ST Report: 08-Jun-90 #623
From: Len Stys (aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 06/16/90-02:08:34 PM Z
From: aa399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Len Stys)
Subject: ST Report: 08-Jun-90 #623
Date: Sat Jun 16 14:08:34 1990
*---== ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE ==---*
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"The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine"
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from
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June 08, 1990 No.6.23
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> 06/08/90: STReport? #6.23 The Original 16/32 bit Online Magazine!
-------------------------
- The Editor's Podium - CPU REPORT - CPU STATUS REPORT
- PCDII, A TRAGEDY - TT030 Review - ATARI APOCALYPSE
- Stock Market Report - AUA NEWBRIEFS - CPU CONFIDENTIAL
--==** DESK SET II REPLACED BY CALAMUS **==--
--==** SUMMER CES EYEWITNESS REPORTS **==--
--==** TT UNVEILED IN CANADA **==--
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ST REPORT ONLINE MAGAZINE?
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direct at 904-786-4176, and enjoy the excitement of exchanging ideas about
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> The Editor's Podium?
There a great many things coming to pass in the Atari world that will
give rise to new hope for the Atari computer in the USA. There is news of
a great new mind coming from France that will find the right path for
Atari to take. Time will tell.
Over the past few months there has been many instances where things
have occurred that warranted a letter writing campaign. But for the sake
of the recipient's sanity, STReport would have asked for such actions to
be taken. Meanwhile, the time has come to ask that you, our readers and
dedicated Atarians one and all let Atari know just how much you
appreciate the efforts Bob Brodie is taking in helping the image of Atari
stay alive and well in the USA. Send your letters and postcards to Atari
Corp. C/O Sam Tramiel, 1196 Borregas Avenue, Sunnyvale California 94089.
Or, if you are so inclined, call Atari at 1-408-745-2000. Atari, and
especially Sam Tramiel, who wants very much to hear from you.
Well..... <sigh>... The TT has been introduced again, this time in
Canada. When are they (the braintrusts in Sunnyvale) going give the US
market a fair shake? If I heard that once this past week, I heard it at
least a dozen times by frustrated, brokenhearted loyal US Atari
enthusiasts who have waited for what seems like FOREVER for Atari to begin
its LONG PROMISED US push... The USA still sees nothing but promises
filled with hot air, no STE computers, no big push, no ads for COMPUTERS
ETC.... But Oh well hang in there bunky, 1990 is only half
over.....<sigh>
Ralph......
ps; Hey Sam, there is a difference between doing a job FOR us in the USA
and doing a job ON us! Enough is enough.....
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> CPU REPORT?
==========
Issue # 70
----------
by Michael Arthur
Remember When....
In January 1948, William Shockley and other Bell Labs researchers
filed for a patent on the first transistor, or in July 1959, when
Fairchild Semiconductor filed for a patent for the planar process of
manufacturing transistors, which made commercial transistor production
(and later, integrated circuit production) possible?
CPU INSIGHTS?
============
Co-Inventor of Integrated Circuit Suddenly Dies
-----------------------------------------------
Robert Noyce, co-inventor of the semiconductor and co-founder of
Intel Corp., died suddenly on Sunday of a heart attack. Many in the
computer industry have expressed great shock at the loss of Noyce, who
helped pioneered several facets of the computer industry. After getting
his Ph.D in electronics from MIT, he first worked for the Shockley
Semiconductor Company in 1956 (after a short term as a researcher at
Philco), but soon left to create Fairchild Semiconductor. Interestingly,
Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby of TI soon became involved in a "race" for the
first patent on the integrated circuit. While Kilby won this race by six
months, Robert Noyce gained a total of 16 semiconductor-based patents for
areas such as semiconductor production and integrated circuit designs.
In 1968, Robert Noyce left Fairchild to form Intel Corporation with
Gordon Moore. Intel soon became involved in the calculator chip industry,
eventually developing the first microprocessor from research into a
calculator chip which would be easier to program. In the past few years,
Robert Noyce helped to found (and later serve as CEO/President for)
Sematech, a government-supported consortium of 14 U.S. semiconductor
companies which is engaging in efforts to help maintain and improve the
competitiveness of the American semiconductor industry, in the face of
foreign competition.
