STATION . 26.95
NEWS STA. COMPANION. . 26.95
PAGE DESIGNER . 26.95
PAINT . 12.95
PRINT POWER (1050)_ 13.50
PRINTKIT (1050) . 13.50
PRINTSIIOP . 34.95
PROOF READER . 17.95
PUBLISHING PRO . 35.95
SUPER MAILER . 35.95
TIMEWISE . 6.95
TURBOWORD 80 .*44.95
TURBOFTLE 80 .*44.95
* REQUIRES XEP80
VIDEO TITLESHOP (64K). 26.95
VIRTUOSO . 29.95
VISICALC . 24.95
EDUCATION
BUZZWORD . 22.50
GRANDMA'S HOUSE (10) 9.95
HEY DIDDLE (AGE 310). 9.95
L1NKWORL): SPANISH .... 22.50
LINKWORD: GERMAN . 22.50
LINKWORO: FRENCH . 22.50
LINKWORD: ITALIAN .... 22.50
MASTER TYPE . 14.9 5
RATNEY DAY GAMES . 26.95
SAT PRACTICE TESTS ... 19.95
SNOOPER TROOPS CASE #1 9.95
SNOOPER TROOPS CASE #2 9.95
STATES AND CAPITALS .. 9.95
TOUCH TYPING . 9.95
QUIZ MASTER CONSTR.... 8.95
QUIZ MSTR. USA CONSTR. 8.95
AMERICA!! E DUCAT I OH :
A + BIOLOGY G10< .... 17.95
A+ GRAMMER G4 + .... 17.95
A + READING COMP G1 8 35.95
A+ SCIENCE G3-4 .... 17.95
A+ SCIENCE G5-6 .... 17.95
A + SCIENCE G7-8 .... 17.95
A+ SPANISH . 17.95
A+ SPELLING G2 8 ... 35.95
A+ U.S. GOV. G10+ .. 17.95
A+ U.S. HIST. G5 + .. 17.95
A+ VOCABULARY G4+... 17.95
A+ WORLD GEOG. G8+ . 17.95
A + WORLD HIST. G8 + . 17.95
(G GRADE LEVEL)
ARTWORX:
HODGEPODGE (AGE 1 6) 13.50
MONKEYMATH (AG 4 10) 17.95
MONKEYNF.WS (GR 16) 17.95
ATARI:
CONCENTRATION . 4.95
DIVISION DRILL . 4.95
GRAPHING . 4.95
INSTRUCTIONAL COMPUT 4.95
PLAYER MAKER . 4.95
PREFIXES . 4.95
SCREEN MAKER . 4.95
SECRET FORMULA INTERM 4.95
SECRET FORMULA ADVANC 4.95
SPELL IN CONTEXT 8.. 4.95
CBS (AGE 3-6):
ASTROGROVER . 8.95
BIG BIRD SPEC DELIVE 8.95
ERNIE'S MAGIC SHAPE. 8.95
FRACTIONS MULTPL/DIV 4.95
LINEAR EQUATIONS ... 4.95
DAVIDSOH:
MATH BLASTERS Gl-6 . 26.95
SPELL IT I AGE 10+.. . 26.95
WORD ATTACK G4 -12 .. 26.95
DESIGHWARE:
MATHMAZE (6 11) .... 26.95
MISSION ALGEBRA (13+>13.50
SPELLICOPTER (611). 26.95
LEARNIHG COMPAHY:
READER RABBIT . 7.95
COIORASAURUS . 7.95
WORDSPINNER . 7.95
TIHK TOHK (AGE 46):
ABC'S . 8.95
COUNT AND ADD . 8.95
SMART THINKER . 8.95
SPELLING . 8.95
SUBTRACTION . 8.95
THINKING SKILLS .... 8.95
ALL 6 TINK TONKS.. 39.95
UHICORH:
10 LITTLE ROBOTS
(PRE SCHOOL) . 26.95
FUN BUNCH (6-ADULT) 26.95
WEEKLY READER (PRE SCHOOL):
STICKY BEAR SHAPES . 26.95
STICKY BEAR NUMBERS. 26.95
STICKY BEAR ABC'S .. 26.96
STICKY BEAR OPPOSITE 26.95
SB BASKET BOUNCE ... 26.95
STICKY BEAR BOP .... 26.95
RUN FOR IT . 26.95
8 O O/X E/X E SOFT W SL RE TITLES OX C/1 R 1
ENTERTAINMENT
ABRACADABRA (CART ONLY) 5.00
AIRBALL (XL/XE) . 24.95
ALIEN AMBUSH . 9.95
ACE OF ACES .(XL/XE) . 24.95
ARCHON . 14.95
ASTEROIDS . 15.95
ASTRO CHASE (400/800. 14.95
ATARI TENNIS (no box) 9.95
ATLANTIS . 14.95
BALL BLAZER . 14.95
BARNYARD BLASTER .... 24.95*
BASKETBALL . 14.95
BATTLEZONE . 19.95
BLUE MAX . 19.95
BOULDERS t. BOMBS .... 14.95
CAVERNS OF MARS . 19.95
CENTIPEDE . 14.95
CHICKEN (400/800)_ 4.95
CHOPLIFTER . 14.95
CLAIM JUMPER . 7.95
CLOUDBURST . 9.95
CROSSBOW . 24.95*
CROSSFIRE . 9.95
CRYSTAL CASTLES(XL/XE) 19.95
DARK CHAMBERS (XL/XE). 24.95
DAVIDS MIDNIGHT MAGIC 19.95
DEFENDER . 9.95
DESERT FALCON . 14.95
DIG DUG . 19.95
DONKEY KONG . 10.00
CARTRIDGE ONI,Y ... 5.00
DONKEY KONG JR. 19.95
EASTERN FRONT (1941). 19.95
E.T. PHONE HOME . 9.95
FIGHT NIGHT . 19.95
FINAL LEGACY . 19.95
FOOD FIGHT (XL/XE)... 19.95
FOOTBALL . 14.95
FKOGGER . 14.95
GALAX I AN . 9.95
GATO . 24.95
GORF (400/800) 9.95
HARDBALL . 19.95
INTO EAGLES NEST(XL/XE)19.95
JOUST . 19.95
JUNGLE HUNT . 12.95
KABOOMI . 14.95
KARATEKA . 19.95
KRAZY ANTICS . 14.95
LODE RUNNER . 24.95
MARIO BROS (XL/XE)... 19.95
MEGAMANIA . 9.95
MILLIPEDE . 9.95
MINER 2049'ER (no box) 9.95
MISSILE COMMAND . 10.00
CARTRIDGE ONLY ... 5.00
MOON PATROL . . . . . 19.95
MR. COOL . 4.95
NECROMANCER . 19.95
ONE ON ONE (XL/XE)... 19.95
OZZYS ORCHARD (CART) 5.00
PAC MAN . 10.00
CARTRIDGE ONLY ... 5.00
PENGO . 19.95
PLATTERMANIA . 9.95
POLE POSITION . 19.95
POPEYE (XL/XE). 14.95
Q BERT . 14.95
QTX . 9.95
RESCUE ON FRACTALAS . 19.95
RETURN OF THE JED1 .. 14.95
ROBOTRON:2084 . 14.95
SLIME (400/800). 4.95
SPRINGER . 7.95
SPACE INVADERS . 14.95
3D TIC-TAG TOE . 9.95
STAR RAIDERS . 10.00
CARTRIDGE ONLY. 5.00
STAR RAIDERS II . 19.95
SUBMARINE COMMANDER 14.95
SUMMER CAMES (XL/XE). 24.95
SUPER BREAKOUT . 19.99
SUPER COBRA . 14.95
SUPER PAC MAN
CARTRIDGE ONLY. 9.95
THUNDERFOX . 19.95
TURMOIL . 9.95
PRODUCTIVITY
ACTION I . 71.95
ACTION TOOLKIT DISK . 26.95
RASIC XI, TOOLKIT "DISK 26.95
BASIC REV A CART .... 5.00
BASIC REV C CART .... 15.00
BASIC XE . 71.95
DIAMOND (GEM O/S) .... 69.95
IjOGO. 29.95
CARTRIDGE ONLY ... 10.00
MAC/65 . 71.95
MAC/65 TOOLKIT - DISK. . . 26.95
R IEPOE
MICROSOFT BASIC II ... 31.50
MICROFILER DATABASE .. 22.50
PILOT . 19.95
CARTRIDGE ONLY ... 10.00
SPARTA DOS X . 71.95
EDUCATION
MATH ENCOUNTERS . 9.95
TYPO ATTACK . 22.50
FISHER PRICE (PRE SCHOOL):
DANCE FANTASY . 8.95
LINKING LOGIC . 8.95
LOGIC LEVELS . 8.95
MEMORY MANOR . 8.95
ALL 4 FOR ONLY .... 24.95
SPIHHAKER (AGE 3-10):
ALPHABET ZOO . 9.9 5
DELTA DRAWING . 9.95
FACEMAKER . 4.95
KIDS ON KEYS . 9.95
KINDERCOMP. 9.95
(AGE 7 - ADULT):
ADV.CREATOR (400/800) 9.95
FRACTION FEVER . 9.95
(* - REQ. LIGNT GUN)
** IIIPPING INFORM AT I ON - Prices do not include shipping and handling. Add $5.00 for small items ($8.00 Min. for Canada). Add $8.00 for d isk drive. Add $ 3. 30 for C.O.D.
C#lll. res. include 7.259b sales tax. Mastercard and Visa accepted if your telephone is listed in your local phone directory. Orders may be pre-paid with money order, cashier
• heck, or personal check. Personal checks are held for three weeks before order is processed. C.O.D orders are shipped via L*PS and must be paid with cash, cashier check or
money order. International and APO orders must be pre-paid with cashier check or money order. $20.00 minimum on all orders.
Phone orders accepted TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm PST.
We carry a lull line of ATARI products - large public domain library - write or call for free flyer
PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE - NO REFUNDS - ALL SALES ARE FINAL
Atari ST/Mcga
CN Review
Weather Prediction - and Much More!
Learning About Weather and Its Indicators
Review by Samuel M. Van Wyck
FORECASTER III is billed as
meteorological software. It is
designed for use by schools and
individuals who wish to learn about
weather; especially weather track¬
ing and record keeping. Written by
Greg Kopchak, it provides the
interested beginner with an easily
understood look at the tasks and
realities of weather reporting.
All functions may be selected
from a standard GEM menu which
presents a number of options.
Naturally, the most intriguing (and
understandable) option is weather
forecasting, and that was the first
one tried. The accompanying
manual went right to the point by
specifying the steps needed to
initialize the FORECASTER III pro¬
gram prior to use. Since tempera¬
ture and weather patterns vary
according to one’s location, the first
requirement was to establish the
observer’s position in terms of Lati¬
tude and Longitude, elevation and
proximity to a time zone boundary.
These values were easily entered in
response to prompts contained in
the Initialize menu and were saved
to disk.
The Forecasting Function.
From the “DO FORECAST” menu,
a data page appears asking for the
local time, present and past baro¬
metric pressure and the interval
between them, temperature, humi¬
dity, wind speed and direction and
sky conditions; essentially the data
that one would have available from
a well-equipped home weather
station. Based upon this, a predic¬
tion is made with the results being
directed to disk, printer or screen.
If there is a weak point in the
utility, it lies with the forecasting
function itself - and perhaps the
expectations of this user. The in¬
struction book lists 8+ functions,
headed by “Forecast the weather
for the next 24 hours with your
computer.” This led me, quite un¬
reasonably, to anticipate the crea¬
tion of an elaborate database of
weather patterns from which the
program would predict future con¬
ditions. However, the database was
already in there, created by the
author. In fact, the only current data
needed to make the prediction are
PRESENT TEMPERATURE, HUMI¬
DITY, BAROMETRIC PRESSURE,
WIND SPEED AND DIRECTION,
SKY CONDITIONS AND PRECIPI¬
TATION. Add to that a single,
earlier pressure reading, say two to
six hours ago, plus the time of that
observation and that’s it. The pro¬
gram then computes the forecast:
THE WEATHER FORECAST
FOR THE NEXT 6-24 HOUR PERIOD
IS AS FOLLOWS: Fair and
generally cooler. Clear or partly
cloudy skies. Winds are currently
8 miles per hour. They will be
light.
Well, at first glance that does
seem a bit underwhelming! I will
admit that I expected more, but that
was due to my preconceived notion
as to what a forecast ought to
contain. Mr. Kopchak’s fault? Of
course not. He promised a forecast
and gave me one. Not only that,
but during the three weeks that I
have been using the program,
these have been better than 60%
accurate; how much better is hard
to say. I didn’t really try to make up
a statistical base for comparison.
What was not promised was that it
would be as complete and detailed
as the VHF broadcast over KEC-83,
our local weather station.
In order to understand better
what the real strengths of the pro¬
gram were, I called Mr. Kopchak at
his home in Missouri. “Who do you
consider will be the main users of
the FORECASTER III program?” I
asked. “Schools and students,” he
said, “plus anyone wanting to learn
more about the art and science of
weather prediction.” Ah! That
makes a difference! To that I would
add “...and anyone wanting to
establish a database of weather-
related information.” In fact, it is this
last feature, the ability to log, pro¬
cess and convert data that is the
greatest strength of the utility.
FORECASTER III isn’t about to
put AccuWeather or the Met Ser¬
vice people out of business but that
isn’t its purpose. As soon as that
fact is assimilated, the entire pro¬
duct makes a great deal of sense. It
is a very complete but elementary
group of utilities designed for the
student or amateur forecaster. Now,
let’s look at what it does well.
The Almanac. One of the very
nice aspects of FORECASTER III is
the almanac. Everything you ever
wanted to know about today, and a
lot you didn’t, is available here.
Consider the following:
THE SUN
■J Distance from Earth in AU, KM,
Miles & Nautical Miles.
J Time of sunrise and sunset.
•/ Meridian transit time.
■j Declination.
■J The start and ending times of
Civil Twilight
■j Nautical Twilight and
■J Astronomical Twilight.
THE MOON
■y Moonrise and Moonset.
■J Time of meridian transit.
■J Illumination percentage.
Page 54
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
CN Review
Atari ST/Mega
>/ Mean and actual ages.
■j Declination.
r Phase.
And if all that weren’t enough, it
announced on 24 July 1990 that the
Julian Day Number was 2,448,097!
The Forecast Printout. If the
forecast itself seems a minor part of
the overall program, it is only due to
the almost overwhelming volume of
data that accompanies it. On the
forecast sheet we have:
j Current Barometric Pressure in
inches, millibars and
millimeters.
■j The change in pressure over
time.
</ Temperature in F. and C.
v Relative Humidity.
j Dew Point and Wet Bulb
Temperature.
j Prevailing Vapor Pressure and
Mixing Ratio.
j Air Density in Kg/M 3 .
</ Water Vapor Density in G/M 3 .
•J Temperature Humidity Index.
«/ Apparent Temperature.
</ Plus, of course, the forecast
itself.
Maps And Graphs. If one takes
the trouble to consult the local
library, a compilation of tempera¬
ture data from past years can be
made. These are entered as
“norms” or average readings for
each month. Printed in graphic
format, they provide a visual index
against which each day’s tempera¬
tures may be compared. These also
provide a base from which data is
compared while using other func¬
tions. Try as I might, I couldn’t make
the program retrieve this data once
it was saved to disk, necessitat¬
ing a laborious reentry process
whenever they were to be used.
The FORECASTER III in¬
struction book deals extensively
with the various on-line ser¬
vices, providing both graphic
and textual weather data. Com¬
puServe, among others, offers a
wide range of information,
usually at a surcharge to their
basic connect fee. These services
were not tried, as I presently do not
have a connection to the commer¬
cial boards. However, sample Radar
and other maps are included on the
disk making it possible to view
these without going on-line.
Mention should be made of the
instruction book which is more than
adequate to get the novice started.
For reasons that weren’t obvious, it
was a bit hard to use. Perhaps it
was the way that the subjects were
sequenced that seemed awkward.
The relationship of the headings
and subheads isn’t intuitive, result¬
ing in a lot of scrambling about to
find a reference. However, it does
the job quite adequately; to the
extent that even my alter ego,
Komputer Klutz, was able to handle
the task.
Make Your Own Weather
Database. A great convenience is
the inclusion of a Lotus, VIP and
LDW Power spreadsheet template
customized for weather reporting.
Anyone who is serious about fore¬
casting must have a database of
past weather history for compari¬
son. While these records are not
interactive with the forecasting por¬
tion of the program, they do give
the user an historical perspective
upon which to base or modify a
prediction. A detailed summary with
averages and deviations is provided
at the end of the month.
For the convenience of the
user, a conversion utility is inclu¬
ded. This lightens the task of
changing inches of mercury to mil¬
libars, Celsius to Fahrenheit, etc.
And Now, the Weather.... If
one concentrates on the many
strengths of FORECASTER Hi it is
apparent that it can, indeed, be a
most useful product. I imagine any
scout going for the Weather merit
badge would probably find his task
eased and learning enhanced. I
can’t imagine a better way to keep
and correlate weather data. Yes,
the forecasting section is weak,
compared to what we have come
to take for granted from the various
media. Remember, though, this is
designed for the student prognosti¬
cator rather than the professional.
Just for kicks, I plugged in the
coordinates of Key West, set the
date to the middle of the hurricane
season and fed in catastrophic
observations. A pressure drop of
more than a half inch in three hours
to 28.91 inches, temperature 94,
humidity 89 and total overcast with
rain and winds 20 knots from the
NE. FORECASTER III advised me:
There is a chance of showers
or thundershowers. Improving
and cooler within 12 hours. Winds
are currently 20 miles per hour.
They will be strong.
I think it fair to say that this
represents a gonzo talent for
understatement!
While I don’t intend to chuck
my VHF weather receiver and install
FORECASTER III in its place, I have
already found a practical use for the
data recording utility. Since my lady
and I are planning a move to
Spokane, WA in a year or so, I have
begun a compilation of weather
stats on the area, which will be of
great use in figuring out which
seasons are best for moving and
which to avoid. I really don’t want
my computer crossing the Rock¬
ies in a blizzard!
[Forecaster III, $29.95; Ran¬
dall Kopchak, 2233 Keeven Lane,
Florissant, MO 63031. Phone:
314-83!-9482.J
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 55
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
ik
SPACE ACE
When 28,800 Is Enough, Already!
Reviewed by Prank Sommers
Guilt Free Game Play. Pro¬
fessional Atari users have long
since learned how to handle any
childhood guilt that might possibly
ooze into the bloodstream as a
result of excessive game playing. In
fact, after a challenging and
successful bout with a fiendishly
clever or frantically fast game, be it
arcade or character role playing
style, there often follows a shoul¬
der-squaring, head-high, glow-
and-smile sense of triumph that
may have been denied you during
your work day. And when the glow
arrives, you find yourself practicing
your eyebrows-down, face-full-of-
scorn look, to be used with game¬
playing bashers.
Reverse Twist. So what kind
of a game is it that causes the
reverse reaction—one of frustra¬
tion, inky guilt, and mild squirming
anger over the time wasted? Space
Acd.
How can one interactive,
newest of the new breed of com¬
puter games, and kin to that arcade
gold mine, Dragon’s Lair, do all that
to a person? Well, let us, with the
help of that famous analytical psy¬
chiatrist and successor to Freud,
Dr. Alonzo Geshtunker, find out
how.
The game is played on four
disks. After the title screen, there’s
a short demo, projecting startlingly
high quality graphics and excellent
sound. Space Ace, himself, alias
Dexter, is shown leaping from
boulder to boulder, escaping laser-
ray spitting satellites, while he
blasts beasts, more vicious than
anything glimpsed in the darkest
night of your nightmares. You are
instructed to push the fire button to
start to play. A screen with Dexter,
as he or you might look after 40
months of pressing 200 lb. weights,
appears and signals that you have
zero points and only three lives.
The documentation has told you all
you need to know. (Toggling the joy
stick at just the right moment and
hitting the fire button when “cer¬
tain” dragons explode in front of
you will take you to victory—and
also insure the salvation of the
damsel that careened out of your
grasp and over the cliff at the onset
of the first “attack.”)
So it starts. With the girl cap¬
tured, and Capt. Borf (sic) blasting
away at you, you toggle left, you
toggle right, up and down, inter¬
spersed with a hammering of the
fire button. Result? Three instant
deaths and a game-over screen
appears, announcing your score is
“00000.” After 20 or 30 minutes of
this, with absolutely no progress,
you “retire” the game and go on to
more “productive” pursuits. But,
alas, after a day or so, or even an
hour, you’re back at it. (Dr. Gesh¬
tunker identifies that as “a stubborn
streak.”)
Beware the Documentation.
Then the worst possible thing, the
cauldron of all disasters, occurs.
You read the docs on how to play
the first screen. Your "enlightened"
choice of joystick moves and timing
allow Space Ace Dexter to avoid
instant death, for a moment only.
The second volley blows his head
off. Another 10 minutes or so, with
a combination of joystick to the
right, joystick to the left, joystick
down, all timed perfectly, and
Space Ace scrambles on to the
second screen; and your resolve
dissolves. But there all progress
stops. After twenty more wasted
minutes, the game is “definitely”
retired.
But you know the truth. Another
day, another hour. And after com¬
pleting four more screens, and
considering trying a fifth, you rec¬
ognize you are a mental defective,
as you keep playing non-stop,
wanting to solve just one more
riddle of motion. In fact, when we
started writing this, the sub-head-
line read, “When 10080 Is Enough!”
However, using a phone-call inter¬
ruption as an excuse, we booted
“just one more time.”
How Long the Scenario?
We’ve stopped now. We’re back in
control, because we finished the
fourth disk. The naked idiocy of
memorizing a series of toggles with
an occasional press of the fire
button, all of which “interacts” with
the figure on the screen and causes
him to pursue the scenario, has
slammed home, and we think we’re
cured. For after all, once you’ve
memorized the “toggles” it only
takes six minutes to complete all
33 scenes, including loading time.
Geshtunker to the Rescue. But
let Dr. Alonso Geshtunker analyze it
for us: “It’s dis vey. Die player is
humiliated by heez inability to per¬
form. Zen vunce he learns how
easy it is, he is vunce again humi¬
liated. Unt finally, ven he completes
it, he knows how easy it now is, and
he becomes disenchanted wid
himself and his immature lack of
self-control.”
There you have it. A game of
premier sights and sounds, but too
hard to be easily enjoyable, and too
easy, once you learn it, to offer any
further challenge, for “the profes¬
sional Atari user,” that is. What
more can we say? (I wonder, if I
tried it again, would the surprise
ending be the same?)
[Space Ace, $49.95, ReadySoft
inc.,30 Wertheim Ct.,, Unit 2, Rich¬
mond Hill, Ontario, Canada L4B
1B9 Te/:416-731-4175J
Page 56
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
1st STOP Computer Systems
P.0. BOX 20038 ♦ DAYTON, OHIO 45420-0038
ST HARD DRIVES
FA*ST 30
.$659
1st STOP 30....
...$569
FA*ST 50
..739
1st STOP 50....
.659
FA*ST 65
_769
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.689
FA*ST 80
.809
1st STOP 80....
.719
All hard drives are Seagate SCSI
44 Meg Removeable w/Cartridge.
...$839
44 Meg Cartridges.
.89
Migraph
Hand Scanner
w/Touchup
$389
IBM Emulators
PC Ditto (software).$79
Supercharger (1 Meg Version).$439
Macintosh Emulator
Spectre GCR.$218
Spectre 128K Roms.$124
Macintosh System Software.$49
Macintosh HyperCard Software.$49
We simply have too
much to list. Please
call if you don't see
something. If we don't
have it we'll get it!
T W S ' ,
Douglas Rodson
General Manager
ST GAMES
10th Frame Bowling.
.29 Dungeon Master Editor.
.15
Jack Nicklaus Golf.
.29
1943 Battle of Midway.
.13 Dyter07.
.24
Jumping Jackson.
.23
Action ST 2 (6 Games).
.37 Emmanuelle (Adult).
.35
Karateka..
.21
All Time Favorites (3 Games+) 39 Empire.
.29
Kid Gloves.
.28
Alter Beast.
.24 Emperor of the Mines.
.27
Kings Quest 4 .
.34
Armada.
.28 Eyes of Horus.
.22
Klax.
.25
Auto Duel.
.26 FI5 Strike Eagle.
.24
Lancelot.
.26
Axel's Magic Hammer.
.24 FI 6 Combat Pilot.
.31
Leatherneck.
.25
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.29 F29 Retaliator.
.31
Leavin Termanis.
.22
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.24 F40Pursuit..
.25
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.34
Battle Chess.
.29 Falcon.
.27
Manhunter, New York.
.27
Battle Tech.
.29 Faloon Mission Disk.
.15
Maniac Mansion.
.27
Beam.
.19 Fallen Angel.
.22
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.29
Black Tiger.
.24 Fast Lane.
.22
Mid Winter.
.34
Blood Wych.
.29 Federation.
.31
Midi Maze.
. 24
Blood Wych Data Disk #1 ...
.19 Ferrari Formula One.
.30
Millenuim 2.2.
.29
Blue Angel 69 (Adult) .
.22 Fiendish Freddy.
.28
Mindbender..
.25
Borodino.
.22 Fighter Bomber.
.37
Murders in Venice.
.30
Breach II.
.27 Fire!.
.29
Mystery of the Munmy.
. 24
Bride of the Robot ....
.24 Fire Brigade.
.28
Nether World.
.22
Bridge Player 2150.
.36 First Contact.
.29
Never Mind.
.21
California Games.
.29 Forgotten World.
.22
North & South.
.27
Captain Fizz.
.16 Full Metal Planet.
.20
Oil Imperium..
.27
Castle Warrior.
.29 Future Wars.
.29
P47 Thunderbolt.
.27
Chambers of Shaolin.
.30 Galaxy Force.
. 24
Paperboy.
.24
Chaos Strikes Back.
.22 Games Galore.
.22
Personal Nightmare.
.30
Chaos Strikes Editor.
.19 Gauntlet II.
.27
Pursuit to Earth.
.22
Chariots of Wrath.
.30 GhostBusters II...
.27
Pictionary.
.29
Chess Player 2150.
.29 Ghouls & Ghosts.
.22
Pipe Mania.
.22
Circus Games.
.22 Hand Drivin’.
.22
Pirates..
.25
Cloud Kingdoms.
.28 Harrier Combat Simulator..
.27
Planet of Lust (Adult).
.24
Clown O Mania.
.20 Hawaiian Odyssey.
.19
Planet of Robot Monsters...
.26
Clue - Master Detective.
.24 Hawkeye.
.22
Platoon..
.22
Colorado.
.29 Hell Raiser.
.22
Police Quest 2.
.34
Dive Bomber.
.16 High Steel.
.23
Populous.
.29
Double Dragon II.
.22 Hits Disk #2.
.29
Populous, Promised Land .
.17
Dr. Dooms Revenge.
.26 Hound of Shadow.
.26
Power Drift.
.20
Dragon Scape.
.24 Hunt for Red October.
.35
Prime Time.
.24
Drakken .
.36 Impossible Mission 2.
.17
Pro Soccer.
. 22
Dungeon Master.
. 22 International Soccer.
. 24
Rally Cross.
M
ST Memory Upgrades
Z-Ram - Upgrade 520 or 1040 to 2.5 or 4 Megs ....$115
with chips for 2.5 Megs.$254
with chips for 4 Megs.$399
Z-Ram - Upgrade Mega 2 to 4 Megs.$129
with chips to go to 4 Megs.$269
$ 89 for 44 Meg?
YOU READ IT RIGHT, FOR $89 YOU CAN OWN A 44
MEGABYTE REMOVABLE DISK CARTRIDGE FOR YOUR
SYQUEST HARD DRIVE!
...the small print, well sort of...
AS WITH EVERYTHING ELSE IN LIFE, THERE’S ALWAYS THE SMALL
PRINT. YES, YES YOU CAN BUY OUR 44 MEG DISK CARTRIDGE FOR
$89, BUT YOU WILL NEED OUR ST READY SYQUEST REMOVABLE
HARD DISK DRIVE TO USE IT. OUR PRICE IS A RIDICULOUSLY LOW
(COMPARED TO EVERYBODY ELSE) $839!!! AND THAT INCLUDES ONE
44 MEG CARTRIDGE TO BOOT! (NO PUN INTENDED). WE ONLY USE
HIGH QUALITY ICD HOST ADAPTERS AND FORMATTING SOFTWARE!
^
Odds & Ends
Joysticks
Monitor Master.
... $32
Epyx 200XJ.
.$14 pi;
Duplitwix Blitz
Video Key.
... $72
Epyx 500XJ..
..$10 p
Mouse Master.
...$27
Ergostick.
.$17 pi
The best and Fastest Disk Duplicator for the
Drive Master.
...$32
Switch Joystick.....
... $31 p
ST. Backs up a complete floppy disk faster
Replacement Mice
Navigator.
$17 m
than the ST can format a disk. More powerful
Cordless Mouse...
... $04
Quick Joy 5.
$23 m
than "software only" packages. Includes Blitz
Konyo Jin Mouse
... $49
Disk Drives
p
Software and Dual Drive Cable. Requires 2
Modems
Master 5S.
$199 p
Disk Drives.
Zoom 2400 .
.$109
Master 3S..
$142 p
(ton
Supra 2400.
.$109
Alternative 3.5"....
$ii9 Jm
$33
ST PRODUCTIVITY
1st Word Plus.
....59 FontzST.
.22 Scan Art (Easy Draw).
...29
ACCess! Release 3.
....10 G+ Plus.
.21 Spectrum 512.
...42
Accounts. ST ver 2.0.
... 89 Generation Gap (Family Tree) 29 Stalk the Market.
...49
BEST Business Manager....
.. 159 GFA Basic w/Compiler.
.85 Shadow.
...18
Border Pack (Easy Draw)...
.... 22 Hisoft Basic Professional...
.96 STalker.
...18
Calamus.
..168 Hisoft C Interpreter.
.60 STOS Game Creator.
...39
Calamus Font Editor.
.. .58 Hotwire Plus.
.35 Superbase Professional 3.0
.199
Calamus Outline.
.169 Interlink ST.
.24 Tiger Cub (Dr. 7).
...62
Circuit Maker II.
...59 KCS Level 2.
....209 Touch Up.
.118
Cleanup ST.
....23 Laser C.
....115 Tracker ST.
...45
Code Head Utilities.
....19 Laser Debugger.
.49 True Basic.
...59
Copyist II (Professional).
.156 LDW Power Speadsheet ...
.84 True Basic 3D Graphics.
...29
Data Manager.
....51 Lotto File.
15 True Basic Develooers ToolKit 26
dBManV .
.168 Mark Williams C.
....104 TurboST.
...30
DC Desktop.
... 25 Michtron BBS 3.0.
.49 UltraScript Font PS 22.
.126
DC Utilities.
....19 Multi Desk.
.19 UltraScript Font PS 35.
.179
Degas Elite.
....42 Music Studio 88.
.36 UltraScript ST-1.
.137
Diamond Back.
....24 NeoDesk.
.29 UltraScript ST/SLM 804.
.126
Draw Art Professional.
....42 PageStream.
....115 Universal Item Selector III ....
...16
DTP Desktop Publisher ST .
....77 Personal Pascal.
.66 VIDI-ST...
.129
Dyna Cadd.
. 389 Phasar 4.0.
.54 Word Flair.
...59
DynaCaddl.7.
..579 Print Master Plus. .
.24 Word Perfect 4.1.
.139
Easy Draw.
....59 ProCopy. .
. 21 Word Quest 2 .
...19
Fingers (Dr. T) .
....30 Protext .
.99 Word Up 3.0 .
...50
Flash.
....10 Quick ST II .
.14 Word Writer ST .
...48
ST Xformer Cable
Use with ST Xformer "The 800/XL/XE Emulator". Allows you to run 8 bit programs on your
ST. The cable allows you to load programs from 51/4" disk or transfer them to 31/2" disks.
With the cable, you can also load protected programs from 5 1/4" disks. Although the
Xformer will not run all 8 bit programs, it runs quite a few and is very useful in transfering
files from an 8 bit to your ST. The cable comes supplied with latest version of ST Xformer!
$19
Note: Even though Darek Mihocka has released the ST Xformer into the public domain,
we feel it's important to pay Darek a royalty for every cable sold. It's our way of saying
thanks for such an excellent product.
HOURS: M-F 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. EST
SAT 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
ALL 50 STATES CALL TOLL FREE
1-800-252-2787
For Order Status or
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Call or Write for FREE CATALOG. No extra charge for credit card orders - Next day delivery extra - Alaska & Hawaii UPS Blue Label
only - AP0 & FPO - Ohio residents add 6.5% sales tax • Allow 10 business days for personal or company checks - Returns subject
to 20% restocking fee - Defectives require return authorization number for repair or replacement - Prices and availability subject
to change without notice. - Minimum shipping $4 - We check all credit card orders for validity. J
DISCOVER
Disguising ST Topics
(c) 1990 David C. Troy
Hello. Fall is with us again. This is nice. I think that
more than New Years, September is the time when we
really make resolutions, new committments, and prom¬
ise ourselves that we’ll be productive and whole. For
me a new school year has begun, along with a lot of
other things. I’ve got a whole bunch of little stories
here, all of which could be considered relevant. So sit
back wide-eyed, and I’ll try to render these dry
techno-topics a little easier to swallow.
School
I switched my major to computer science just
before the end of last semester. I was majoring in
behavioral biology, which is fine, but I feel that I’ll be
able to get more from computer science. At Johns
Hopkins, at least in my sophomore year, the CS
curriculum really doesn’t focus on programming, rather
more on theory. Theory about sets. Theory about logic.
Theory about data structures. In fact, three of my
classes currently deal with the same topics. I’ve heard
Demorgan’s laws about sets twice in one week—using
different notation each time! How quaint that is! Oh, to
be able to keep it all straight! Courses in creative
writing and biology are keeping me from craziness. I’m
really not a very logical person—I can just pass myself
off that way sometimes.
I decided to take Data Structures (600.327) this
semester. I figured we’d be programming on the
school's VAX or UNIX system, something I’d grown
used to while taking C last semester. The DS course is
taught using Pascal, just because everybody knows it.
So I just figured I’d have my Stacy 4 up at school (I’m
renting a room in an apartment with a wide view across
Baltimore—wonderful) and I could dial into the
school’s machine and it would be no problem for me to
program while at school. But no—instead they decided
they’d rather use Think Pascal on the Mac. Swell.
Since I commute from work to school, I can’t sit
around playing in the Mac lab. So, I figured my Stacy
could still come to the rescue. I trekked to the Mac lab
yesterday and copied Think Pascal onto some old ICD
host adapter master disks, and brought them back. I
installed pascal on my Mega (using Spectre GCR), and
it works, and I will soon do so on my Stacy. So that’s a
handy solution to a problem. Now I just have to hand in
disks, written right on my Stacy, for my homework.
Thanks, Dave Small. That’s really great.
As far as lugging my Stacy around, it’s doable. I
don’t really mind it, other than just being worried about
its value. Please don’t mug me.
Desktop Publishing
For those of you who haven’t learned about my
fiendish addiction to desktop publishing, you soon will.
I have long been fascinated—nay aroused— by com¬
puter generated type. Back in 1983 I was playing with
Fancy Font for CP/M. It was great! It was one of the
first DTP packages of any kind ever! I could print in all
these strange fonts, at roughly 144 DPI, on an Epson
MX80. I then began using XLent Software’s Typesetter
on the eight bit to get pretty printed results (although
Fancy Font was still better). I started using Publishing
Partner on the ST at the earliest opportunity, and my
fascination with DTP has only mushroomed since.
I, along with a friend of mine, started a business
called Porcupine Publishing (good complement to
Toad Computers? send feedback. Our motto is “We
Get Your Point Across.”) We figured that since Toad
Computers had all of this equipment just sitting around
most of the time, we’d utilize the laser printer, the
T-16’ed Mega 4, and the Toadfile 44 setup to do
professional DTP work. Good plan.
So far, we’ve done maybe ten jobs. Primarily,
we’ve used PageStream combined with Ultrascript to
produce very nice printed output. Then, after we’re
satisfied with the results from the SLM804 laser, I can
take the Postscript file (necessary to print with Ultra¬
script anyway) and upload it to a service bureau with
an L300 Linotronic Imagesetter. That’s way cooL I can
then have my copy (or my client’s copy) printed at
1270 DPI for about $8 per page—impossible for me to
distinguish from typeset quality.
While I have used Calamus for some of my own
advertising, and I helped my mother do a 44-page
publication with it, I haven’t used it much until just
recently. I simply am not super-thrilled with the fonts
that come with Calamus. And when I’ve got really
beautiful postscript fonts seducing me away, why
should I use the public-domainesque Calamus fonts?
So, I just recently ordered the ITC Garamond Com-
pugraphic font for Calamus ; and let me say it does
make a difference. Since Ca/amus prints much faster
and can, for many things, be more powerful than
PageStream , having the ITC Garamond font makes it a
Page 58
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
much more attractive alternative than it was. I have ITC
Garamond for U/trascript, and you can't tell it from the
Calamus version. That makes me very happy. Now I
can choose objectively between the best of both
worlds, basing my decision on the features of the
programs rather than on the beauty of the lettering.
I have been using Touch-Up along with the
Migraph Hand Scanner to scan and edit images. I’ve
discovered Adobe Illustrator is very handy for convert¬
ing scanned images into Encapsulated PostScript
(EPS). For example, I’ve got a little toad logo that a
friend drew. She drew him with a felt tip pen, about
three inches tall and an inch wide. I scanned him in,
and for a long time have just used that scan whenever I
need him, admittedly very handy. Well, when I became
more proficient with Adobe Illustrator on the Mac
(again using Spectre GCR), I converted my nice IMG
format file into a MacPaint file and proceeded to use
Illustrator to create a postscript's! ersion of my logo!
How does this work, you might ask. Well, when
you load a bit mapped image (like a MacPaint file) into
Adobe Illustrator it treats that as a template to work on.