Under Noyce, Sematech had concentrated on research and development
efforts on emerging technologies related to this field. As Sematech was
also one of the first consortiums in the computer industry to be
sanctioned by the government, Noyce's efforts indirectly fueled the
formation of the several industry consortiums formed since then. Some of
these "alliances", such as the "Gang of Nine" (who created the EISA Bus
Architecture) and the Open Software Foundation, have already had a
significant impact on the microcomputer industry. However, one could
accurately say that the entire microcomputer industry is one of the
greatest legacies of Robert Noyce.
CPU MacNews?
===========
New Apple Director Plans New Strategy for II Product Line
--------------------------------------------------------
Apple has recently appointed Ralph Russo, a long-time Apple
employee, director of the Apple II product line. He will be the main
person responsible for Apple II software & hardware Development, and
marketing efforts. This is significant in that for several years, Apple
had segmented its Apple II management severely. This meant that one had
to go about seven levels down from John Sculley in the Apple chain of
command to find a person in charge of one aspect of Apple II Development.
However, Mr. Russo now reports to Don Casey, who is one of three people
who report directly to John Sculley (President of Apple).
Ralph Russo, originally hired by Steve Jobs for the Macintosh
Development project, has worked at Apple for over 7 years. Saying that he
"didn't take the job to sit around and do nothing", Russo will develop and
implement a new strategy for the Apple II Line, including renewed IIgs
Development, and vigorous advertising efforts. Russo has acknowledged
that "old-style Apple evangelism" is also needed to encourage third-party
Apple II software developers and dealers, and that an "Apple II sale isn't
a lost Macintosh sale". The latter refutes an attitude which a certain
few at Apple have maintained for a while....
Several Apple II supporters (including the Apple II Developer's
Association, and the hundreds of Apple II users who had written to
Cupertino demanding more support) had pointed the lack of priorities in
Apple Corp. concerning the Apple II line, and are generally credited as
the main cause of the recent events concerning renewed Apple II support.
But ponder, if you will, these questions:
1) Do the majority of Atari ST Users strive to only be informed of news
pertaining to the Atari ST or Atari?
2) Ralph Russo also acknowledged that a lack of consumer advertising
leads to a lack of consumer sales. Given that Atari made lots of
money on the Portfolio and Lynx because of good consumer advertising,
how can ST Developers and Users Organizations encourage Atari to do
the same with the ST in the US?
> CPU STATUS REPORT?
==================
- New York, NY UI PROGRAM HELPS SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS ENTER UNIX MARKET
------------
Unix International, a group of numerous Unix vendors fostering the
AT&T Unix Standard, has recently instigated a program to help software
developers in entering the Unix marketplace. UI plans to provide
extensive assistance to Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) in both
porting their applications to AT&T Unix System V 4.0, and in marketing the
resulting products. Several microprocessor makers, including Intel (with
its 80x86 and 80860 chips), Sun (with the SPARC Architecture), and
Motorola (with its 680x0 and 88000 chips) are assisting in Unix
International's ISV program.
This will help bring more ISVs into the quickly growing Unix market
(currently estimated at around $15 billion), under the AT&T System V
standard, which is used by 80 percent of the market. Unix International
estimates that by 1991, two-thirds of all major Unix vendors will be
supporting AT&T Unix.
- Austin, TX ADOBE EXECS CHARGED WITH INSIDER TRADING AFTER STOCK FALLS
----------
Adobe Systems stock recently fell $15 1/4 in one day (to $35 1/4 a
share), after it announced that its 2nd Quarter revenue would be $33
million, instead of the previously estimated $41 million. Adobe said that
this was caused by a series of factors, including a temporary decline in
royalty revenue from IBM and NEC, who have recently announced new
Postscript printers.
Another factor was Apple. It seems that Adobe had first expected
to earn about $32 million, but then received reports from Apple that its
Laserwriter royalties hadn't fallen as much as expected. Because of this,
Adobe then announced its revenue may be $41 million. However, in April,
Apple had changed its five-year-old method for figuring Laserwriter
shipments. Interestingly enough, it didn't tell Adobe this when it
informed them of Laserwriter sales figures. Resulting in that Adobe got
"incorrect royalty figures" from Apple, and was startled when Apple's
actual royalty payments came in. Also, it seems that sales of Apple's
Laserwriter printers are better than ever....
A side effect of this event is that a class action suit was recently
filed against seven top Adobe officers, including CEO John Warnock and
President Charles Geschke, for alleged "violations of federal security
laws", and specifically insider trading. This is because in March and
April, these execs sold over 389,153 shares of Adobe stock (for a total of
$1.5 million). While some officers sold 10 percent of their shares,
others sold up to 84 percent of their Adobe stock during this time....
Adobe feels that this is without merit, and CEO John Warnock has
officially stated that NO top Adobe officer or executive knew of the
brewing problem concerning Apple's royalty reports at the time that the
stock sales were made. Since all indications for Adobe stock were good at
this time, Warnock feels that insider trading is not at fault. Also, it
seems that Warnock made his sales (110,000 shares, or 16 percent of his
Adobe stock, for $350,000) in order to pay off a real estate loan....
- Seattle, WA MICROSOFT CO-FOUNDER CREATES "SOFTWARE CONSTRUCTION SET"
-----------
Asymetrix Corp. has introduced a Hypercard-like "software
construction set" called ToolBook. ToolBook uses a graphical "book and
page" metaphor which emulates Hypercard's object-oriented "card and stack"
programming system. It uses objects (prefabricated code modules) that are
represented as icons (Books), which people can use to assemble their own
software programs. Microsoft is bundling a run-time copy of Toolbook with
every copy of Windows 3.0. Cost: $395.00.
ToolBook is designed to work with Microsoft Windows 3.0, and
both supports Windows' DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange), for communicating with
other Windows apps, and its DLE (Dynamic Link Exchange), allowing code
written in other languages to be used in ToolBook programs. It also has a
built-in script language (Open Script), and a Macro Recorder which records
user actions that are performed over objects, saving them as script files.
Asymetrix Inc. was formed by Paul Allen, who formed Microsoft in
1975 with William Gates. Allen had resigned from Microsoft's Board of
Directors in 1983 because of Hodgkin's disease. When the disease went
into remission, Allen founded Asymetrix using his own money. Allen, who
is Microsoft's second-largest shareholder (with 17.3 percent of Microsoft
stock) has also rejoined Microsoft as a director.
On a similar note, HyperRacks Inc. announced that it would license
its OpenField technology (or the U.S. Patents on Zoomracks' "card and
stack" metaphor) to ToolBook developers. Apple Computer licensed this
technology in Dec. 1989, for use by Hypercard developers and end users,
following a patent infringement lawsuit filed by HyperRacks founder Paul
Heckel. As many long-time ST users know, Paul Heckel created Zoomracks
(originally an ST Database program) in 1985, and obtained a general patent
on the hypertext-like "card and stack" metaphor. Heckel also announced
that HyperRacks, a HyperCard add-on similar to Zoomracks for the ST, will
be introduced for the Mac in the Summer....
- Cambridge, MA LOTUS, NOVELL BREAK OFF MERGER TALKS
-------------
Amid heavy industry speculation concerning the effect that the
Lotus/Novell merger would have on the computer industry, Lotus Corp. and
Novell Inc. recently announced that they were cancelling their upcoming
merger, ending all negotiations. It seems that in the last weeks before
this announcement, Lotus had agreed to name the combined corporation,
"Lotus/Novell", and to make Ray Noorda a chairman of the board for the
company. These two things weren't originally in the merger agreement
made by Lotus and Novell, and were objected to by a certain few. Another
thing which was in the original merger agreement was that Lotus execs
would have a 4-3 majority in Lotus/Novell's new Board of Directors. After
Novell asked for equal representation on the board of Lotus/Novell
(something which Novell's stockholders had adamantly called for), Lotus
protested, and the merger talks ground to a stop....
Errata: CPU Report Issue 68 stated that Atari did not build any direct
======= support for CPU Caching into the 68030 TT. Atari representatives
have recently indicated that the TT not only has support for
CPU Caching, but may have a small (16-32K) CPU cache built in
as well....