You then use tracing and drawing tools to create
curves which best approximate your template. Fre¬
quently you can just tell Illustrator to automatically
trace your template, and it will come up with a set of
connected bezier curves which define your bit mapped
image quite well. What’s the advantage to this, you
might ask?
Well, bezier curves define a curve—not a set of
dots as IMG files do. A curve will look the same at any
size—that is to say it will be smooth. Dots, as you see
when you enlarge an IMG file, look BIG up close. And
there’s no filling in between them. They’re just big
mean ugly jaggy dots. So, now I can take my toad logo
and enlarge him to any printable size and he will be
completely smooth—as smooth as my output device
can print. That’s real handy.
Frequently, artwork that I’m given for things is not
the right size, or needs significant work. Adobe Illustra¬
tors just the tool for that. If you are into DTP, and have
been looking for a reason to get a Spectre GCR,
Illustrator is a big one. Another good Mac program is
TypeStyler. It’s made by Broderbund, and it’s sort of
like Print Shop squared. You can do quite a lot with
lettering using TypeSty/er. Complicated fill patterns,
curves for text to follow, circular text, and strange
shapes are all great reasons to check out TypeStyler.
It, too, outputs EPS files.
When using EPS files, I must print them out using
the PageStream-U/trascript team, rather than with
Calamus , because Calamus just doesn’t recognize EPS
files. But that’s life. I can, though, print out my graphics
at 1,270 DPI if I choose, also. That’s nice and handy.
We’re also making use of Calamus Outline Art now
and again, to make complicated shapes. That’s really
the nice thing about DTP on the ST—the ability to use
several different programs together, including Mac and
IBM programs, to obtain a result. I’ll keep you posted
on how our DTP venture goes. If any of you are good
at DTP and have the equipment already, starting a
business like ours making flyers and related items
could be a nice way to bring in a few extra dollars.
Give it some thought. We’re charging $30 per hour for
layout and design, although I coined the “pain to cost
ratio system” for when we dawdle due to ignorance.
This keeps things fair.
Databases
The need for a database management program
quickly became apparent to me as the number of
names which I needed to have organized mush¬
roomed. Starting a small business, in the beginning, we
kept a mailing list, sure. Napkins, ASCII files on my
130XE, and Word Writer\\\as on the ST all helped a lot.
I decided last year that it was about time that Toad
Computers start sending out a mailing now and again,
to keep our customers informed of current specials,
and our latest exploits and such. So, I began to look for
a database program. I knew of Data Manager ST,
Superbase Professional, Tracker ST, DB-MAN, H&D
Base, and a couple of others. Let me describe the
problem, and tell you why thus far DB-MAAI has been
the only program to solve it for me.
I had a bunch of names in ASCII files from different
places. They needed to be comma delimited, first, so I
could distinguish between the various fields and import
the file into a database at all. That was done through
voodoo-love techniques. First, I looked at Tracker-ST.
It is a nice program, written by Nevin Shalit, which is
basically a mailing list maintainance program. I’m
thinking “perfect!” Well, it’s written in the Superbase
Professional runtime package. So, right away I know
it’s going to be similar to Superbase. Looking at
Tracker I noticed that the big drawback for me would
be that it doesn’t have redefinable fields—he sets up
about 20 which he considers to be relatively generic
and for a stock mailing list it would be OK. Well, I really
wanted to have more control over my data—muddy
hands in the middle of it control.
So I moved on to Superbase Professional. It was
OK. I was able to import many, many names into it,
and I produced an 11,000 piece mailing with it. The
only problem was that I had about 10 different data¬
bases of names which really needed to be combined
into one, so I could sort all the names by zipcode and
thus eliminate 99% of the hand sorting necessary for a
bulk mailing. I did, in fact, do all of the sorting by hand
in the end. And after that, I swore to never do it again.
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 59
Now I have about 60,000 nice Atari specific
names, with about 40,000 more on the way. I needed
to have this problem solved. Because Superbase Pro
is a port from the IBM, it can be very unintuitive and
hard to use. The manual is incomplete at best. When
it came time to combine all these databases, due to
memory and time constraints, it just wasn’t possible
using Superbase —even after I wrote some C pro¬
grams to help it along. Boy, was I stumped.
I ordered for myself the next day DB-MAN. I, for
one reason or another, had acquired a beginners
knowledge of DBASE III & IV, and felt I could stumble
my way through DB-MAN. And I figured I had nothing
to lose at this point. After I got it, within three hours, I
had established a complete database of 50,000
names, and was entering and editing the file like
crazy. This was wonderful. Of course, my DB-MAN
DBF file seems to be taking up about 17 megabytes
of my disk. That’s insanely huge. It works, though.
DB-MAN is, in its straight form, completely key¬
board driven. You can use a mouse with it, but it
really isn’t necessary for most things. It’s completely
programmable, and is really quite good. Entering
names with it is smooth and easy, as where with
Superbase it was constantly requiring extraneous
mouse inputs during data entry. I like DB-MAN. It’s
not pretty, but I’m tired of pretty—I want functional.
WAACEted
I have been doing a lot of preparing for the
WAACE show, and I’m real tired. I wrote a piece for
the show program—look for it. I also made up a nice
1270 DPI ad for the program—see what I mean about
the quality of that L300. I’m not going to answer any
questions this time, because I don’t really have any I
can answer and I’ve written more than usual anyway.
What I think I might do next time is print the ones that
I can’t answer in hopes that someone can. That might
be really valuable. If anyone has any questions about
the material I presented in this column, just reach me
in whichever way is easiest for you. This is stuff which
I actually know quite a lot about, and I’d love to
discuss any of the topics in more depth. Remember,
if your question is used, you get a free CN PD disk!
• Phone: (301) 544-6943 FAX: (301) 544-1 FAX
• MAIL: David Troy, 556 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd.,
• Severna Park, MD 21146
• GENIE: Toad-Serv.
• CompuServe: 72470,1605
• Internet: dtrojh@jhunix.hcf.jhu.edu
By the way, I got mail from people telling me that
my Internet address was really an Internet address,
and not a Bitnet address, as I had been saying
before. Error noted and corrected. Thanks for reading.
- * .“
Atari ST Hard Drives
44Mb Removables
Complete ST Ready (1 -Cartridge) $729
44Mb Removables
and Fixed Hard Drives
30Mb 40ms
1009
30Mb 28rns
1039
49Mb 40ms
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49Mb 28rns
1079
60Mb 24ms
1119
84Mb 24rns
1149
85Mb 28ms
1109
105MB 19ms
1349
Shoebox case, includes 1 cartridge and
ICD AdSCSI Plus Host Adaptor (with clock)
-$10 for ICD AdSCSI Host Adaptor (no clock)
-$30 for Supra Rev 2.0 Host Adaptor (with clock)
ICD Monitor Style
30Mb 40ms
$529
30Mb 28ms
$559
49Mb 40ms
559
49Mb 28ms
589
60Mb 24ms
649
84Mb 24ms
679
85Mb 28ms
639
105MB 19ms
879
100Mb 40ms
889
100Mb 28ms
949
120Mb 24ms
1039
168Mb 24ms
1089
210Mb 19ms
1499
SCSI Kit
259
Includes ICD AdSCSI + Host Adaptor (with clock)
-$10 for ICD AdSCSI Host Adaptor (no clock)
-$30 for Supra Rev 2.0 Host Adaptor (with clock)
Shoe Box Style
30Mb 40ms
$499
30Mb 28ms
$529
49Mb 40ms
549
49Mb 28ms
579
60Mb 24ms
639
84Mb 24ms
659
85Mb 28ms
609
105MB 19ms
859
100Mb 40ms
869
100Mb 28ms
909
120Mb 24ms
999
168Mb 24ms
1059
170Mb 28ms
999
210Mb 19ms
1499
SCSI Kit
259
Includes ICD AdSCSI + Host Adaptor (with clock)
-$10 for ICD AdSCSI Host Adaptor (no clock)
-$30 for Supra Rev 2.0 Host Adaptor (with clock)
MEGA ST Internal Kit
30Mb 40ms
$359
30Mb 28ms
$389
49Mb 40ms
399
49Mb 28ms
429
60Mb 24ms
469
84Mb 24ms
499
105MB 19ms
699
Includes ICD AdSCSI Micro Host Adaptor
All Hard Drives shipped with 20Mb+
PD/Shareware Software
::
+
(/)
LU
Q
<
DC
O
Q.
CD
Xtra RAM Upgrade (2.5Mb Max) $95.00
Z-RAM (2.5Mb Max.) 95.00
Z-RAM (4Mb Max.) 105.00
Z-RAM (For Mega ST 2’s) 115.00
AERCO (For 520ST or 1040ST) 125.00
2Mb DRAM Chips (80ns) 108.00
STe 2Mb SIMMS Upgrade Kit CALL
ST/ime Clock Chip 42.00
Forget-Me-Clock Cartridge 40.00
Atari ST TOS 1.4 Chip Set 89.00
Page 60
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
ATARI ST SOFTWARE/ HARDWARE
Order Line
(800)876-6040
US and Canada
111 1 11 M " 1 i m tpi i n 111111 1 nm »r »* ..
Joppa
Computer Products
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mrnrm
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Complete 44MB Removable Hard Drive $729.00
ICD AdSpeed ST Accelerator $239.00
2Mb Upgrades as LOW as $203.00
DVT Hard Drive Backup $109.00
Migraph Hand Scanner $345.00
r
1st Word Plus 58.00
Atari SF314
DS Drives 159.00
Atari STM1 Mouse40.00
Best ST Mouse 39.00
Calamus DTP 169.00
Calamus Font Ed 57.00
Calamus Outline 165.00
Codehead
Utilties 3.0
Cordless Mouse
DASH
Diamond Back II
Draw Art Pro
Drive Master
20.50
84.00
17.00
35.00
23.00
30.00
F-19 Stealth Fight 35.00
F-29 Retaliator 29.50
G+Plus 1.3 20.50
GFA Basic 3.5e 82.00
Develop Bk/Dk 24.00
G Shell 35.00
GEM Utility Pk 35.00
Mission Control 35.00
Harlekin 58.00
Heroes Quest 35.00
Hot Wire 2.3 23.00
Hot Wire Plus 35.00
Hoyles Bk Games 21.00
Hyper Chart 149.00
Hyper Draw 48.00
Hyper Paint 29.50
ICD Clean-Up ST 22.00
ICD Host Adaptors
AdSCSI Plus 94.00
AdSCSI 84.00
AdSCSI Micro 79.00
Image Cat
IMG SCAN
Indus Drives
GTSIOOx
GTS 100
Interlink ST 1.85
Kidgrid, Super
Kidpainter
Kidpublisher Pro
Laser C 2.0
Lattice C v5.0
Lookit & Popit
17.00
49.00
142.00
160.00
24.00
16.00
21.00
21.00
110.00
149.00
23.00
Loom
35.00
UltraScript
—*
Master 3S Drive
129.00
ST-1/SLM804
119.00
Master 3D Drive
149.00
UltraScript
MaxiFile 2.0
20.50
PS-22 Fonts
89.00
MegaFile
UIS #3
30 Hard Drive
430.00
Video Key
59.00
Monitor Master
30.00
VIDIST1.28
130.00
Mouse Master
25.00
Virus Killer
15.00
Multi Desk 2.0
18.00
Word Perfect
144.00
NeoDesk CLI
18.00
Word Writer ST
39.00
Pagestream
115.00
Word Up 3.0
58.00
Pagestream
Xenomorph
29.50
P/S Fonts
24.00
Microprose Bargains
PC Ditto (Softw)
64.00
3D Pool
13.50
Revolver
29.50
F-15 Strikeagle
10.00
Quick ST 2.1
14.00
Gunship
20.00
Quick Tools #1
18.00
Pirates
20.00
Leisure Larry 3
35.00
Pro Soccer
10.00
Midwinter
23.50
Red Storm Rising 20.00
MVG
29.00
RVF Honda
13.50
MultiDesk 1.8
18.00
Silent Service
10.00
||
Pro Copy 1.80
21.00
Stunt Track Racer13.50
Prospero C
89.00
Wierd Dreams
13.50
Prospero Fortran 89.00
Psygnosis Bargains
Prospero Pascal
89.00
BAAL *
13.50
|
Sim City
29.50
Ballistix
13.50
Scan Art #1
16.50
Barbarian
13.50
Space Rogue
29.50
Blood Money
20.00
ST Books
Capt. Fizz
13.50
Basic Training
8.50
Chrono Quest
17.00
GFA Qk Ref
5.00
Chrono Quest 2
17.00
LOGO Users Gde8.50
Menace
13.50
Presenting ST
8.50
Nevermind
13.50
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ST for Beginners 8.50
Obilterator
13.50
ST Cables
Stryx
13.50
6’ Disk Drive
15.00
Terrorpods
13.50
ST-2-1 BM Drive 15.00
All Bargains-Limited
ST-2-Magnavox 19.00
British Magazines
STalker/STeno
18.50
PC Leisure
5.50
Supercharger
425.00
PC Plus-Dk
8.00
Supra Host Adaptor
PC Productivty-Dkl 1.00
Rev 2.0 w/clock 75.00
PC Today-Dk
8.00
Their Finest Hour 35.00
STampede
Timework Publish74.00
with a Game
10.00
Tracker ST
48.00
ST Action-Dk
7.50
1
Turbo Hard Drive 30.00
ST Format-Dk
7.50
Turbo Jet
24.00
ST User-Dk
7.50
Tweety Board
25.00
ST World
4.75
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Once more I find myself sitting before my com¬
puter monitor struggling to peck out this column before
its submission is more than merely “fashionably late.”
My family and I have just returned from a week’s
vacation and I have been frantically trying to re-adjust
our schedules to accommodate the start of another
school year.
It is perhaps fitting then that the two programs I
want to tell you about are designed to aid in learning.
They, however, fill two quite different niches.
Testmaster 2.0.1
The first is called TestMaster 2.01 which was
written by William Shipley. If you recall from last time, I
mentioned that another brave soul was kind enough to
send a diskette with two of his shareware programs for
me to try out. Bill Shipley was that individual. I gave
TestMaster a go and I was immediately impressed.
Finally, I found a test generating program that didn’t
require a tutorial or advanced degree to use.
Mr. Shipley included well written documentation for
the use of TestMaster. However, the design of the
program is good enough that you may be able to use
the program without having to refer to the instructions
at all.
TestMaster features a graphically appealing menu
which allows you to create tests, join tests and take
tests. Screen prompts tell you precisely what you need
to do, each step of the way. The program lets you
choose from two test formats, multiple choice or
question/answer.
MAIN MENU ggggs
Create a test It
Join tests
Select a test
Review data
138 take a Multiple choice test
eXit program
With either test style, the computer keeps a run¬
ning tally of your score. Obviously, the value of one
test style over another may depend on how many
questions and answers you enter. The multiple choice
test selects other answers from the test data you
entered to display along with the correct response. You
could be presented with the same choices for each
question if your test size is sufficiently small. Also, you
won’t be as likely fooled by trick answers, since the
program randomly chooses answers from your test
base.
The appeal of TestMaster for me rests with its
intuitive design and flexibility of application. I could be
quite comfortable using the program as a learning aid
for any college level courses I may take. I can just as
easily use it to help my six year old learn to answer
simple math equations. My only criticism is that once
you started to take a test you can not abort until the
test to be administered is completed. This may not be
unlike real life though, since how many teachers would
let you leave the classroom during exam time, because
you decided you would rather bag the test?
Mr. Shipley resides in Severna Park, Maryland, a
stone’s throw from my grandfather’s beach cottage on
the Severn River. The cottage was the source of my
most pleasant memories of summer vacations, until it
was sold in the early Seventies. The author asked that I
submit his diskette to Current Notes for inclusion in the
software library. It is now CN #495. I want to thank him
for sending such a fine example of his work, and hope
he will consider sending other efforts.
Guitaristics
I hope you won’t mind the departure from the
world of shareware to tell you about a functioning
demonstration program entitled Guitaristics. Guitaristics
is a guitar tutorial program written by Chro-Magic
Software of Joplin MO. The two authors, Messrs.
Collins and LaGrange are struggling software develo¬
pers/musicians who have taken a big step to market
their product themselves. I have submitted this demo
as well to Current Notes, (see CN #496D. -JW)
Page 62
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
I stumbled across Guitaristics one evening while
searching for any programs related to the guitar. My
hope was to find programs which I could use as a
learning aid. You see, I have only been playing guitar
for over 20 years and I am still a frustrated novice.
Though I spent a pretty penny in on-line time, I
was rewarded with a demo which amply displayed the
best features of this commercial program. Enough of
the features are enabled to give you a good feel for the
program. However, enough of them are unavailable so
you are left wanting to spring for the $49.00 to buy the
program. You are reminded throughout the use of the
demo about how to order Guitaristics.
The program is designed to be used with either the
computer’s internal speaker or with a midi interface. I
am still a babe in the woods when it comes to
understanding anything related to midi. That small fact
did not deter me from buying a midi keyboard for use
with my ST. As a long time and frustrated guitar player,
I hoped that I could use the midi capability of the ST to
help me build some chops.
Guitaristics is designed to be the perfect computer
guitar teacher. I dare say using Guitaristics may be a
friendlier, and, in the long run cheaper, alternative to
taking individual instructions with a live and typically
crabby guitar virtuoso.
While I won’t go into too much depth to describe
the program, let me say that Guitaristics gives you
plenty of help and practice opportunities. You can
adjust the speed of play. You can listen to a scale over
and over, and practice accordingly. You can sound
arpeggiated chords, and I am told in the more recent
incarnation of the program, hear the full chord itself.
As a musician, have you ever yearned for new
chord voicings to give your playing that extra oomph?
Guitaristics will present you a screen full of chord
voicings to choose from. Each note is labled to show
you its function in the chord. The chord is shown in a
number of locations on the guitar to help you out in
many playing situations.
I was quite taken with the potential of the program.
The demo gave me a little taste, but I would need the
working version to really try the program out. The
authors told me they are working on an equivalent
program for the piano. I am excited about that possibi¬
lity as well.
While I bought a keyboard initially for its use as a
midi interface, I have become quite taken with the idea
of learning to play keyboard for its own sake. While my
playing would never rival the likes of Liberace, Billy
Joel or Bruce Hornsby, I have almost gotten “Mary
Had a Little Lamb” down cold. Who knows? Today—
“Mary Had a little Lamb,” tomorrow—“Chop Sticks.”
As always, if you have or know of a program you
would like to see receive deserved attention, send it to:
Brian Miller, 13848 Delaney Road, Woodbridge, Va.
22193.
Until next time, take care!
□ma
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October 1990
Current Notes
Page 63
A Yankee Abroad
Installment II
by Charles Warren
Atari in Saudi Arabia?
Saturday morning, the 25th of
August, a squadron of F-lllFs, led by
Col. Tom Lennon, 48th Tactical
Fighter Wing commander, flew from
RAF Lakenheath to Saudi Arabia in
support of operation Desert Shield.
Along with the fighters, the wing
deployed associated equipment and
people. They are part of the deterrent
force the United States and its allies are
building in the area. It was a long
weekend. Blame the United States Air
Force if this column is late. Inciden¬
tally, does anyone know of an Atari
dealer in Saudi Arabia?