_________________________________________________________________
> CES'90 STR OnLine? More than one opinion....
=================
This is the mid-week release pertaining to the Consumer Electronics Show
and Atari's participation.
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
///// ////// /////// SUMMER
// // // /// **
//// // ////// C.E.S. SHOW
// // // //
///// // // // JUNE 03, 1990
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
STR Publishing Inc.
STREPORT EYEWITNESS REPORT
===========================
ATARI LYNX ECLIPSED!
by
NEW N.E.C. TURBO EXPRESS HANDHELD GAME MACHINE!!!
ATARI SHOWING "LITTLE THAT'S REALLY NEW!!"
==========================================
CHICAGO, IL. <CES> 06-03-90 (c)1990 STReport: While Atari is busy trying
to appear sharp and spiffy by coming up with witty slogans like <"TOUCH
the FUTURE"> and an elaborate display of the LYNX and Portfolio, NEC has
triumphantly introduced their latest offering in the 'super' game machine
arena. For an upbeat "contemporary happening" Atari only has the LYNX and
the Portfolio. 'Tis a shame both are yesterday's news. Its no wonder,
they chose to NOT show at Spring Comdex! They had NOTHING new and earth
shaking to show.
NO MENTION MADE OF INTRODUCING "THE ATARI ADVANTAGE PACKAGE"!!!
While the USA's userbase anxiously awaits Atari's fabled resurgence,
there was no reference or mention made concerning the introduction of
"The Atari Advantage Package". Which was highly touted in the recent
stock report and at the Las Vegas Fall Comdex show. While there is a
rather fancy sign proclaiming ; "The Atari Advantage - The Complete Family
Workstation", there has been NO INTRODUCTION. Also in the Atari display,
framed by the Advantage posters, were a few new 1040STe units.
According to Atari reps at the show, there will be no introduction at this
show because of a last minute cancellation. Seems a call from Japan (Sam
is in Japan) put the kibosh on the whole thing AGAIN for more "changes".
Should we have expected more? By the time they get this promotional thing
to market the 520stfm will be a collectible antique!
The CES shows are well known as the place where one can find the buyers
from K-Mart and most other MAJOR Mass Merchandisers, it was at this show
that industry observers expected the fancy intro of; "The Atari
Advantage" to be released but no.. nothing unusual for Atari,
disappointment reigns supreme. The GAME MACHINE company continues to
"play games." The 'joke of the show' (so far) was Atari's attempting to
make something, once again, of the 2600 and 7800 game machines. Yes, they
were actually on display! Talk about antiques...
Meanwhile the Portfolio, now embroiled in bitter controversy between Atari
and DIP over unpaid royalties to DIP (the UK designer and manufacturer of
the Portfolio), is rumored to be marketed in the USA shortly by DIP
direct. At that time, the Portfolio will boast a new, highly compatible,
operating system plus a number of attractive add-ons (i.e.; memory
expansion card, etc..) designed and made by DIP. All of which will be
available in the USA through DIP.
In reference to the absence of the memory expander... According to Atari
rep D. Thomas, the memory expander was, in Atari's opinion, "not working
properly" . However, from all reports gathered from those who have the
cards in use "they work just fine." Atari had the Finance Card and the
DOS Utilities Card there along with the File manager card that is normally
bundled with the Portfolio.
The NEC TURBO EXPRESS, with 512 colors displayable, (the Lynx has 16),
and over 50 Games available at this time, and at least 70 games by the end
of the year, will present strong competition to all currently available
handhelds. Additionally, the NEC unit boasts of a nifty little device
that plugs into it to become a full blown, handheld color TV!
The NEC Turbo Express unit is about the same size as the gameboy however,
slightly thicker. Although somewhat more expensive than the Lynx, the
Turbo Express is expected to sell for approximately $200.00 - $249.00 with
the TV tuner module at $90.00 - $100.00 extra. The ultimate clincher is
the reliability of the company, its future, and the prospect of support
and UPGRADES..... Not to mention the abundance of games already available
for this new upcoming handheld, Turbo Express from NEC.
"ALWAYS FIRST WITH THE REAL NEWS!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
STReport Newsline "Your Independent News Source" June 03, 1990
Bulletin Service copyright 1990 No. 106
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
And now, a second opinion.....
ctsy CompuServe....
20857 S1/Forum Business
04-Jun-90 01:16:33
Sb: #20850-#off to ces
Fm: Bob Retelle 71550,3312
Well, actually... my feeling was that Atari made a rather weak showing at
this year's Summer CES...
Even though the booth was marked "Atari Computer," it was heavily oriented
to their game machine offerings... even the STe had a hurriedly hacked up
connector to an XE Game System light gun...
There was a row of 2600 game machines, a row of 7800 game machines, and
quiet a few stations with four Lynxes, only a few of them being "Linked
up" to play multi-player. Most of the ST computers were running games as
well..
Now, of course, everyone knows that this is the show for "Consumer
Electronics" which means GAMES... so in itself, the Atari booth featuring
games wasn't all that bad...
What WAS pretty pathetic was the showing Atari made in comparison to the
rest of the industry.
IF they're going to be featuring games instead of computers, they
certainly weren't prepared for the marketing expertise of their
competitors. The Nintendo booth was far and away the largest booth in the
*entire* CES show.
While sheer size may not make a real difference, the amount of actual
products available DOES...
Atari listed a handful of games as "available" for the Lynx... taken with
a LARGE grain of salt (since some of the games listed as "available"
haven't YET been seen by the general public), that still leaves Atari with
a game machine with games you can count with less than the fingers of both
hands.. after six months on the market...
There were so many new games for the Nintendo GameBoy handheld video game
that I simply lost count... very literally lost count.. there was a
billboard listing all the games now available for GameBoy, which must have
had several hundred titles, I didn't bother to count..
The difference is that the Nintendo Gameboy has the enthusiastic support
of MANY different third-party developers, while the Atari Lynx has none
that I know of...
Somehow, Atari has been unable to understand that simply producing
superior hardware will NOT guarantee success for a system.
The kind of customers that buy games will not be satisfied playing the
same games over and over again.. they need a constant supply of new games
to keep their interest high. Nintendo seems to understand this, and keeps
their game system owners happy by releasing new titles regularly.
(Lest anyone think this is just a Gameboy vs. Lynx issue, there were also
VERY few new games for the Atari 2600 and 7800, while there were literally
dozens of new games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, from MANY
different software companies. Many of the better know computer games are
being translated to Nintendo... none for Atari...)
There was even a rumor that M.U.L.E. was being converted for Nintendo,
though I wasn't able to confirm that.
NONE of the third-party companies I talked with had ANY new games for any
of the Atari game systems...
To add to Atari's problems, I saw the new handheld NEC "Turbo Graphics 16"
game machine... the demonstrator was telling the crowd that it has "5
times the resolution of the Lynx," which was very visually true, when I
got a chance to look at it myself. Probably the biggest selling point for
this handheld game is that is uses the *SAME* game cartridges that the
regular NEC game console uses.. no need to buy special versions of your
favorite games...
The NEC handheld even has a Television tuner available so you can use it
as a VERY nice handheld portable color TV.. and the color was VERY nice,
in both the TV mode, and the video games mode.
The only advantage the Lynx had over the NEC handheld was in price.. the
NEC is expected to sell for $200+
I played several of the games for the NEC systems, and they were quite
good.. and there were several times as many available for the new NEC
system as there are for the six months old Lynx...
It used to be that "Atari" was synonymous with Video Games... now they're
not even a "second rate" player in the game...
So... enough about Video Games... what about Atari Computers..?
WEll.. the last time I went to CES, two years ago, most of the software
companies were demonstrating their new products on an Amiga, an IBM,
possibly a Commodore-64, and an Atari ST...
This year there were no Atari STs at any of the third party booths...
Let me rephrase that... there were NO Atari STs at ANY of the third party
booths...
Saturday night at the great pizza place on Clark Street, I suddenly
realized that I hadn't seen any STs in any of the booths we'd visited.. so
I decided to make a point of watching for them on Sunday... guess what..?