Tommy and the TT
Now the computer-related news:
Tommy Software, the West German
firm responsible for MegaPaint //> have
boycotted the Atari Fair in Dusseldorf,
West Germany, the largest Atari show
in the world (over 40,000 people atten¬
ded last year). Citing the “incompre¬
hensible maneuvering with which Atari
has thoroughly unsettled the ST mar¬
ket,” Tommy complained that “theTT
computer, continuously heralded for
three years now, has still not
appeared.” The contradiction is that
production versions of the TT did
appear at the show. It was even repor¬
ted to be “available for delivery.” I’ll
believe it when 1 see it on the shelves.
The TT is fast. Its Motorola 68030
processorruns at 32 MHz instead of 16
MHz. The TT030 also sports a new
512K version of the OS, TOS 3.01. The
68881 maths coprocessor is too slow
for a 32 MHz machine, so the 68882 is
being touted instead. According to tests
by Atari Netherlands, ST software runs
five to seven times faster on the TT.
After optimization, the same software
runs 10 times faster.
In addition to the three ST graph¬
ics modes (low, medium, high) with a
palette of 4,096 colors, the TT supports
320 by 480 resolution with 256 colors,
640 by 480 with 16 colors and 1,280
by 960 in monochrome. The sound is
supported by the three-voice YM2149,
and the two-channel stereo DMA. In
the realm of interfaces, the TT is
provided with two serial (expandable to
four), parallel, cartridge, DMA, MIDI In,
MIDI Out, 25-pin SCSI, low speed
LAN, and VGA monitorports.
Atari has abandoned the System V
Release 3 version of Unix. It has
OLYMPIAN 50FTWAM
❖LYMI>U$
An epic quest for a
legendary treasure.
You will travel to over
600 graphically
detailed locations in
your search for the
Golden Fleece - only
its healing powers can
save the dying Prin¬
cess Eleni. You will
fight detailed,
animated monsters
such as Minotaurs and
the Medusa. Digitized
audio and real-time ar¬
cade sequences!
screen
f For Atari ST \
w/ Double sided j
kdrive. joystick/
Actual
Atari ST
shots
Suggested retail price
Check your nearest dealer or send [check/m.o.] $39.95 + $4.00 shipping:
OLYMNAN SOFTWAM
FOKS5T AV* • ALBANY. NY 1220$
Dealer inquiries: Paradise Bay Computer Services, 28 Normanside Dr.. Albany. NY 12208 • (518) 482-7149 ©Copyright 1990
Atari, Mega, and ST are registered trademarks of AtariCorp. Olympian Software
Page 64
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
decided to use the new industry stan¬
dard V.4 instead. This is being ported
to the ST by Unisoft in the UK. The
switch is for the better, but it does
mean a delay of at least six months.
The TT with two megabytes of RAM
(expandable to 24 MB),40 MB HD and
color monitor retails in the UK for
under $4,000.
ST Emulator
Medusa has launched an ST emu¬
lator for the Amiga. For approximately
$360, you get a tiny PCB to slot into
the A500 or 2000, emulation software,
and an ST utility disk. Run a utility
called ‘GETTOS’ which dumps the
Atari ROM to disk (can this be legal?),
and you have an ST which can address
a total of nine megabytes (an improve¬
ment of five MB over a real ST).
All three Atari resolutions can be
displayed on a standard Amiga monitor,
although mono mode does suffer from
flicker. The emulator will read and
write Atari format disks using Amiga
drives. Hard drive owners can set up an
Atari format partition.
The emulator runs at about 95%
the speed of a real ST, and the vast
majority of ST applications software-
- Calamus, Protext, and GFA BASIC
for example—run without a hitch.
However, don’t expect to play Chaos
Strikes Back Most ST games software
doesn’t work.
This is certain to add fuel to the
my-machine-is-better than-yours
debate. After all, the argument goes
(listening to Spectre GCR and PC Ditto
owners), it is only possibleto emulate a
machine using a machine that is signi¬
ficantly more powerful.
I tend to interpret this develop¬
ment positively. To me, an ST emulator
for the Amiga shows that someone has
supreme confidence in the future of
serious software on the ST. Besides,
isn’t emulation the sincerest form of
flattery?
An AT for the ST
Speaking of emulators, Silica Sys¬
tems is shipping the ATonce 80286 PC
emulator for the ST. The current ver¬
sion 1.14 offers full ‘protected mode’
and supports the new 1.44 MB drives.
Protected mode means that it will be
able to run software such as Windows
Jj \ and other 286-specific software.
ATonce supports CGA, Hercules, Oli¬
vetti, and Toshiba T3100 video emula¬
tion. It also talks to the printer, serial
and mouse ports. It retails for approxi¬
mately $400.
AT Speed (the 286 heir to PC
Speed) has been upgraded to include
protected mode operation, and one
other interesting feature: it can also be
run as a background task. Rename the
program to .ACC from .PRG and AT
Speed can be accessed as a desktop
accessory. However, this can only be
achieved if the ST has over 1 MB of
free RAM. AT Speed can be bought for
$480.
Miu tuoah. Mac. and HyperCard are trademark* of Apple Computer, Inc. • Magic Sac and Tranalaior One are trademark* of DaU Pacific, Inc. • Adobe Dlu*traior u a trademark of Adobe Syaiem*. Inc. • PageMaker i* a trademark of Aldu*
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 65
ATonce and AT Speed both claim
Norton Cl ratings of 6.7.
MIDI for the STE
MPH are set to release TCB
Tracker, a 4-channel music synthesizer,
drum machine, and mixing studio that
allows you to play back four different
samples all at the same time in stereo
(STE only) without special hardware. It
will automatically make use of any
extra memory, disk drives and MIDI
equipment.
TCB Tracker uses special techni¬
ques to replay all four channels simul¬
taneously at lOKhz. It uses a maximum
of 28% processor time on a standard
ST, or 5% processor time on the STE.
Code is included on the disk to allow
inclusion in a GFA Basic program. By
the way, TCB Tracker was program¬
med by that talented demo crew, The
Care Bears.
Interestingly, Quartet 2 will soon
be shipping (the second incarnation of a
program that does much the same thing
as TCB Tracke/). The program now
boasts STE support and stereo output.
A $60 adaptor can be attached to
standard STs for stereo output.
Pagestream or Proxima?
A company in Britain named Net¬
work News Services (NNS) has been
selling copies of PagcStream as Pro~
xj/na They have been bad-mouthing
Ca/arnus'm their advertisements, calling
it suitable only for amateurs. NNS
claims a verbal agreement with Soft-
logik, but Soft-logik denies any know¬
ledge of the deal. NNS supposedly fixed
the “bugs” that apparently plague
PageStream (ST Format magazine
recently gave Prox/watho highest rat¬
ing that it has ever given a DTP
package, so perhaps some of the claims
are true).
Announcements
CPA Bas/chas been been tweaked
yet again. Below is a list of what has
been added in revision 3.5EE (the EE
stands for stE and English).
Back in Dusseldorf, Atari Germany
launched a budget laser printer, the
SLM605, and demonstrated Atari-Net,
Ethernet networking for the Mega ST
range.
How about a little deja vu? If I
told you about a computer company
who announced a cheap CD ROM
player, who promised to ship it “any
day now,” what firm would you be
remindedof?
If you guessed Commodore, you
would be right. Commodore's CDTV
project was launched in February 1990.
Reporting directly to the president of
Commodore,a secret team of 26 came
up with a product that combines TV
graphics, text, animation and expanded
audio capabilities in a CD player.
The product is expected to be in
the shops in November, with 50 of 94
titles published by December. I remem-
PDC
The best PD/shareware!
800 / 255-8220
USA & Canada/Orders only - 24 hrs
Public Domain Software ^
Disks below were only $3.99
now just $2.99!.
(DESKTOP PUBLISHING
2/3
Calamus fonts
6/7
Calamus utilities
852
More IMG Mac clip art & viewer
NEW!
827
PageStream font editor & 4 fonts NEW!
EDUCATIONAL
819
Basic Math Skills
NEW!
820
Algebra I/Verbal-Linear Probs
NEW!
67
Geography Tutor
64
Human Anatomy Tutor (C)
68
States & Capitols Tutor (C)
games
77
AP Baseball 2.00d
132
Cops/Robbers shooting gallery (1C)
138
Grand Prix 2.1 car racing (C)
NEW!
860
Go Up-Lode Runner clone (M)
NEW!
853
Hero II Gauntlet clone (CDJ)
NEW!
142
HRS: Adult graphic adventure (1CD)
143
Love's Fiery Rapture adventure
859
Mystic Mirror-2 plyr DM clone (C) NEW!
139
Nude shoot 'em up (1C)
133
Nude strategy games (C)
147
PileUp 3.0 Tetris clone (C)
NEW!
124
Risk/Tetris clones (M)
150
SA Baseball 5 0A
155
Strip Breakout (C)
GRAPHICS
828
Fantasia STe grafix demo (CD)
NEW!
364/367 Spectrum Nude pictures (C)
PROGRAMMING
407
MJ C Compiler 2.1
442
Sozobon C Compiler 1.2
SCENARIOS/PROGRAM DATA
830
Over 675 DC Descktop icons
NEW!
844
SimCity/Populous cheats/help
NEW!
452/453 Bloodwych Hints/Maps
454/455 Chaos Strikes Back Hints/Maps
-V Fast shipping
Jir Virus-free disks
Jir No min. phone order
software demo?
495
Bloodwych Playable Demo (C)
496
Calamus 1 09 demo (1 DM)
499
Calamus Outline demo (M)
829
Fred action game great 1 (CJ)
NEW!
809
MidiMax/Lookit/Popit demos
NEW!
521
PageStream 1 8 demo (D)
544
Space Ace demo (CD)
548
STOS Game Creator demo (C)
551
Wordflair demo 1.01 (ID)
UTILITIES
839
2 40K word spelling checkers
NEW!
815
4 packers;squish programs/run
NEW!
796
Icondesk, Desktop icons like NeoDesk
842
Atari PORTFOLIO utilities
NEW!
625
B/STAT 2 36 statistics (ID)
626
Blitz Copier 2.5;make your own
NEW!
803
Cheetah super fast file copier
804
Dcopy 3 6/LG file selector 1.7
NEW!
638
Gemini - NeoDesk clone (TOS1.2.D)
826
Hotwire 2.3 demo & utilities
NEW!
797
IMG picture viewers/utilities
788
Mono 3.0/Moniterm monitor emulators
787
NFL Analyst 2.5/food nutr dbase NEW!
825
NiteLite BBS - Excellent BBS
NEW!
84 1
Paperless Accountant & Payroll
NEW!
673
ST Writer Elite 3.8 w/ Spell 2.8
801
TOS 1 4 utilities/Desk Manager 3.3
793
Turtle 3 0 HD Backup/Unturtle
805
VanTerm 3.8 Flash-like terminal
467/468 100’s of NeoDesk icons/utilities
669/670 Sheet 3.2p spreadsheet w/ docs
Spectre 128/GCR
Si 3 Black Wizard action/adventure
S3/4/5 HyperCard Stacks
S6/7/8/9 Macintosh Fonts
Si 5 Modem utilities
NeoDesk 3
$49.95!.
Includes 2 PD disks packed with
100's of icons, recoverable trash
can. and much much more!
V___y
I All this $3.99!*
Choose one disk
Get Disk Catalog
Free Super Sen/ice
Free Disk Coupon
Add $2 99 each for
additional disks
$11.98 Value!
| All this $29.90!*
I Choose 10 disks
Free Disk Catalog
Free Super Service
Free Disk Coupon
10 disk labels
Add $2 99 each for
I additional disks
' $48.28 value!
^ Legend: 1 = 1 megabyte. C = color or M = mono monitor. D = double sided disk. J = Joystick ^ I
PDC, Dept. CN, 4320 • 196th SW Suite 140, Lynnwood, WA 98036-6721 / (206) 745-5980
e r AX/Modem
only $"| 29 s5
Low Price good thru 10/30/90
Regular Retail SI99.95
☆ 2400 baud modem
☆ Send FAXes!*
☆ Free shipping
(AK/H I/Canada add $5)
☆ 4 Free PD modem disks
☆ Over $275 in savings on
GEnie, CompuServe, more!
* Sending Faxes requires the Spectre
128/GCR cartridge or an IBM emulator
(tested on pc-ditto). If you don’t have one,
buy the modem so you’ll have the
capability of sending faxes if you get
Spectre/IBM emulation! Use it right out of
the box as a modem for your ST! Includes
2 ST PD modem disks and 2 Spectre PD
modem disks! RS-232 cable - $9.95.
Modem does not receive faxes. Follow
ordering instructions below (i.e. add tax).
No credit card surcharge, cards not charged until orders ready to ship 'Prices don’t include shipping $3 per order (Canada $3.50, Foreign $8 per 10 disks;
both sent Airmail): 2nd Day Air $5 (US only;AK/HI add $3); COD’S add $4 50 (Domestic US only). NeoDesk 3 shipping: $3 in USA (Canada $6, Foreign call)
WA residents add 8 1% on total (me. shipping). Allow 2 weeks for checks to clear: make checks payable, in US funds, to PDC Mention Big/Best Deals
when ordering Prices and disk contents subject to change without notice
Page 66
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
Total Recall the Schwarzenegger
movie, is getting the games treatment
and should be available in October,
from Ocean. Microprose promises the
imminent release of Betrayal, “a board
game without the board,” in which four
players can play simultaneously. Also
slated are Universal Military Simulator
11 and Starlord Mirrorsoft is bringing
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to your
computer screen this Christmas.
Electronic Arts is hoping to repeat
the success of Populous with Power-
Monger (Populous II), to be released
sometime in September. Electronic Arts
will also shortly ship Centurion:Defen¬
der of Roma “a more playable version”
of Cinema ware’s Defender of the
Crown.
Mindscape is racing for pole-posi¬
tion with a stock-car simulation based
on the new Tom Cruise movie, Days of
Thunder Core Design has just released
a SF RPG named Corporation but with
a twist. Send your copy of the game
back to Core with a photo and some
personal details, and they will incor¬
porate you into the game. Your face
appears on the ID card in the corner of
the screen, and even the height at
which you view the game is set to
match your height.
Infogrames will soon launch the
successor to Tetris, Welltris This time
the viewpoint is from above, as if
looking down a well. Tiles fall down
the sides and you position them as in
Tetris. Yawn.
ber when Atari used to be able to work
as fast (Atari engineers brought up the
ST prototype in six months). What ever
happened to Atari’s CD ROM player (a
few models in the hands of developers
do NOT count), the CDAR504?
In the ‘Coming Soon’ department,
Signa Publishing promises Arabesque, a
super-sophisticated mono graphics
package combining bitmap images with
vector graphics. By the end of Septem¬
ber, Kuma should begin delivery of
Adimens3, a relational database that is
described as a “cult hit” in Germany.
Both Vortex and Sack are working on
80386 versions of their PC emulators.
AT Speed ‘386 should arrive first, and
it won’t cost much more than the ‘286
version. Rombo’s color digitizer
upgrade, VidiChrome-ST, is set to
arrive in September.
Games and More Games
And now a few paragraphs for the
dedicated gamers.
Lucasfilm Games have planned a
“fourth quarter” release for The Secret
of Monkey Island, a swash-buckling
adventure in the style of Zak MacK-
raken.
Next month I’ll have full details of
the European Computer Entertainment
Show, and more news from the Atari
Fair in Dusseldorf.
Happy Atari computing until then!
Handle files Anywhere, Anytime with Universal Item Selector
NEW W-I-D E MODE can display up to 36 files,_
$24 95
Set up your
Item selector
defaults by
c lick tog on
^Universal”.
Set up your
own custom
path memory
files. (Click on
Directory)
Shows actual
selected ftle(s)
STORAGE
SIZE,
I
Determine file size, group
size, disk capacity, partition
size, unused space, etc.
Format in either drive A ar drive B.
(Twister Format enabled or TOS
1.02 or higher)
i
Iniversal™ Iten Selector III
irectory!
\PUBLISH\SOFTWflRE\#,*_.
59392
1 Folder!
DOC STY DIF PI3 D0£
flUTHOI
Tff
fl.’DINVOC.DTP
H:DLETTR.DTP
Shift-Click or
Rubber band
group file
selection.
Print or show
to screen
ASCII or word
file.
Program is only 29K
NOW SHOW 12 & 36 I
FILES AT ONCE.
06-12-89 03:49 pn
06-12-89 03:49 pn
09-24-89 12:42 pn
09-24-89 12:43 pn
09-24-89 12:41 pn
Selection:
UI JIHAD, DTP|
f~ OK 1 IFndK
I Cancel 1 ^
Create a
folder
anywhere,
anytime.
Create and
save File
extensions to
your own
taste.
Find any
file(s) on
any drive.
Move Files
or folders
anywhere,
anytime.
Set File Attributes:
(Write Protect, Hide,
file dating.)
! Delete files or
FOLDERS
anytime.
Displays ALL
drives active
in sydem.
Application and Design Software
120 NW “E” Street. Grants Pass, OR 97526
Order desk open 10AM to 5PM Pacific Time
Visa or Mastercard Orders: (503) 476-0071 oi FAX (503) 479-1825
III
Upgrade Notice: Send original
UfS.il program disk with $5 plus
$2 Postage and Handling, to
address shown below.
UatverMl~ lu» Selector I
HOI HKD DID 1 1IN~»USI OTP
- - - -W Selection.
wTjiI 1*1
ai.ert.l- 111 Geriyt] ffiTiTI
itrectera: DOC Sir DID Dll OOC •
F:\atMi tS«\SOMuDM\o.«-
•t ~l’i Selection:
JS“Jsuin H
CDtHIIOC.DID |—=—I (F.i,
• : Dll III DID I—2—I KJHI
MCI M0 DID IK^m'ieil
rennet up i ca yt iJ ,; jt|
uvcrt«r Sten Selector III
>11 Coeur I,hi i. ISIS »•
nliietinn 1 Oesien SetlMic
no
IC.nct11 * I T
::: :: •' c ° w i;'
::::::::: v £*** To;
: * 1/ t»!n* •
( Rename files
or folders
anywhere,
anytime.
clutter. Show or
Other features: Use
not show hidden files.
Select Paths with function ---
screen. Scrolls and sorts faster than U1S.II. Comes with new user manual ar.d quickcard for Version 3.0
changes. You never have to use the desktop to manipulate files again. You never hesitate to manipulate files,
because you can do it anywhere, anytime. Use in all resolutions (Low, Medium, H.gh). UIS.I11 is only 29K long,
and doesn’t waste memory. FREE RAM disk and print spooler program included v\ ,th orders.
Configure lo
your taste.
Choose 12 file
narrow or wide
display, or new
36 file wide
mode. Self con¬
tained modifi¬
cation program
makes UlS III
even easier to
customize.
Here’s what others say:
“There are always some utilities 1
always have booted up, including
Universal Item Selector, (1 prefer
the extra features it offers even
over our own START Selector).”
Andrew Reese,
Editor START
“We found the Universal Item
Selector to be extremely useful,
and we gave it our highest recom¬
mendation.”