There were NO Atari STs at ANY of the third party booths...
Some of the companies do have versions of their programs coming out for
the Atari ST, but most of the companies I talked to were pretty definite
that the Atari market was very low on their list of priorities.. and in
any case, NONE of them were demonstrating any ST programs to potential
commercial buyers.
The only Atari computers I saw were in the Atari booth...
Quite a change, and a rather graphic statement of the confidence of third
party developers in Atari..
BobR
______________________________________________________________
> PIC FORMATS STR InfoFile? Revised PIC Formats chart
========================
From : ED JUNE at Ground Control,Fido 1:133/403
Subj : Picture formats from UseNet
John Brochu, author of the famed "PicSwitch", sent me a letter
and a disk containing modified picture format descriptions for NeoChrome,
DEGAS Elite Compressed, Spectrum 512 Compressed, GEM Bit Image, IFF,
and MacPaint formats. John also sent a description of the PackBits
compression method used in DEGAS Elite, IFF, and MacPaint formats.
Here's the new version with his corrections. Many thanks go to
John for his contributions, and also to Gerfried Klein who sent
the MacPaint description as described by by *pple, corp.
Dave Baggett
dmb@wam.umd.edu | dmb@TIS.COM
PS> The "GEM Bit Image" description in previous versions describes an
outdated version of this format which has been replaced by what
is described below. John believes that the old format was never
actually implemented, so I took the description out.
ST Picture Formats
------------------
Edited by:
David Baggett
5640 Vantage Point Road
Columbia, MD 21044 USA
(301) 596-4779
(usenet: dmb@TIS.COM)
(Please report errors or additions)
Copyright (C) 1988, 1989, 1990 by David M. Baggett
Non-profit redistribution of this document is permitted, provided
the document is not modified in any way.
Reproduction of this document in whole or in part for commercial
purposes is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent
of David M. Baggett.
The information presented here is not guaranteed to be correct.
The editor and contributors will in no event be liable for direct,
indirect, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from the
use of the information in this document.
This document is the product of many hours of volunteer work by a
large number of people. Please respect this -- do not violate the
distribution policy.
CONTRIBUTORS
Phil Blanchfield Jason Blochowiak John Brochu**
David Brooks Neil Forsyth Stefan Hoehn Gerfried Klein
Ken MacLeod Jim McCabe Darek Mihocka David Mumper
George Seto Joe Smith Greg Wageman Roland Waldi* Gerry Wheeler
Contents
--------
NEOchrome *.NEO
NEOchrome Animation *.ANI
DEGAS *.PI? ? = 1, 2, 3
DEGAS Elite *.PI? ? = 1, 2, 3
DEGAS Elite (Compressed) *.PC? ? = 1, 2, 3
Tiny *.TN? ? = 1, 2, 3, Y
Spectrum 512 *.SPU
Spectrum 512 (Compressed) *.SPC
Art Director *.ART
C.O.L.R. Object Editor Mural *.MUR
Doodle *.DOO
Animatic Film *.FLM
GEM Bit Image *.IMG
STAD *.PAC
Imagic Film/Picture *.IC? ? = 1, 2, 3
IFF *.IFF
MacPaint *.MAC
PackBits Compression Algorithm
Introductory Information
------------------------
word = 2 bytes
long = 4 bytes
palette = Hardware color palette, stored as 16 words. First word is
color register zero (background), last word is color register
15. Each word has the form:
Bit: (MSB) 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00(LSB)
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
0 0 0 0 0 R2 R1 R0 0 G2 G1 G0 0 B2 B1 B0
R2 = MSB of red intensity
R0 = LSB of red intensity
G2 = MSB of green intensity
G0 = LSB of green intensity
B2 = MSB of blue intensity
B0 = LSB of blue intensity
Intensity ranges from 0 (color not present) to 7 (highest
intensity).
Example: { red = 7, green = 3, blue = 5 } -> 0735 (hex)
Caveat: It is wise to mask off the upper four bits of each
palette entry, since a few programs store special
information there (most notably Art Studio).