Paul Freeman, Pres
Baltimore Atari Computer
Entusiasts
“Your UIS.II has been a fantastic
time saving program without eat¬
ing a lot of memory. . .”
Tom Haycraft
Galveston, TX
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 67
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
DRAKKHEN
To ^,rms! In a Magical Land
/ \ Reviewed by Joe Sapienza
Harken ye to me! Pay thy strict Intent to the script laid
doum upon this parchment! Magician. Scout, Warrior, and
Priest, duties towards thy world are at hand for the prophesy has
come to pass and ... [pause] ... [sudden realization!] ...
[embarrassed pause] ... oops, forgot that I was in the
here and now, and not in the lands of Drakkhen! I’ve
been so involved in this game that it’s difficult to
disengage myself from the land of the Drakks. Follow
me and my band of adventurers, and I’ll take you on a
journey to a magical land that has been brought to us
by the European company, Infogrames.
History. The empire has grown and prospered for
ages, thanks to Magic. Priests of the One and the
Magicians had, for years, helped grow and maintain
crops, propel and guide the navies and build the cities
of the land. In times of need their powers were used to
repel enemies and heal the sick and injured. A
civilization so dependent on this Magic that it figura¬
tively and literally fell when that power wholly and
completely failed. The Emperor, while striving to
maintain order, bid the Priests and Magicians to
investigate the reason for this failure. After a thorough
search, an ancient prophesy was uncovered which
detailed the end of human kind and their magic on the
earth when the LAST dragon in the land was killed.
Unwilling to believe that such an event had
occurred, they searched on until an outland warrior
arrived at port and announced this very deed! The fact
that he was duly tried for the heinous act, and
executed, changed nothing, and the realization that the
end was indeed coming stirred the Emperor and magic
users to look to any quarter for help. Thus it was that a
badly damaged ship sailed into port with a bedraggled
crew and ship’s Magician. This Magician gained direct
audience with the Emperor and his high council who
then unfolded a fantastic tale of a new Island of
Dragons that had appeared which would soon grow
and encompass the land. Convinced that unraveling
the mystery of this island was the only hope, the
Emperor assembled four of his most valued subjects
and, armed with all the knowledge brought back by the
ship, sent them on the quest to save mankind.
Don’t Just Stand There, Do Something! To
begin playing Drakkhen, you must first create the
characters with which you will roam the dragon island.
A separate program is provided for this task. First, you
determine the sex of the character you wish to create.
Next, you choose from the cast of Priest, Fighter,
Scout, and Magician; the program rightly changes the
titles to Priestess and Amazon for female characters.
Eleven spaces are provided to bequeath your cham¬
pion with a name and, if desired, a title.
Your final task is assigning numerical values to five
traits: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence,
and Education. Appropriately, the value for Luck is
beyond your control. A D&D type set of dice randomly
generates your numbers. The manual that accom¬
panies the game gives you hints as to where to assign
your higher numbers, dependent on cast. Completing
the above for each of your four characters then
generates a character/game save disk to use for the
remainder of the game. I created my heroes to match
those I used in Dungeon MasteA
The Quest Begins. Your color screen is divided
into five areas that allow you to see and interact with
the Drakkhen world. The following is a rundown of the
five zones and their function.
1) Character State: Shows a visual, frontal view of
all four characters as well as their hit point, protection,
and spell-unit levels. You can check what each
character is carrying, add or subtract weapons and
clothing, and activate or deactivate magical devices
and potions. The Bottomless Pit, where you dispose of
articles no longer necessary, and the interface with the
weaponssmith are also accessed here.
2) Action Window: Allows you visual access to the
Drakkhen world. Movement of your party is performed
in either individual or group mode. The former allows
you to see and maneuver each character individually
and is used in situations such as fighting, visiting
houses, tents, and igloos, and traversing the Dragon
castles. Control of your characters is by mouse ‘point
and click.’ The latter is brought into play when traveling
the lands, and while in group mode, movement is
controlled by the four cursor keys.
3) Weapon and Spell Display: Indicates for each
character whether he has a weapon ready (or not), or a
spell. As your magic users gain levels, they will acquire
more spells. The arcane symbols that make up the
spell are displayed. You have the option of scrolling
through the spells available in this window, or you can
use keyboard equivalents.
4) Dialog Zone: Any dialog between the various
dragons, priests, and inhabitants of the island and your
Page 68
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
CN Review
Atari ST/Mega
party is displayed in this zone. Also, any feedback
resulting from operating or inspecting your environ¬
ment will be displayed here.
5) Command Zone: Eight commands are available
for your chosen party member: Inspect, Exit, Take,
Combat (group attack), Activate, Greet, Question, and
Impress. These are fairly self explanatory. Various other
control and command items are explained in the
manual. Game load/save is performed from this zone.
The More the Merrier? Since the premise of the
story is the annihilation of mankind, one would expect
to encounter a wide variety of beasts and assailants.
You won’t be disappointed! More than 35 various
opponents live in this world, with various methods of
movement and attack. These monsters include Giant
Spiders and Scorpions, Serpents and Snakes, Rock
Monsters, Bats and Crows, Fire and Water Elementals,
several varieties of Drak soldiers, Minotaurs, and Blobs.
There is little room to name them all, so I’ll leave you to
discover the rest. While obviously deadly, combat with
these creatures provides your characters with
experience points. When monsters are destroyed, they
can leave jade coins, various articles of clothing,
armour, weaponry, and magical items to the character
who deals the killing blow.
Four on the Floor. The Drakkhen island is
divided into four separate regions (the Ice Lands, the
Marshes, the Countryland, and the Desert). These
regions are ruled by certain Dragon Lords. Part of the
mystery and game play is determining who rules
where. Different creatures, both friend and foe, as well
as dwellings to visit, are inherent to these four
quadrants. Throughout your travels your champions will
traverse well-marked roads, which is essential to
romping through the island. Some important informa¬
tion can only be gathered on these paths, while other
tidbits must be searched for off in the countrysides.
Magical transporters can be found that will whisk your
group to other parts of the island in an instant!
Mixing Business with Religion. There are, for
those of true faith, holy temples to be found among the
regions. Hit points can be regained, and poisons can
be cured at the temples—provided your crew has
enough jade to pay for the priest’s services. Given
enough treasure, these priests even have the power to
restore life! The amount of jade required for each of
these deeds is considerable; one must decide whether
to rely on your own priestly or magical abilities, or
reload a saved game before requesting such succor.
Also in one of the quadrants, a weaponsmith can be
found. Greater armour, weapons, and various items of
earthly and magical implementation can be bought and
sold to help your band along. Be sharp! One who does
not haggle may pay a higher price!
October 27, 1990
University of Massachusetts Boston
Harbor Campus Boston, MA 02125
Show Hours: 9:00AM - 4:00PM
AtariFest ’90 Hotline: (617) 527-4952
Additional Info:
New England Atari FesL ’90, C/O The Boston Computer Society,
One Center Plaza. Boston. MA 02108
Attendee Info
Admission $5
Under 12 Freew/Adult
Admission Includes:
Show Admission
Seminars
Door Prizes
Presented By:
OThe
O Boston
□ Computer
O Society
THE ELECTRONIC CLINIC
* ATARI 8-BIT Software-
Many Titles in Stock
BEST Prices in Town.
* BUY, SELL, TRADE Used ATARI
Hardware and Peripherals.
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We also sell PC-Compatibles.
Prices start at $500
* AUTHORIZED Service on All ATARI
Products.
Also other computer products.
Since 1969
4916 Del-Ray Ave.
Bethesda, MD 20814
(301) 656-7983
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 69
Atari ST/Mega
CN Review
Reflections in the Magic
Mirror. As you might expect from
the introduction to this review, I
loved this game. It has kept me
deeply involved to the point of
forsaking a lot else! Considering the
fact that I created my Drakkhen
characters to match my Dungeon
Master ones, one might be led to
believe that the two games are
similar. Yes and No. The many
differences are matched by the
similarities, providing a new game
that is easy to get hooked on. Each
has up to four champions, male/
female options, and various casts to
choose from. Unlike Dungeon Mas¬
ter, once a cast is picked for a
character, she or he cannot cros¬
strain to other abilities. They do,
however, increase their “profes¬
sion’s” levels/skills. Your party does
not sleep, nor need you concern
yourself with their dietary needs.
The passing of time can be noted
with the rising and setting of the
sun.
Being able to see each indivi¬
dual character move and interact
within the Drakk world is very
entertaining! Certain Magic spells
can visibly be seen leaving the
caster's hands to travel to your
chosen destination. During the
fighting sequences, both the good
and bad guys bleed—depending
on who has the upper hand! The
sprite animation and attention to
detail add to the realism; quite
often I found my body weaving with
the scenery, and my head ducking
some creature attacks!
The only thing I did not like
about this game was the very
cryptic clues that had to be deci¬
phered. Many red herrings and
frequent vague leads resulted in
frustration. Just before I (finally)
completed the game, I realized I’d
been doing some things the hard
way. One clue, which really ham¬
pered my ending the game, I never
found (I read about it in the Amiga
section on GEnie). And speaking of
the end, the final sequences are not
anything to write home about, but I
was happy to get there.
The Final Proclamation. I
give this game “two thumbs up!”
Judging from a few of the mes¬
sages I’ve read on GEnie, some
would not. Then again, I’ve hit a few
who didn’t care for Dungeon Master
either. The main complaint seems
to be the difficulty level at which the
game starts. True, it is easy to have
individual characters, or your whole
group decimated very quickly, but I
enjoyed the challenge. Save often
and learn where safe areas are for
your party to rest. As with any
program, if you have the ability to
try this game out before you buy it,
then do so. Otherwise, if you enjoy
games of this gender, add this
jewel to your collection.
[Sideline Software, 840 At. 141
5th Court, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309;
1-800-888-9273; $35.00]
STalker and STeno
an unbeatable accessory combination at an unbelievable price: $30 for both!
STalker is a complete terminal emulator that does everything in the
background. STeno is a text editor that uses as little as 90K of memory.
Both programs utilize the GEM clipboard to exchange data, allowing you to
cut and paste between them, and both programs are Moniterm compatible!
STalker feat urcs: fast popup menu or convenient ALT-keys for command entry
♦ background file transfers ♦ background dialing of any group of numbers ♦
separate terminal/RS232/auto-logon settings for each dialer entry ♦ scroll-back
buffer of up to 2000 lines ♦ 20 programmablefunction keys ♦ VT100 & Atari
VT52 emulation ♦ can optionally be used with Shadow 11 * 1 ♦ capture directly to
STeno ♦ M®w "Remote Access" (BBS)mode ♦ Easy to use-ideal for new users!
"A GREAT, Full Featured Terminal Program" - ST Report #112
j
I
STeno features: command entry via ALT-keys or the unique menu bar inside
the accessory window* configurable word-wrap ♦ search and replace ♦ background
printing ♦ variable tabs ♦ choice of font sizes ♦ Mac-like cut/copy/paste and text
block selection using the mouse ♦ hot-key to/from STalker ♦ fast paragraph
reformatting ♦ can be used as a type-ahead buffer for STaJker
STalker and STeno ate available now at your local dealer, or from:
Strata Software 94 Rowe Drive, Kanata Ontario Canada, K2L 3Y9, (613) 591-1922
Desk File view Options
08:32 PM
Downloading tv.title.lzh - 59392 bytes, Blk 59 fltt 1 Err 1 06:12
STalker: NCflUS Line 1 (2400)
TV Titler progran by JP Dcziel.
Download this file (Y,N,Q) CN3 ? Yes
•Transfer protocol:
[fllsciif*
‘eras: .
F STeno: ANNOUNCE.TXT !S I I s , ! 1
31
A\ Pile Edit
Options
I STalker
ftjl
SPile
Size
Blocks
iTine
IProtocc
IPlease
Strata Software .
? esk accessory fo
y 1 1 featured ci—
-Evergtl
you are run
12
wh i 1
y Word Wrap...
MW
ML
terninal enulator
ters. STalker is a
a DA in a GEM
n the background
Expand Tabs on Save
ANSI and ut^s/ Expand Tabs on Cut/Copy an of the
accented and_____________1 bit Latin Alphabet
ul c ha-—
the following
A 20 entry
entries for
a connectio
a nunber of
one in turn until
ir» 11 is reached.
ted to ang BBS or
le transfers.
XMODEM, XMODEM-1K, VMODEM-Batch, and ASCII fil
. Q rengte...node thAt . ;v £y.y^ '
jo K
Page 70
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
ST TOOLBOX ♦ J. Andrzej Wrotniak
Doing Things A Different Way
New Versions of Three Utilities from CodeHead
I have recently received
updates of three well-known Atari
ST programs from CodeHead Soft¬
ware: HotWire, MaxiFile and Multi-
Desk (all three are now in the Ver¬
sion 2 stage). Mr. Johnson,
Mr. Eidsvoog and their co-workers
are serious about supporting the ST
(they know a good computer when
they see one) and the continuing
refinement and support of their
products is, indeed, quite a rare
phenomenon in the ST field.
All programs come with well-writ¬
ten, complete and clear manuals and
work as advertised. All represent incre¬
mental improvements from previous
versions, and they can work as one
system, communicating and passing
control between themselves in a seam¬
less fashion-a nice touch. As a matter
of fact, you can install them in such a
way that all your sessions with the ST
can be spent without using the GEM
desktop at all.
MultiDcsk. MultiDcsk^Wows you
to install up to 32 desktop accessories
at one time (there is a way to install
more if you need to), and to change the
accessory setup on the fly, without
rebooting. It can be run as a desktop
accessory itself, or directly from the
desktop (or from HotlVire, of course).
My review of an earlier version can
be found in the December 1988 issue of
Current Notes. Visible improvements
include more flexibility in the configu¬
ration process and quite a few nice
small touches scattered all around the
program. Compatibility with some other
ST programs has also been improved.
A good utility is now better and
my previous endorsement of MultiDesk
still holds. If you have a need to
re-load your accessories dynamically or
to run them from the desktop, then
MuitiDesk will do it reliably and in
style.
MaxiFile. This utility does things
to your disk files such as copying,
renaming, moving, deleting, changing
file attributes and virtually anything
else. In this aspect it competes directly
with the Universal Item Selector III
The choice between MaxiFile and
UIS III may be, to a large extent, a
matter of personal preferences. On one
hand, I find UIS III quicker and more
intuitive to use, but on the other hand,
MaxiFile has some extra functions
which the Z^does not have.
For example, the directory listing
(as shown below) can be filtered not
just through one template (e.g. “show
just the *.DOCfiles”),but through any
combination of up to 16 templates (like
“show all *.DOC, *.TXT and *.ASC
files). In addition, th« filtering can be
set either to include the selected exten¬
sions or to exclude them from the list.
On the other hand, using some of the
MaxiFile features seems to be less
straightforward than it could be (for
example, changing the “Source” and
“Destination” paths).
This comparison could go on and
on. Of course, a dedicated file-handling
utility using about three times as much
memory as UniversalAovs can afford to
have extra goodies included. The real
question is whether the extra capabili¬
ties are worth the extra memory,
money and trouble. The buying deci¬
sion will strongly depend on your file¬
handling needs, working habits and
personal taste. I can live without Maxi¬
File but you may find it indispensable
in your work. Try before buying, or
better yet, get yourself a copy of the
freeware MultiFile which is a scaled-
down version. If you like it, you will
like MaxiFi/eeven more.
Hot Wire. Hot Wire is, in principle,
a program-launching shell. You will
not find much (if any) use for it on a
floppy-based system, but if you have a
hard drive, you may find it very handy-
-depending, again, on your working
habits and preferences.
The main screen (see picture) cons¬
ists mostly of a list of programs. You
can enter programs scattered all over
your hard disk. From that moment on,
clicking on a program name (yes, you
Executing MAXIFILE.Q...
17:16 _
* Source: D:\FQHTS\FONTS_LQ\
* Dest! C:\UTILITY\
676,386 bytes in 73 itens,
Files: 4
Folders: 0
LQ8Q0
SYS
45710
LQRK32T
FHT
28438
LQTR24T
FHT
21646
LQCM15FZ FHT
7102
L0SS06T
FHT
1574
L0TR32T
FHT
31678
■llllllllll—IIIIB
LQSS08T
FHT
2326
SHCM14FZ FHT
2314
LQCM30GE
FHT
34786
LQSS10M
FHT
4286
SHCM18FZ FHT
3514
LQDB08
FHT
542
L0SS12M
FHT
5386
SHCM23FZ FHT
7102
LQDB12
FHT
1084
L0SS14T
FHT
6814
SHDB07
FHT
238
LDDB18
FHT
1746
LQSS16T
FHT
11110
SHDB10
FHT
350
LQDB24
FHT
3234
i—M Mil
SHDB18
FHT
666
LQMA16T
FHT
15486
LQSS24M
FHT
23086
SHDB24
FHT
886
■inirwianr —heu
L0SS32T
FHT
36338
SHMA08X
FHT
1286
LQMA32T
FHT
43266
LQTP12AW FHT
5386
SHMA10T
FHT
1518
LQMA4QT
FHT
60130
L0TR08T
FHT
2686
K5HMA16X
FHT
4166
LQRAG8T
FHT
3086
LQTR10T
FHT
3838
SHMA20T
FHT
4046
LQRA16T
FHT
3886
LQTR12T
FHT
5332
SHMA32X
FHT
12846
LQRA32T
FHT
33326
LQTR16T
FHT
3886
SHMA40T
FHT
15646
LQRK16T
FHT
10046
■IhHIMIMimi
SHRA08T
FHT
1166
60,416
Move Copy Erase Hane OtHer More Save
EXIT
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 71
can assign meaningful names to the
entries, not just the file names) will
execute it without fuss.
This is not unlike placing program
icons on the NeoDesk desktop, except
that HotWire allows for up to 54
programs at one time (as opposed to 16
program icons in NeoDesk2).
Now, this may not seem like a big
deal, but again, you are given a very
high degree of control on how the
programs are run. You can assign pro¬
grams to “hot keys” on the keyboard,
chain them into automatically executed
sequences, assign default command
lines, and much, much more.
Desk File Edit Configure Options
ARC Shell
AH Address Book
AH Printer Setter
AH Update
Calamus
Checksum Checker
Checksum Enbedder
DC Formatter
DC Squish
Degas Elite
Easy Draw
El Cal
First Mail
First Hord Plus
Fontz!
GEM Font Editor
GFA Basic
Hard Drive Toolkit
Icon Editor
Kuma Resource
Laser C
LD Font Editor
OSS Pascal
Packer II
ProCopy
Prospero Compilers
Publisher ST
Publisher Font Table
Resource Constructor
Screen Dump 24^
Star Base
STOS Basic
Supercharger
Supra Park
Tempus
Virus Killer
Mark MiIlians C
Hercs Resource
Hord Up
Hord Mriter
£0
-v^UbTI-
r^xi
FILE
EXIT
HotWire can be even installed in
the AUTO folder, and then invoked
from the GEM desktop with a simple
keystroke combination or just a right
mouse click. (Unfortunately, this does
not seem to work from within Neo-
Desk but the chances are that you will
choose one of these programs to use
and not both.)