The Formats
-----------
<NEOchrome> *.NEO
1 word flag byte [always 0]
1 word resolution [0 = low res, 1 = medium res, 2 = high res]
16 words palette
12 bytes filename [usually " . "]
1 word color animation limits. High bit (bit 15) set if color
animation data is valid. Low byte contains color
animation limits (4 most significant bits are left/lower
limit, 4 least significant bits are right/upper limit).
1 word color animation speed and direction. High bit (bit 15)
set if animation is on. Low order byte is # vblanks per
step. If negative, scroll is left (decreasing). Number
of vblanks between cycles is |x| - 1
1 word # of color steps (as defined in previous word) to display
picture before going to the next. (For use in slide
shows)
1 word image X offset [unused, always 0]
1 word image Y offset [unused, always 0]
1 word image width [unused, always 320]
1 word image height [unused, always 200]
33 words reserved for future expansion
16000 words picture data (screen memory)
-----------
32128 bytes total
<NEOchrome Animation> *.ANI
NOTE:
To get this feature on versions 0.9 and later select the
Grabber icon and click both mouse buttons in the eye of the second R
in the word GRABBER. Interestingly enough, some versions of NEO only
require you to press the right button, not both. Hmmm...
1 long magic number BABEEBEA (hex) (seems to be ignored)
1 word width of image in bytes (always divisible by 8)
1 word height of image in scan lines
1 word size of image in bytes + 10 (!)
1 word x coordinate of image (must be divisible by 16) - 1
1 word y coordinate of image - 1
1 word number of frames
1 word animation speed (# vblanks to delay between frames)
1 long reserved; should be zero
--------
22 bytes total for header
? words image data (words of screen memory) for each frame, in
order
<DEGAS> *.PI1 (low resolution)
*.PI2 (medium resolution)
*.PI3 (high resolution)
1 word resolution (0 = low res, 1 = medium res, 2 = high res)
Other bits may be used in the future; use a simple bit
test rather than checking for specific word values.
16 words palette
16000 words picture data (screen memory)
-----------
32034 bytes total
<DEGAS Elite> *.PI1 (low resolution)
*.PI2 (medium resolution)
*.PI3 (high resolution)
1 word resolution (0 = low res, 1 = medium res, 2 = high res)
Other bits may be used in the future; use a simple bit
test rather than checking for specific word values.
16 words palette
16000 words picture data (screen memory)
4 words left color animation limit table (starting color numbers)
4 words right color animation limit table (ending color numbers)
4 words animation channel direction flag (0=left, 1=off, 2=right)
4 words 128-animation channel delay in 1/60's of a second. [0-128]
(I.e., subtract word from 128 to get 1/60th's of a sec.)
-----------
32066 bytes total
<DEGAS Elite (Compressed)> *.PC1 (low resolution)
*.PC2 (medium resolution)
*.PC3 (high resolution)
1 word resolution (same as Degas, but high order bit is set;
i.e., hex 8000 = low res, hex 8001 = medium res,
hex 8002 = high res). Other bits may be used in the
future; use a simple bit test rather than checking
for specific word values.
16 words palette
< 32000 bytes control/data bytes
4 words left color animation limit table (starting color numbers)
4 words right color animation limit table (ending color numbers)
4 words animation chan direction flag [0 = left, 1=off,2= right]
4 words 128-animation chan delay in 1/60's of a second. [0-128]
(I.e., subtract word from 128 to get 1/60th's of a
second.)
-----------
< 32066 bytes total
Compression Scheme:
PackBits compression is used (see below). Each scan line is compressed
separately; i.e., all data for a given scan line appears before any data
for the next scan line. The scan lines are specified from top to bottom
(i.e., 0 is first). For each scan line, all the data for a given bit
plane appears before any data for the next higher order bit plane. Note
this is identical to the IFF 'BODY' image data.
To clarify: The first data in the file will be the data for the lowest
order bit plane of scan line zero, followed by the data for the next
higher order bit plane of scan line zero, etc., until all bit planes have
been specified for scan line zero. The next data in the file will be the
data for the lowest order bit plane of scan line one, followed by the data
for the next higher order bit plane of scan line one, etc., until all bit
planes have been specified for all scan lines.