The program has direct hooks to
call both MaxiFi/e and Mu/tiDcsk ]us\
by clicking on their respective icons.
This means that if you choose to use
both HotWire and MaxiFilq you may
never need to see the GEM desktop
again!
1 have two minor complaints about
HotWire First, an icon to call the File
Selector directly from its main screen
would be nice (if, for example, 1 choose
not to use the MaxiFi/e&nd to do my
disk operations from the UISIIP).
Second, if you call MaxiFiJe or
MultiDesk from HotWire while they
are not installed as accessories (yes,
they can be accessed from the disk as
well), and if HotWire does not find
13 issues for the
price of 12
PQm FFEF BIBIK
r
I
I
Name
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
I
L
Address
City,
St_Zip_
Phone _
You get 13 (for the price of 12) exciting issues of
ST Informer Monthly tabloid that is packed with
the latest Atari news, reviews, commentary and PD
offerings, plus a FREE disk for only $18. Choose a
FREE disk from our PD Catalog sent with your
subscription acknowledgement. Mail this coupon
today, or call (503) 476-0071 FAX(503) 479-1825
and charge it to your charge card. Mention Current
Notes for 13 for 12 offer.
SO nnyft£gnyngf|
■■■■
Dept CN, 909 NW Starlite Place,
VISA
Grants Pass, OR 97526
nflrei?
Current Notes
ST Library
Club Librarians Take Note:
CN library now on SyQuest
44Mb Removable Cartridges
CART i:
CN 1989/9©
112 PD and Shareware disks
introduced by Current Notes from July
1989 through June 1990.
CART 2:
The SPECTRE Collection
80 Spectre disks plus all of the CN
Magic Sac and Spectre columns from
March of 1987 through July 1990.
139.95 each*
Order from CN Library, 122 N. Johnson Rd.,
Sterling, VA 22170 (703)450-4761. VISA & MC
welcome. *+$3.S&H per disk.
Page 72
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
them in the default directory, then it
will give you a chance to identify their
directories. This choice is not saved
with the settings file. Let me stress,
these are quite minor complaints and
the program has really lots of thought¬
ful nice touches.
Should you go right away and buy
a copy of HotWire ?? Well, on one
hand, it is a well-written, well-behaved
and powerful program from a very
dependable source. On the other, it you
do not switch between applications
often, you may find the GEM desktop
quite adequate (to say nothing about
NeoDesk vastly enhancing the stan¬
dard desktop without changing your
working habits). Some “power users”
will find HotWire an essential utility
and a new way of life with their STs,
others will just shrug their shoulders.
Whatever buying decision we finally
make, we should be happy the people
from CodeHead provided us with a
choice.
HotWire ($40), MultiDcsk ($30)
and MaxiFilc($35)are available from
CodeHead Software, P.O.Box 74090,
Los Angeles, CA 90004 together with
their excellent GDOS replacement,
G+Plus($35).
If you would like to learn more
about the CodeHead pxogxams, Messrs.
Eidsvoog and Johnson will be at the
DC AtariFest, so you can see the
demonstration of their programs there.
ST Toolbox Mailbox
QZHn the last Letters to Editor Mr.
John Godbcy was asking about
the availability of the German Sky
Plot program. A couple of months
ago 1 spotted a copy at L&Y
Electronics in Woodbridge, VA"it
should still be there.
CD^Mr. Richard Oliver, USCG Ret.
is looking for a good screen dump
utility for his Panasonic KX-P1124.
The Screen Dump 24 a.k.a.
SCRDMP24.PRG (Public Domain
courtesy of Mr. Wilga from Gribnif)
works very nicely with both the
KX-P and the Epson LQ series. My
long-postponed column on the
printer utilities should be out as
soon as the Fest activities are over.
ID'Dr. William Destlcr (last
months issue) praises Debonair
Software (of which 1 am a part) for
making a house call to fix a minor
problem he experienced in our
El Cal Well, we were just having a
party in his neighbourhood anyway,
we had to see the problem to
believe, and we were also hoping
that he would not tell anybody
about it in the first place.... No, we
do not make house calls in Hawaii
(unless you pay the airfare or we
have a party scheduled there).
If you read this column sometimes,
and if you have any related questions
or remarks, drop by to visit the
Debonair/Brumlevebooth (yes, we are
sharing with Dorothy this year) at the
AtariFest. 1 am expecting to have Jots
of free time, so we can chat a little—if
you can make your way through all
those crowds of kids.
For your budding journalist or mathematician:
KIDPAINTER
iium nongpgOODOPOPB/57
a unique graphics design
program with a focus on
creative thinking skills!
& experiment with patterns
☆ create and play onscreen
puzzles
☆ blind drawing and other
unusual and challenging
activities
iir print your own coloring
book, portfolio, or poster
A block, mirroring, text:
sophisticated functions-
-but easy to use!
HHjOy)
□
LssaO
m<0>m<0>lll
Ibii J.s_o_pidir e. of how e..
Mu- Xoqb. i s fiD-ibc-lop-UoDCU and
buJ acotbec !* rooB.. La r isbi under
iii_
Page i
KIDPUBLISHER
PROFESSIONAL
a desktop publishing
pron program for young writers
& publish your own illustrated
stories, posters, etc
four built-in font styles, and
parent or teacher can create
a fifth
extensive drawing program
title page, LOAD options
word wrap feature,
underlining, and mouse
control of cursor
☆
Both recommended for ages 5-11. $35 each.
Also available: Super Kidgrid for ages 3-11, $25.
Atari ST/STe/Mega with color monitor required.
Printer must accept an ST screen dump.
See us at WAACE AtariFest ’90/
Your child will love these programs!
kidprgs by D.A. BGUMLEVE
s 2173371937
** Introducing the ©@: J v? *'
reatures of the GOOD backup Utility:
GOOD
Bcchup
Utility?
Specially designed for keeping complete
backups of your hard disk partitions,
backup disks are TOS compatible
Intelligent Updates!
Update your backup every day! Only new
& modified files are copied, and the old
files are deleted to make room. As good
as an image - but done in less time.
Great for use with Cartridge Disk Onves
All this
(n
for only:
$29.95
Suggested Retail Price,
i massachusetts add sales tax)
Tid
bit
Tidbit Software Engineering Company
25 Wood Lane, Aaynard A A 01754
Telephone (508) 897-7429 _
- Copies data from a selected active disk
partition to a pie of ordinary TOS readable
backup disks.
- A backup can be interrupted before it is
done, to be completed later
- You can keep your backup saveset on floppy
disks, removable cartridge drives, or keep a
shadow partition on another hard disk unit.
- Ho folder limit on backup or restore
- Any file that cannot be fit on a single saveset
disk will be split up across as many as needed
- Updates to the backup will only copy the files
that have actually changed If you update your
backup frequently, the update goes very quickly
- The GOOD backup Utility can format floppy
disks for you as additional disks are needed
- Lost or damaged disks m the backup saveset
can be replaced without replacing the entire
backup saveset
- Checksums are used to verify that the files on
the active disk drive and on the backup disks
are all intact
- Write back disk cache technology is used to
make all the copying go fast
- backup can be by partition, or select specific
files by including or excluding a set of wildcard
file specifications
- Flies can be restored as an entire partition, or
by wildcard selection When restoring an entire
partition, only files that are actually missing
need to be restored
- A reference list can be produced for locating
individual files within the backup saveset
Pressing the FIFLP key will provide additional
information at every step.
If your dealer doesn't have the GOOD backup Utility, you can order it from the
Computer bug, 113 Pusse! St, tladley, HA, 01035 (413) 584-7722
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 73
Current Notes ST Library
July-August 1990
#460D: DYNACADD DEMO-
(M) VI.76. CADD package, (no
SAVE or EXPORT) comes with a
font editor program and several
other utilities. Req 1MB, DS,
mono .
#461: CALAMUS OUTLINE
ART DEMO— (M) Working demo
(no SAVE) to this companion
program to Calamus. Req 1MB.
DS, mono.
#462: BLOODWYCH DEMO-
(C) Fully-playable “dungeon
Master” game by Mirrorsoft in¬
cludes split-screen for two-player
simultaneous action.
#463: BLOOD MONEY DEMO
and WIPEOUT— (C) BLOOD
MONEY, horizontally-scrolling
shoot-’em up. WIPEOUT demo.
Intergalactic Hoverboard Chal¬
lenge. FONE VOICE, create crazy
messages for your telephone
answering machine. SPINNING
BOXES animation.
#464: PERSONAL FINANCE-
Payroll, (V3.0, complete payroll
operations, quarterly reports,
printing paychecks, up to 200
employees can be monitored).
Cost of Living Adjuster, Check¬
book VI. 14, and Personal Finance
Manager demo.
#465D: MAIL PRO & STOCKS
AND BONDS— (M) Mail Pro
Demo: filing and mail-merge sys¬
tem, demo ver offers limited
entries. Req 1MB. Stocks and
Bonds is a game based on the
fast action stock market game.
#466: 16-VOICE SEQUEN¬
CER— features multi-voice
recording, split keyboards and/or
velocity ranges, simple editing
using mouse and MIDI keyboard.
#467: MIDI MUSIC MAKER-
music player fordio, Music Studio
88, Music Construction Set, EZ-
Track, Standard MIDI Files, Sid
Player Music, Master Composer,
Advanced Music System, MIDI
Music System, Orchestra 85/90,
Lyra 1 and 2.
#468: CALAMUS FONTS#3-
Advertising, Barnum, Casual, Cel¬
tic, Chrome, Flash, Harloe,
Mouse, Schoolbook, Western. In¬
cludes Atari, MasterCard and VISA
logos in .CFN format.
#469: PAGESTREAM FONT
EDITOR— The official font editor
from Soft-Logik.
#470: CLIP ART#14— People,
all types of people in a variety of
everyday situations, captured in
Degas format.
#471: CLIP ART#15— More
People in Degas format pics.
DSLIDE viewing program included.
#472: INSTANT GRAPHICS!
V2.14 —communicate over
modem in color, sound, and
motion. For use with terminal
programs that allow the use of
Desk Accessories.
#473: INSTANT GRAPHICS!
UTILITIES— editing and graphics
creation utility, in-depth tutorial,
and utility to convert Music Studio
files to IG format for playing MIDI
songs over your modem.
#474: MINITERM and
MINIBBS— Two Swiss terminal
programs. Miniterm is a full-fea¬
tured desk accessory. Minibbs, a
fully operational BBS with up/
download, chat mode, and mes¬
sage bases.
#475: HYPERSCREEN and
STDCAT V4. 3—Hyperscreen,
implimentation of the Hypertext
concept on the ST. STDCAT, disk
cataloger program, includes full
text search on disk volume or
program name, comment.
#476: ME FIRST -(C) V2.0.
Interactive learning games/stories
for children. Includes documen¬
tation and additional DATA files
for extended play.
#477: CLASS and EZ
GRADE— CLASS V2.05, com¬
bination database and spread¬
sheet for teachers. EZ-Grade,
demo of a commercial gradebook
program from Integral Software.
#478: SPACEWARS -(C) Ver¬
sion 1.0, new outer space shoot-
em up game.
#479: HERO IID —DEMO Of
HERO II gaming system incl
Dungeon Construction Set to
create and manipulate dungeons
for the HERO II game system.
September 1990
#480D: THE CURRENT
NOTES CATALOG— catalog Of
the 500+ disks in the CN ST
Library.
#481D: THE CN MACINTOSH
COLLECTION— complete text of
the Magic Sac/Spectre columns
published in CN from Mar 1987 -
Jul 1990.
#482D: WALLACE NO.1 —
Cyber Animations: Dr.Who and
Who-K9. 6 NEO pics (cigs,
daleck, floppy, paper, whobox4,
whobox5)
#483D: WALLACE NO.2—
Cyber Animation: Albatros. 6 NEO
pics(alarrr), diner, kitten, marquee,
ssmonu, title2). 5 PI1 pics(choco-
lat, express, house, shawl,
unionstl).
#484D: WALLACE NO.3—
Cyber Animations: Mad Max and
Megafugi. Marsch.spc, ani-
mate4.prg, and spslide.prg.
#485: ALGEBRA I: Linear
Equations— tutorial program
leading the user into correct
equation solving techniques from
basic properties through fractional
equation solving.
#486: ALGEBRA I: Verbal
Problems— Covers 10 of the
most common type verbal pro¬
blems found in Albebra I text¬
books.
#487: BASIC MATH SKILLS:
Operations— pick adding, sub¬
tracting, multiplying, dividing, or a
mixture of all four. Includes choice
of one of two different arcade
type learning games.
#488: GIST (Grades, Inter¬
ims, Student Teams)— grades
management program for tea¬
chers.
#489: DO NOT STAMP UTILI¬
TIES— Area Code Locator, find
the AC (and current time) of any
city: Postal.prg, state abbrevia¬
tions and spellings: SHREDR VI.1,
permanently shred data from your
disk; HotlStat VI.1, analyze ledger
files created by Hotwire.
#490: THE VIRUS DISK -The
Virus Killer, Ver 3.11, detect and
eliminate viruses from your disks;
Hospital, set of anti-virus utilities;
Super Virus Killer; Flu, displays
symptoms of viral infections.
#491: WILD FLOWERS— 16
stunning pictures of Wisconsin
wild flowers in PCI format (Black-
eye, Bloodrt, Fleabane, Forgetme,
Goldnrod, Hawkweed, Hepatica,
Indpipe, Paintbru, Prklypar, Sil-
verwd, Smallow, Spiderwt, Thistle,
Trillium, and Wildrose).
#492: UTILITY NO.44— Fast-
Copy III! (program and acces¬
sory); HyperFormat, format 927K
on 83-track DS disk. ARC Ver
6.02, latest version of ARC com¬
pression utility, runs roughly twice
as fast as earlier Ver 5.21.
#493D: B/STAT— Version 2.36
of B/STAT, sophisticated graphing
and statistical analysis program.
Req 1 MB, DS.
#494: TAIPAN ll/GFA SHELL
PLUS— Taipan II, VI.1: early
1800s trade as you engage in
combat with enemy ships.(C) GFA
Shell Plus: replacement for the
GFA Menux program.
October 1990
#495: TESTMASTER.Ver 2.01,
Shareware by Bill Shipley, color or
mono. Use to set up your own
tests to help prepare for exams.
Data for a variety of general
subjects (like States and Capitals)
are included on the disk.
#496D: GUITARIST DEMO,
from chro MAGIC Software In¬
novations, a tool to help guitarists
learn chords and scales in all keys
and all positions of the fretboard,
give insight into the concepts of
scale improvisation and chord
substitution, and help develop
technical mastery of scales and
arpeggios.
#497D: PUBLIC PAINTER
V0.1 (Mono) Latest version of
this popular paint program from
Germany. Includes documentation
in English.
#498D: EQUINOX SOUND-
TRACKER Soundtracker (V2.5)
Playroutine by CHECKSUM. In¬
cludes five songs: tar concert in
air, dns, demons soundtrack, rsi
rise up, and wild.
#499: STARBLADE DEMO.
(C) Starblade is a space-opera
set in the 30th Century in the
vastness of the Orion galaxy.
Terrific graphics as you explore
your ship. The demo version does
not allow you to access the
planets.
#500: YOLANDA and RICK
DANGEROUS. (C) Demos.
Yolanda is an arcade/adventure
game. In demo, player is placed
on the 1st screen of one of the
1st 11 missions. If, however, a
screen is completed you can go
no further in that mission. If you
die, a new screen is selected until
there are no lives left. Rick
Dangerous, part-time explorer
and stamp collector, captured by
the Goolu tribe, must escape.
Demo only contains several
Page 74
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
screens available to the user but it
gives a fair representation on how
good the game actually is.
#501: PHOTON STORM.(C)
Playable demo version of this
fast-paced space arcade game.
#502: GLOVES/FUTURE(C)
Playable demo versions of two
new arcade games: Kid Gloves
and Back to the Future.
#503: NEODESK 3 AND CLI
DEMOs.Freeware demo version
of NeoDesk 3, a complete
replacement for the built-in desk¬
top that comes with the Atari.
NeoDesk CLI is a complete win¬
dow-based command line inter¬
preter. It hooks into NeoDesk
itself, taking advantage of its
many features and capabilities. It
can be used to create powerful
batch files, pop-up menus, and
much more.
#504: KID GAMES. (C)
KV_MATCH, Flip over squares to
match baby and parent animals.
LET-HUNT, learn alphabet by
matching letters on the screen.
ENCH FOR, Enchanged Forest, a
variant of both ‘Shutes and Lad¬
ders’ and ‘Candyland’ suitable for
children 3 and above. KVGEO-1,
Hypertext geography, learn about
the solar system. Shareware.
#505D: TALESPIN ADVEN¬
TURES. (C) Two adventures
created by elementary school
children with Talespin, the Adven¬
ture Game Creator. SDI.TAL was
created by 10 children in the
2nd-5th grades, MOUNTAIN.TAL
was designed by 8 3rd-5th gra¬
ders, each child was responsible
for one or more “rooms” in a
group-planned scenario. The chil¬
dren used Kidpainter to create
their program illustrations and
some of the text. The adult facili¬
tator then took notes regarding
the children’s plans for text and
other reactions to user selections.
Then an adult (D.A. Brumleve)
assembled the pictures according
to the children’s instructions using
Talespin.
#506: Utility No. 45 TLC-Play,
play any digitized sound fmt file;
TLC-namr, add symbols to any
file’s name; tic-form, format a
disk to read/write FAST!; tlc-attr,
change any file’s attributes;
mouse db, new mouse doubler
V3; spirited, text ed desk acc;
al-time, time & date setter;
clock_5, all rez clock acc; mac-
cel3, Atari Mouse Accelerator 3;
ocultarx, hard disk password pro¬
tection; idle_22, idle screen
saver;unlzh172, fastest extract for
LZH archives; volume, rename
disk volume; ST Sentry V5.1.
#507: TADS. Text Adventure
Development System.
#508: Deep Space Drifter A
Text adventure game.
#509D: GENIE FILES 9/90
Archive of files found in the 31
GEnie libraries as of Sep 1, 1990.
All Current Notes disks are only $4.00 each (add
$1 / every 6 disks for shipping and handling up to a
maximum of $6.00). Quantity discounts are avail¬
able:
10 disks for $35
30 disks for $100
50 disks for $150
CN disks are guaranteed to work. If you ever
encounter a problem, simply return the disk and we
will gladly replace it. Note that a "D" after a disk
number indicates a double-sided disk.
Order disks from CN Library, 122 N. Johnson Rd,
Sterling, VA 22170. VISA and MasterCard orders are
welcome (703) 450-4761.
V 'J
Current Notes Disk Cartridge No. 1
July 1989 through June 1990
112 Disks of the Finest in PD Software
CN Library Disfcs #347 - #459 on a single 44Mb SyQuest Cartridge
Announcing:
$ 139.95
Plus $3 S&H. Individual Disks are $4 each.
Adventures
#362: A Dudley Dilemma
#363: Tark
#364: Rapture and Susan (R)
#365: Ring and Pork
#366: Adventure Game Toolkit
#367: AGT Source Code
Applications
#370: Norad: Satellite Tracking
#380: The Revolution Handbook
#382: Sub Cal, VI.14
#402: Construction Est. VI.8
#424: Micro RTX Demo
#440: Star 2000
#441: TCOS VI.2
#452: Mono Painting Package
#455: Inventory Pro, V3.0
Demos
#384: Geography Tutor Demo
#386: JIL2D(tm) Drafting
#407: Sheet Demo
#411: Spiritware Concord, V2.0
#420: Access! Demo
#445: Body Shop/Geo Tutor V2
#450: Master Tracks Demo VI.1
#456: Pagestream Demo, VI.8
#459: Atari Cash Register
Desktop Publishing
#351: Pub. Part. Utilities 3
#353: Print Master Icons 3
#354: Print Master Icons 4
#355: IMG Mortised Cuts
#357: Pagestream Fonts 1
#358: Calamus Fonts 1
#395: TeX Program
#396: TeX Printer Drivers
#397: Metafont
#398: IniTeX
#399: PicTeX
#416: Clip Art & TW Borders
#431: KidPublisher Prof Demo
#432: Calamus Fonts 2
#442: Clip Art: Animals (IMG)
#453: Clip Art: Transportation 1
#454: Clip Art: Transportation 2
#457: Publisher ST Borderpack
Games
#348: Companion 1/Trivia Quiz
#356: BOIO
#359: Pentimo
#360: Bermuda Race II
#361: Rocket Patrol/Trifide
#373: Strip Breakout (R)
#383: Baseball Simulator
#387: Empire Map Collection
#388: Breach Scenario Collection
#389: Star Trek (STOS)
#390: PileUp (STOS)
#391: Super Breakout w/editor
#419: Blaseter/Invaders/STTetris
#421: Poker/Dragon/MacPan(M)
#426: 11 Mean 18 Courses
#428: Eco/Orbit
#429: Alien Bloc/Atom Smasher
#436: Fighter/Flight/Lunacy II
#438: Golf/Chess/Gilgalad(M)
#446: PileUp V2.1
#447: Blobbrun/Virtue
Graphics
#368: VIDI-ST No.1
#369: VIDI-ST No.2
#371: Berthold’s Pics No.2
#392: Spectrum Pics 6-People
#393: Spectrum Pics 7-Space
#394: Spectrum Pics 8-Cars
#408: ANI ST (Aegis Animator)
#409: Visitor & Froggie
#410: Spectrum Color Clip Art
#417: Saturn Animation
#418: Skull/Dalek/Znetart
Languages
#349: Xformer Programs No.1
#350: Xformer Programs No.2
#378: Elan 1.5
#400: GFA Tutorial
Telecom
#347: Moterm Elite 1.41
#381: VanTerm V3.8
#422: Uniterm, V2.0E
#449: Hagterm Elite/MiniBBS
Utilities
#352: Graphic Utilities
#374: Codehead/C.F.Johnson
#375: Darek Mihocka Utilities
#376: Neodesk Icon Collection
#377: Official Atari Utilities Disk
#379: 31-Diskvfy,Floormt2...
#385: DC Software Sampler
#403: 32-Speedrdr,Adbase14...
#404: 33-Pubpaint,Cheetahc,..
#405: Deskjet Utilities & Drivers
#406: 34-Bootstv9,Desk Mngr...
#412: Arc601,Arcshell21,Lharc51
#413: 35-Trasncan,Diary 1.7...
#414: 36-Lgselect,Switch630...
#423: 37-Graphics Utilities
#433: 38-Dictionary,Disklabel...
#434: 39-Viewgif,Invert,Deps,...
#435: 40-fastlzhv2,flu,uncle...
#439: 41-Ramplus,Untar,Uux...
#443: 42-dcopy34,reorghd2...
#444: 43-Hpdump,Pinhead15...
#451: Laserjet Utilities
#458: Sticker Pics
Text/Word Processing
#372: MagniWriter ST
#401: ST Writer V3.4
#415: Hardware Mods No.1
#425: DMC Laserbrain, VI.31
#427: Hardware Mods No.2
#430: ST Writer Elite, V3.8
#448: Kepco Edit and Stevie
CN ST Library
122 N. Johnson Rd
Sterling, VA 22170
(703)450-4761
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 75
CN SPECTRE Libra ry
New forOciobcr
This month, Current Notes is releasing 5
new PD and Shareware Spectre compatible
(Version 2.65, 128K ROMs) library disks.
S90D, Games #11, 5 new games.
Thieves 2.0, Haunted House 1.5, Toxic
Ravine 1.1 (pictured below), Canfield 3.1, and
Orbital Command.
S89D, HyperStacks #10 contains
10 of the latest Stacks for use with Hyper¬
Card. They are Cursor Install. Custom.cursor,
Food ClipArt Stack, Percentages, TidBits 90/
07/16, TidBits 90/07/30, TimeTravel 1.5, Trig-
Hype, VAPD Wheels, and Whales.
S88D. EPS ClipArt #4, 18 new Post¬
Script ClipArt files (use Tranverter to use
them with ST programs). They are Anchorl,
Anchor2, Border-FatRope, Border-Rope/
Floats, Channel Marker, Compass Rose,
Lighthouse/scene, Palm Tree 1, Palm Tree 2,
Palm Tree in a wind, Palm Tree-Stylized,
Palm Tree/Moon, Palm Tree/setting sun,
Rope Spool, Sailboat, Sea/Palm Background,
Sunset sailboat, and Tropical Repeat.
S87, Utilities #14, contains 5 new
utilities. They are INIT-KIT plus docs, INIT-
Scope plus docs, DiskKeeper 1.2,
Front&Center 2.0 and Set Paths plus docs.
S86D, Twilight Vale, an interactive
graphics/text adventure game created with
the World Builder adventure game creator.
The program also has digitized sound, (see
picture at right.)
C New jin September )
S85D. EPS Clip Art #3, Apple,
Friendly Postman, Home Fix-Up Shopper,
Ice Cream, Jazz Guys, Key Lime Pie Slice,
Marching Band, Mercedes 190D, Micro-
Phone, Milk Pitcher/Cheese, Open Book,
Pears, Satellite Diskh, Scotty Dog, Sewn by
Hand, Spaghetti & Salad, Star-Graphes, and
Still Life with Biscuits.
S84, Sounds #8, Allrightee!, BBQ My
Hamhocks, Einstein Turn Into, Getoutahere,
Shutup Boy, Why You Little.
S83, Utilities #13, AntiPan, Compac¬
tor, Disinfectant 1.8, FileCloser 1.0, KillS-
cores, Trash Patch V2.
S82D, HyperStacks #9, Food Chain,
HomeCheck 2.0.3, Hypericons 2.0, Leisure
Time 90, Month Calendar, StackMerge,
StackScan, PhotoStack, Compress Plus,
Virus Encyclopedia.
S81D, Grendel 1.0, interactive gra¬
phics/text adventure game.
[ ^ III* tdit CuininuncI* Weapon*
r .
»\i ^
^ Icti -
Childlike
*cr#wl» fn*r
It* walls and
trash Is
arranged in
rust pillion
if* floor Nona
of II looks of
Vlltl*
6-1 f»1l«v*
yo*l
a -1 bittit it*
Master at the
PLAYIH*
cnasi
31
Announcing:
The SPECTRE Collection
Current Notes PD/Shareware Cartridge No. 2
CN Spectre Disks *l-#80
Plus the complete text of all the Magic/Spectre columns from Current Notes —Jeff Greenblatt’s
"Adventures in the Magic Sacdom" and the "ST/Mac Connection" (March 1987 through February 1989),
and Doug Hodsons "Magic Spectre Tips," #1 - #14 (March 1989 through July 1990).
$ 139.95
The SPECTRE Collection is
on a single SyQuest 44Mb
removable disk cartridge.
Individual CN disks are $4 each (10
for $35, 30 for $100, 50 for $150)
plus $1 per every 6 disks for S&H.
Cartridge represents from $240
to $320 of PD software!
Order from:
Current Notes Library
122 N. Johnson Rd.
Sterling, VA 22170
(703)450-4761
Demos
501 - MacWrite
502 - MacPaint
S04 - Freehand
S06 - PowerPoint
S08 - Image Studio
S12 - Full Impact
520 - MacDraw II
525 - MacMoney
S28 - DAtabase
S62 - PipeDream
S71 - Shanghai
Fonts
551 - PostScript!
552 - PostScript2
S60 - PostScripts
S80 - PostScript4
Utilities
S11 - Utility 1
S14-Utility 2
521 - Utility 3
526 - FKeys 1
S30 - Utility 4
S39 - Utility 5
S44 - Utility 6
S55 - Utility 7
S57 - Utility 8
S63 - Utility 9
567 - Utility 10
S73 - Utility 11
S79 - Utility 12
Games
S05 - Games 1
S07 - Games 2
S15 - Games 3
S24 - Games 4
S27 - Games 5
S38 - Games 6
S54 - Games 7
S66 - Games 8
568 - Games 9
S75 - Games 10
S22 - Siegfried
546 - Everyman!
547 - Phoenixl
548 - Phoenix2
549 - Lawn Zapper
550 - Dun of Doom
DAs Telecom
S16 - Desk Acc No.1 S03 - Red Ryder
S31 - Desk Acc No.2 S09 - Telecom No. 1
Sounds
Si7 - Sounds 1
S23 - Sounds 2
S29 - Sounds 3
S36 - Sounds 4
S59 - Sounds 5
S69 - Sounds 6
S74 - Sounds 7
Productivity
S34 - Excel Templates
S41 - Productivity 1
S43 - Productivity 2
VideoWorks
S32 - VW w/Sound 1
S43 - VW W/Sound 2
Clip Art
S64 - EPS Clip Art 1
S78 - EPS Clip Art 2
S53 - PageMaker Art
S58 - Clip Art 1
HyperCard Stacks
S10 - Stacks 1
S13 - Stacks 2
S35 - Stacks 3
S37 - Stacks 4
S61 - Stacks 5
S65 - Stacks 6
S70 - Stacks 7
S72 - Stacks 8
S19 - HC Utility 1
S33 - HC Utility 2
S40 - HC Utility 3
S56 - Birds
Graphics
S18 - Graphics 1
S45 - Graphics 2
S77 - Graphics 3
S76 - Startup
Screens
Page 76
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
WAACE CLUB CORNER
NOVATAR1: Northern Virginia Atari Users'Group
President.MillicentGompertz.202-602-8446
ST VP.Paul Cartwright.301-460-1431
8-bit VP.Tom Eckhardt.
Membership.Earl Lilley.703-281 -9017
Treasurer.Gary Purinton.703-264-8826
ST Librarian.703-450-3992
8-bit Librarian.Geoff DiMego.703-425-5030
8-bit MaiL.Thom Parkin.
Sterling Chapter.Richard Gunter.703-471-7765
ARMUDIC Sysop.Scott Ogden.703-450-3992
New Members: Dues are $24/year/family and include a subscription
to Current Notes and access to more activities. Join at the main
meeting, at a chapter meeting, or by sending $24, payable to
NOVATARI, to NOVATARI, PO BOX 4076, Merrifield, VA 22116.
Novatari Main meeting: 2nd Sunday of the month at the Washing¬
ton Gas Light Building, 6801 Industrial Rd, Springfield, VA. Take 495 to
east on Braddock Rd.(620) to south on Backlick Rd (617). Left on
Industrial Rd. Washington Gas Light is the second building on the
right. 5:30 Programmers SIG; 6:15 announcements, open forum, door
prizes; 6:45 VAST and 8-BIT SIG meetings.
Chapter Meeting: Sterling, Sterling Library, 7:30-9:30, Wed after the
2nd Sunday. Contact Richard Gunter at 471-7765.
A.U.R.A.: Atari Users Regional Association
President.Ira Horowitz.301-384-0809
8-bit VP.Chuck Spring.301-262-0114
ST VP.Stewart Rosenthal.301-989-1755
Treasurer/MembershijBill Brown.301-279-7537
16-bit Librarian.John Barnes.301-652-0667
Meetings: 3rd Thursday of each month in the Multipurpose Room
at Grace Episcopal School. The school is on the east side of
Connecticut Ave, 1/4 mile north of the Connecticut Ave (North) Exit
from 1495. Library and swap table sales begin at 7:15, the meeting
begins at 7:30. We have separate XL and ST demonstrations. There
will be ST and 8-bit door prizes.
Correspondence: All correspondence, including membership
renewals, changes of address, etc. should be sent to: AURA, PO Box
7761, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
New Members. Dues are $25/year and include a subscription to
Current Notes. Send name, address, phone number, and check to
above address.
FACE.: Frederick Atari Computer Enthusiasts
President.Chris Riet man.301-791-9170
Vice President.Mike Kerwin.301-845-4477
Treasurer.Buddy Smallwood.
Meetings: 4th Tuesday, 7-9:30 pm, Walkersville High School, MD
Route 194, 1 mile north of MD Route 26 (Liberty Road).
New Members: Dues are $25/year/family and include a subscription
to Current Notes. Join at meeting or send check, payable to FACE, to
Buddy Smallwood, PO Box 2026, Frederick, MD 21701.
GRASP: Greater Richmond Atari Support Program
President.Mickey Angell.804-744-3307
Vice President.Terry Barker..804-379-8175
Secretary..Tom Marvin.804-233-6155
Meetings: 2nd and 4th Thursday, at La Prade Library, 2730 Hicks Rd.
Dues are $20 per year and do /^/include Current Notes
WACUG: Woodbridge Atari Computer Users' Group
President.Lou Praino..703-221 -8193
Treasurer.David Waalkes.703-490-1225
Librarian..Frank Bassett.703-670-8780
Meetings: 7-9 PM, Community Room, Potomac Branch, Prince
William County Library, Opitz Blvd, Woodbridge, VA. Entering Wood-
bridge from either North or South on Route 1, proceed to the
intersection of Route 1 and Opitz Blvd (opposite Woodbridge
Lincoln-Mercury). Turn West on Opitz and take first left turn into the
library’s parking lot. The Community Room is located to your left
immediately upon entering the main building. Meeting schedule: Oct.
9 and NOV. 13 (6:30 - 9:30 pm), Dec. 15 (12:30 -4:00)
New Members: Initial membership fee is $10 plus $1 monthly dues.
Renewals are $20 per year, payable as of 1 January. Membership
includes a subscription to Current Notes. Join at meeting or send
check, payable to WACUG, to David Waalkes, 1302 Oregon Ave,
Woodbridge, VA 22191.
MACC: Maryland Atari Computer Club
President.Jim HilL.301-461-7556
Vice President.Alan Kassinof.301-486-1389
Treasurer.John Cromwell.301-747*0949
Secretary..Tim Caldwell.301*687-1413
8~bit Librarian.Bill Bogdan.301 -679-7262
ST Librarian.Tim Caldwell.301-687-1413
Newsletter Ed.Charles Smeton.301-465-8628
Meetings: Last Tuesday, 6:30 pm, Pikesville Library, 1 mile east
on Reisterstown Rd from Exit 20 off the Baltimore Beltway.
New Members: Club Dues are $25/year and include a subscription
to Current Notes. Join at meeting or send check, payable to MACC,
to James Hill, 8591 Wheatfield Way, Ellicott City, MD, 21043.
MAST: Meade Atari ST Users Group
President.John Corkran.301 -255* 1674
* Secretary.John Corkran.301*255-1674
PD Librarian.Dave Napierala..301-490-8217
Tangent Line Sysop..Thomas Hutchinson...
Tangent Line BBS.301-850*5045
Meetings: 2nd Tuesday of each month at the Province Branch
Library at the intersection of Ridge Rd/Rochenbach Rd and MD 175 in
Odenton at the rear of the Severn Square shopping center. The
meetings run from 6:30-9:00 pm. Call Bob Johnson any evening for
further information. All correspondence, including membership
renewals, changes of address, etc. should be sent to: MAST, c/o Bob
Johnson, 1616B Forrest Ave, Ft Meade, MD 20755.
New Members. Dues are $27/year and include a subscription to
Current Notes and unlimited download and message activity on the
Tangent Line BBS. Send name, address, phone number, and check to
above address or join at any meeting.
WAACE BBS Listing
ARMUDIC*.(703)450-3910
Inner Limits.(301) 356-5112
Joppa Computers.(301)679-5809
Pizza’s Place.(301)325-1027
Tangent Line.(301) 850-5045
Access to the ARMUDIC BBS requires a fee of $8/year for
NOVATARI members and $12 for members of other user groups.
BBS access fees are to be made payable to ''NOVATARI" and sent
to: Novatari, PO Box 4076, Merrifield, VA 22116.
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 77
Current Motes* Atari Club&^^T^
Members of listed Atari clubs may subscribe to Current Notes at a discount rate of $23 per year or $42 (2 years)—that’s over 40 percent off the
newstand price! You may add your club to this list in either of two ways. If you have a club newsletter, add CN to your distribution list. Include a
subscription form in your newsletter, or a message explaining the CN discount, that your members can use when they send in their subscriptions.
Alternatively, you may become a registered CN club by sending in an initial subscription list of 10% of the membership or 6 members, whichever is
less. (It would also help to have a list of club members.) Send to: CN Atari Clubs, 122 N. Johnson Rd., Sterling, VA 22170. For more information, call
Joyce (703) 450-4761. NOTE: Australian and Canadian Atari clubs are also eligible. Foreign club rates are $31/year or $58/2 years.)
Australia
A. C.E.(N.S.W-), Swavek Jabrzemski, G.P.O.
BOX 4514, Sydney, NSW 2001 (02)664-2591
Adelaide Atari Computer Club, Neil Pat¬
terson, P.O. Box 333, Norwood 5067 (08)276-
6057
Canberra AUG, John Ogilvy, P.O. Box El 12,
Old Canberra, ACT 2000
Geelong AUG Inc., Vic Fuller, P.O. Box 673,
Geelong, Victoria 3220 (052)43-5895
Melbourne ACE Inc., Rita Plukss, P.O. Box
340, Rosanna 3084 (03)439-7997
Queensland ACE, Peter Peterson, P.O. Box
10026, Brisbane, OLD 4000 (07)349-0061
W.A. Atari Computer Club, Chris Parker,
P.O. Box 7169, Cloister Sq, Perth 6000
(09)349-7551
Canada
Campbell River ACE, Tom Fisher, 241
Carnegie St., Campbell River,B.C. V9W 2J4
(604)287-7358
Hamilton Burlington Oakville AUG, Bob
Berberick, 148 Golden Orchard Dr., Hamilton,
Ont. L9C 6J6 (416)575-4936
London Users of ST’s, Brian Wiltshire, 162
Inverary Crescent, London, Ont. N6G 3L8
(519)473-1406 BBS: (519)432-5144
Montreal Atari Club, P.O. Box 4318 St.
Laurent Stn, Ville St. Laurent, Montreal, Que.
H4L4Z9
Montreal Atari ST/Mega Group, Jonathan
Seldin, 4235 Ave. Wilson, Montreal,Que. H4A
2V1
National Capital AUG, Terry Webb, P.O.
Box 1385 - Station B, Ottawa, Ont. KIP 5R4
(613)825-8452
The Vernon AUG, Bob Olsen, 5664 Allenby
Crescent, Vernon, B.C. V1T 8P8 (604)542-1650
Vantari.AUG in Vancouver, Bill Sutherland,
P.O. Box 3614 Main Post Office, Vancouver,
B. C. V6B 3Y6 (604)968-1450, BBS: (604)291-
0042
Alabama
Huntsville AUG, Levin Soule, 3911 W.
Crestview, Huntsville AL 35816 (205)534-1815,
BBS: (205)722-0900
Arizona
NW Phoenix Atari Connection, Paul
Parks, P.O. Box 36364, Phoenix AZ 85067
(602)278-2375
t . No contact available, Phoenix AZ
85079
SE Valley Atari Connection, Tim Bar, P.O.
BOX 662, Chandler AZ 85224 (602)821-1200
Tucson Atari Central, Sam Furrow, 2116 E.
1st St, Tucson AZ 85719 (602)323-3410
Arkansas
Little Rock Atari Addicts, Keith Steensma,
28 John Hancock Cir, Jacksonville AR 72076
(501)985-2131
California
A.C-A-O.C., Larry Weinheimer, P.O. BOX
9419, Fountain Valley CA 92708 (714)969-9053
A.C.E.S., Luis Outumuro, 16132 Elgenia
Avenue, West Covina CA 91722 818-960-7210
A.U.G.I.E., Don Lucia, 3905 N. Lugo Ave, San
Bernardino CA 92404 714-880-3539
Antelope Valley ACE, Don Glover, PO Pox
512, Palmdale CA 93590 (805)272-9084, BBS:
(805)723-0093
Atari Anonymous User Group, Todd
Bane, P.O. Box 1433, Upland CA 91786-1433
(714)737-4329, BBS: (714)625-4251
Atari Bay Area Computer Users’
Society, Bill Zinn, PO Box 22212, San
Francisco CA 94122 (415)753-8483
Atari Federation, Chester Hadely, P.O. Box
5367, Vandenberg AFB CA 93437 (805)733-
4177
Atari Users’ Group of the Inland Empire,
Don Lucia, 3905 N. Lugo, San Bernardino CA
92404(714)883-3547
Bakersfield ACE, Anthony Garcia, P.O. Box
40203, Bakersfield CA 93308 (805)397-9566
Cajon Computer Club, Tim Adams, 639
West 36th Street, San Bernardino CA 92405
(714)882-6784
E.R.A.C.E., Gary Martin, 1906 Avineda Del
Diablo, Escondido CA 92025 (619)489-9872
Far East Atari ST, Dale Ellis, PSC Box 7075,
APO San Francisco CA 96293
H.A.C.K.S., John King Tarpinian, 249 North
Brand Boulevard #321, Glendale CA 91206
(818)246-7286
Long Beach ACE, Lee Curtis, P.O. Box
92812, Long Beach CA 90809-2812 (213)423-
2758
N.O.C.C.C. ST-Sig, Dain Leese, 3852 Balsa,
Irvine CA 92714 (714)552-5185
Pass Area ST Enthusiasts, Steve Miller,
1145 west Westward, Banning CA 92220
(714)849-7927
R.A.M. of Ventura County, Tim McCoy,
P.O. Box 112, Camarillo CA 93011 (805)482-
4788, BBS: (805)987-6985
ST ACE of Sonoma County, Hal Anderson,
P.O. Box 4916, Santa R DSa CA 95402 707-
542-1745
San Diego Atari Computer Enthusiasts,
Thomas W. Briant, PO Box 900076, San Diego
CA 92120 (619)581-2477
San Diego ST Users Workshop, Chester
Edwards, 902 Nolan Way, Chula Vista CA
92011(619)224-5090
Santa Barbara ACE, Avery Galbraith, P.O.
BOX 3678, Santa Barbara CA 93130-3678
(805)687-1075
Santa Clarita Valley ACE, Mark Ostrove,
19449 Nadal St, Canyon Country CA 91351
(805)252-6881
Santa Maria/Lompac ACE, Eric A. Daniels,
P.O. BOX 2286, Orcutt CA 93457-2286
(805)929-3296
Sift- Lea B&y ACL . No contact available, Los
Angeles CA 90083 (213)534-3984
The Desert Atarians, Lee Ellis, 47-800
Madison Street #53, Indio CA 92201 (619)342-
1600, BBS: (619)342-1647
West Los Angeles AUG, Bill Skurski, 10393
Almayo Ave, Los Angeles CA 90064 (213)552-
4739
Colorado
Front Range AUG, Jerry Belfor, 3012 Rock-
borough Ct, Fort Collins CO 80525 (303)223-
2604, BBS: (303)223-1297
Pikes Peek and Poke ACE, Rick Reaser,
PO Box 17779, Colorado Springs CO 80935-
7779
Connecticut
AUG of Greater Hartford, William
Midyette, PO Box 289, Windsor Locks CT
06096-0289 (203)627-6996, BBS: (203)623-
3759
Fairfield County ACE, Paula Burton, 362
Hattertown Rd, Monroe CT 06468 (203)452-
1716
ST Atari Road Runners, Glen Werner, 1160
South Curtis St, Wallingford CT 06492
ST Atari Users Society, Brian Rufini, 176
Burnside, E. Hartford CT 06180 (203)289-7903
Delaware
Dover Users of STs, Al Beddow, 4434
Vermont Dr, Dover DE 19901 (302)697-3830
Florida
Atari Boosters League East, Hadley Nel¬
son, P.O. Box 1172, Winter Park FL32790
Georgia
Middle Georgia AUG, Pete Miller, 115
Feagin Mill Rd, Warner Robins GA 31088
(912)328-8758
Idaho
Boise User Group, Gary Marston, 607 Fair
Ln, Nampa ID 83686 208-467-9946, BBS:
208-336-1156
Rattlesnake ACE, Carson Walden, 301 Birch
St., Mountain Home ID 83647 208-587-7476,
BBS: 208-587-7603
Illinois
Central Illinois AUG, Robert Handley, 1920
East Croxton Ave, Bloomington IL 61701-5702
(309)828-4661
Eastside Atari Users Group, Hank Vize,
2425 Crislisa Drive, Alton IL 62002 (618)465-
0342, BBS: (618)254-6077
Galesburg Atari Users Group, Michael
Burkley, PO Box 55, Viola IL 61486 (309)596-
4152
Lake County ACE, Dwight Johnson, PO Box
8788, Waukegan IL 60079 (312)623-9567
ST Information Group, Joe Lambert, 1116
Woodlawn Ct, Pekin IL61554
Surburban Chicago Atarians, Mike Bres-
lin, P.O. BOX 7226, Roselle IL 60172 ( )968-
0330
Indiana
Atari ST Computers in Indianapolis,
Daniel Ward, 1752 Alimingo Dr., Indianapolis IN
46260(317)254-0031, BBS: (317)353-9326
Bloomington Atari ST, Stu Huffman, 1752
Alimingo Dr., Indianapolis IN 46260, BBS:
(812)332-0573
Page 78
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
Calumet Region Atari Group, Jeff Coe,
PO BOX 10995, Merrillville IN 46411-0995
Eli Lilly Corp ST Users' Group, Karl
Werner, Eli Lilly Corp Cntr, Indianapolis IN
46285 (317)276-3020
Iowa
Midwest Atari Group-lowa Chap, Gordie
Meyer, PO Box 1982, Ames IA 50010
(515)232-1252
Kansas
Ft. Leavenworth Atari Group, Sir , P.O.
Box 3233, Ft. Leavenworth KS 66027
Lawrence Atari Computer Club, Robert
Drake, PO Box 1415, Lawrence KS 66044
(913)842-5961
Midwest ST Atari Resource, Gary Leach,
7213 Mastin, Merriam KS 66203
Wichita ACE, Marilyn Merica, 501 Trotter,
Maize KS 67101 (316)722-1078
Kentucky
Atari Exchange of Louisville, Don Garr,
PO Box 34183, Louisville KY 40232 , BBS:
502-456-4292
Louisiana
New Orleans Atari Computer Enthu¬
siasts, Matt Absalom, P.O. Box 73236,
Metairie LA 70033
Maryland
Atari Users Regional Association, Bill
Brown, PO Box 7761, Silver Spring MD 20910
(301)279-7537
Frederick ACE, Buddy Smallwood, 923 N.
M arket S t., Frederick M D 21701
Maryland Atari Computer Club, James
Hill, 8591 Wheatfield Way, Ellicott City MD
21043 (301)461-7556
Meade Atari ST, Bob Johnson, 1616B
Forrest Ave, Ft. Meade MD 20755
Southern Maryland AUG, Sam Schrinar,
2032 Alehouse Ct, Waldorf MD 20601
(301)843-7916
Massachusetts
Boston Computer Society/Atari, Jerry
Feldman, One Center Plaza, Boston MA 02108
(617)244-3025, BBS: (617)396-4607
Nashoba Valley Atari Computer Users'
Society, Dave Burns, PO Box 456, Maynard
MA 01754
South Shore Atari Group, Norman Bou¬
cher, PO Box 129, Boston MA 02136 (617)361-
0590
Western Mass Atari User Group, Richard
Randolph, North Westfield St., Feeding Hills
MA 01030 413-786-0486
Michigan
Coastal Area AUG, Lowen Overby, P.O. Box
5098, Biloxi Ml 39534 (601 )388-1515
Michigan Atari General Information
Conference, Mike Lechkun, 4801 Martin Rd,
Warren Ml 48092-3491 , BBS: 313-978-7363
Minnesota
Minnesota Atari ST, James Schulz, PO Box
12016, New Brighton MN 55112 (612)533-
4193, BBS: (612)472-6582
Missouri
ACE St Louis, Joan Ryan, PO Box 6783, St.
Louis MO 63144 (314)645-6431
Kansas City ACE, Ben Stockwell, 8916
Walnut St, Kansas City MO 64114 (816)444-
6187
Midwest STAR, Gary Leach, 7837B Woman
Rd, Kansas City MO 64114 (816)363-2814
Warrensburg/Whiteman Atari Computer
Owners, Les Lynam, PO Box 199, Warrens-
burg MO 64093 (816)747-2543
Nevada
High Sierra Users’ Group, Michael O’Mas¬
sey, PO Box 2152, Sparks NV 89432 (702)972-
3659
New Jersey
Jersey Atari Computer Group, P.O. Box
5206, Newark NJ 07105-0206 (201)241-4554
New York
ACE of Syracuse, Bernice Futterman, 204
East Patricia Lane, North Syracuse NY 13212
(315)762-4878
ACO of Rochester NY, Bruce Nelson, PO
BOX 23676, Rochester NY 14692 (716)334-
5513
ACUG Westchester, Roily Herman, 4 Char¬
lotte St, White Plains NY 10606 (914)946-4134
Capital District ACE, Joe Bogaard, PO Box
511, Delmar NY 12054
Long Island Atari User Group, Harvey
schoen, P.O. Box 92, Islip NY 11751 (516)221-
2964, BBS: (516)221-8462
Rockland Atari Computer Users’ Group,
Richard Bloch, 29 Riverglen Dr., Thiells NY
10984 (914)429-5283
North Carolina
Blue Ridge ACE, Sheldon Winick, 40 West-
gate Parkway #F, Asheville NC 28806
(704)251-0201
O hrimm e aug t No contact available, Char¬
lotte NC 28224
Greenville ACE, Mary Anne Terminato, 19
Alpine Way, Greenville NC 29609 (803)292-
2690
Piedmont Triad Atari Users Group,
Danny Hartman, PO Box 1073, Greensboro NC
27402 (919)722-9902
Triangle Computer Club, Donald Nelson,
Rt. 3, Box 760, Hillsborough NC 27278
(919)942-2764 #
Ohio
Cleveland ACE, John Savarda, PO Box
93034, Cleveland OH 44101-5034
Miami Valley ACE, Joe Lovett, P.O. Box
24221, Dayton OH 45424 (513)847-3970
Northern Ohio Atari Helpers, Doug Novak,
5538 Pearl Road, Parma OH 44129 (216)845-
6260, BBS: (216)582-1904
Oregon
Eugene ACE, Sir, 3662 Vine Maple, Eugene
OR 97405
Portland Atari Club, David Moore, P.O. Box
1692, Beaverton OR 97005 (503)240-1913
Pennsylvania
Allentown Bethlehem Easton’s ACE,
P.O. Box 2830, Lehigh Valley PA 18001
215-868-4856
N.E. Atari Team Users* Group, Allan
Zaluda, PO Box 18150, Philadelphia PA 19116-
0150 (215)677-6751, BBS: (215)677-1370
Southcentral Pa ACE, Richard Basso, PO
Box 11446, Harrisburg PA 17108-1446
(717)761-3755
Spectrum Atari Group of Erie, Earl Hill, PO
Box 10562, Erie PA 16514 (814)833-9905,
BBS: (814)833-4073
Westmoreland Atari Computer Organi¬
zation, Keith Krause, 230 Clairmont Street,
North Huntingdon PA 15642 (412)834-5678
Rhode Island
Rhode Island Atari Computer Enthu¬
siasts, Steve Dunphy, 192 Webster Ave.,
Providence Rl 02909 (401 )621 -5359
South Dakota
Rushmore ACE, Gregg Anderson, 3512
Lawrence Drive, Rapid City SD 57701
(605)348-6331
Tennessee
Chattanooga Atari Owners Symposium,
Phil Snider, P.O. Box 80101, Chattnooga TN
37411
Knoxville AUG, John Cole, P.O. Box 53362,
Knoxville TN 37950-3362 (615)691-4435, BBS:
615-691-0113
Texas
Atari ST Club of El Paso, Tim Holt, 10953
Yogi Berra, El Paso TX 79934 915-821 -2048
Atari Users of North Texas, Gary Sewell,
PO Box 852016, Richardson TX 75085-2016
(214)727-6567
DAL-ACE, Rachel Duke, PO BOX 851872,
Richardson TX 75085-1872 (214)429-6134
,-i T A Lan Lv-riunts ^ i-iLi 11 ..meimiio, No
contact available, San Antonio TX 78247
(512)496-5635
Virginia
Greater Richmond Atari Support Pro¬
gram, Thomas Marvin, 1420 Yale Ave, Rich¬
mond VA 23224 (804)233-6155
Northern Virginia AUG. Earl Lilley, PO Box
4076, Merrifield VA 22116 (703)281-9017
Southside Tidewater Atari Tech Users
Society, Dick Litchfield, 1805 St. Regis Circle,
VA Beach VA 23456 (804)468-6964
Woodbridge Atari Computer Users'
Group, David Waalkes, 1302 Oregon Ave,
Woodbridge VA 22191 (703)490-1225
Washington
Atari Association of Desert Dwellers,
Rick Raymond, Rt. 1, P.O. Box 5296, Richland
WA 99352
Bellevue/Redmond ACE, Joe Mraz, PO
BOX 70097, Bellevue WA 98007 (206)747-2433
Kitsap County ACE, Bill Penner, PO Box
2333, Bremerton WA 98310 (206)373-4840
R-AUG, Mike Barret, PO Box 845, Oak Harbor
WA 98277(206)675-7167
STDIO, Ralph Plaggenburg, 904 N. 33rd PI,
Renton WA 98056 (206)228-5303
STarBase, Steve Drake, 8307 27th NW,
Seattle WA 98117 (206)782-3691
Seattle Puget-Sound ACE, Nick Berry, PO
Box 110576, Tacoma WA 98411-0576
(206)759-1473
Southwest Washington Atari Group,
Allan Cokes, P.O. Box 1515, Vancouver WA
98668-1515, BBS: (206)574-1146
TRACE Users’ Group, Terry Schreiber, Box
2037, Point Roberts WA 98281 (604)943-4786
Wisconsin
Central Wisconsin AUG, Thomas Ptak, 217
S. Schmidt Ave, Marshfield Wl 54449 (715)-
387-4512
Milwaukee Area AUG, Linda Heinrich, P.O.
Box 14038, West Allis Wl 53214 (414)421-2376
Milwaukee Area ST User Group, Bruce
Welsch, P.O. Box 25679, Milwaukee Wl 53225
(414)463-9662
Packerland Atari Computer Users’
Society, Peter Schefsky, 2714 South 11th
Place, Sheboygan Wl 53081 414-457-451
October 1990
Current Notes
Page 79
H
1st Stop.
....800-252-2787
57
A &D Soft ware.
....503-476-0071
67
Artisan Software.
....209-239-1552
63
B&CComputerVisions.
....408-749-1003
52
B&GElectronics.
....216-521-2855
9
Boston Computer Society/Atari...
....617-527-4952
69
Branch Always Software.
19
BRESoftware.
....800-347-6760
13
CodeHead Soft ware.
....213-386-5735
19
ComputerRock.
....415-751-8573
8
ComputersEtc.
....205-980-9146
33
Current Notes Cartridges..
....703-450-4761
72
Current Notes Spectre Library.
....703-450-4761
76
Current Notes ST Library.
....703-450-4761
75
D&P Computer..
....216-926-3842
ifc
D. A. Brumleve.
....217-337-1937
73
DebonairSoftware.
39
Delphi.
....800-544-4005
obc
ElectronicClinic.
....301-656-7983
69
Gadgets by SmalL.
....303-791-6098
65
Gribnif.
....413-584-7887
37
GT Software.
46
Joppa.
....800-876-6040
60
L&Y Electronics.
....703-643-1729
ibc
M-S Designs.
....217-384-8469
27
O’Massey.
....702-972-3659
51
Olympian...
....518-482-7149
64
PDC.
....206-745-5980
66
RIO Computers.
....800-782-9110
1
ST Informer..
....503-476-0071
72
Step Ahead.
....212-627-5830
15
Strata .
....613-591-1922
70
Talon Technology.
....619-792-6511
47
Templicity.
....415-655-2355
29
Tid Bit.
....508-897-7429
73
Toad Computers.
....301-544-6943
40
WAACE.
77
Classified Ads
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DS Drive Upgrade: A money saver! No hole to cut,
fits nicely in place, 100% compatible. $55. (415)
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For Sale: Portfolio with 64K Ram card, Smart Parallel
Interface, Serial Interface, all manuals. Very little used,
new condition. $300 or Best Offer. W. Davis, 54
Miruela Ave. St. Augustine, FL 32084 (904) 324-3850.
For Sale: 1040ST with 20 Mb HD, mono monitor,
SW includes Calamus, MWC w/dbug, dbMAN V,
Wordup. $1,200. Call (301)540-1929, ask for Rick.
For Sale: dBMAN 5.1 in original box w/all manuals.
Awesome database. Best offer. Jim (704) 254-9278.
For Sale: Back - In - School - Success - Machine:
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Price $695. Call Frank 301-656-0719(day or evening).
CN CLASSIFIED ADS. Send in your classified ad
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To renew MCor VISA by phone, call (703)450-476 1 .
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^Foreign Surface rate: $44/yr ($80/2 yrs.). Air Mail rates: Canada/Mexico, $44; Cent. Amer., Caribbean, $57; S. America, Europe, N. Africa, $69;
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Subscriptions, 122 N. Johnson Rd., Sterling, VA 22170. **Newstand price is $39.50 per year or $79 for two years.
Page 80
Current Notes
Vol. 10, No. 8
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