Caveats:
DEGAS Elite's picture loading routine places some restrictions on
compressed DEGAS files:
o Elite uses a 40-byte buffer to store data being decompressed.
o Whenever a control command is encountered, bytes are stuffed
in this buffer.
o The buffer is only emptied when there are EXACTLY 40
characters in it.
The important conclusion here is that
No control command may cause the buffer to have more than 40
bytes in it. In other words, all control commands must end on
or before the 40-byte boundary.
Any picture violating the last condition will cause Elite to get a bus
error when the picture is loaded.
<Tiny> *.TNY (any resolution)
*.TN1 (low resolution)
*.TN2 (medium resolution)
*.TN3 (high resolution)
Several people have reported sightings of mutated Tiny pictures that
do not follow the standard format, so let's be careful out there. What
is described here is the format that David Mumper's original
TNYSTUFF.PRG produces.
1 byte resolution (same as NEO, but +3 indicates rotation
information also follows)
If resolution > 2 {
1 byte left and right color animation limits. High 4 bits
hold left (start) limit; low 4 bits hold right (end)
limit
1 byte direction and speed of color animation (negative value
indicates left, positive indicates right, absolute value
is delay in 1/60's of a second.
1 word color rotation duration (number of iterations)
}
16 words palette
1 word number of control bytes
1 word number of data words
3-10667 bytes control bytes
1-16000 words data words
-------------
42-32044 bytes total
Control byte meanings:
For a given control byte, x:
x < 0 Absolute value specifies the number of unique words to
take from the data section (from 1 to 127)
x = 0 1 word is taken from the control section which specifies
the number of times to repeat the next data word (from
128 to 32767)
x = 1 1 word is taken from the control section which specifies
the number of unique words to be taken from the data
section (from 128 - 32767)
x > 1 Specifies the number of times to repeat the next word
taken from the data section (from 2 to 127)
Format of expanded data:
The expanded data is not simply screen memory bitmap data; instead, the
data is divided into four sets of vertical columns. (This results in
better compression.) A column consists of one specific word taken
from each scan line, going from top to bottom. For example, column 1
consists of word 1 on scanline 1 followed by word 1 on scanline 2, etc.,
followed by word 1 on scanline 200.
The columns appear in the following order:
1st set contains columns 1, 5, 9, 13, ..., 69, 73, 77 in order
2nd set contains columns 2, 6, 10, 14, ..., 70, 74, 78 in order
3rd set contains columns 3, 7, 11, 15, ..., 71, 75, 79 in order
4th set contains columns 4, 8, 12, 16, ..., 72, 76, 80 in order
Note that Tiny partitions the screen this way regardless of resolution;
i.e., these aren't bitplanes. For example, medium resolution only has two
bitplanes, but Tiny still divides medium resolution pictures into four
parts.
<Spectrum 512> *.SPU
80 words first scan line of picture (unused) -- should be zeroes
15920 words picture data (screen memory) for scan lines 1 through 199
9552 words 3 palettes for each scan line (the top scan line is
not included because Spectrum 512 can't display it)
-----------
51104 bytes total
<Spectrum 512 (Compressed)> *.SPC
1 word flag word [$5350 or "SP"]
1 word reserved for future use [always 0]
1 long length of data bit map
1 long length of color bit map
<= 32092 bytes compressed data bit map
<= 17910 bytes compressed color bit map
--------------
<= 50014 bytes total
Data compression:
Compression is via a modified run length encoding (RLE) scheme,
similar to DEGAS compressed and Tiny. The data map is stored as a
sequence of records. Each record consists of a header byte followed by
one or more data bytes. The meaning of the header byte is as follows:
For a given header byte, x:
0 <= x <= 127 Use the next x + 1 bytes literally (no
repetition)
-128 <= x <= -1 Use the next byte -x + 2 times
The data appears in the following order:
1. Picture data, bit plane 0, scan lines 1 - 199
2. Picture data, bit plane 1, scan lines 1 - 199
3. Picture data, bit plane 2, scan lines 1 - 199
4. Picture data, bit plane 3, scan lines 1 - 199
Decompression of data ends when 31840 data bytes have been used.
Color map compression:
Each 16-word palette is compressed separately. There are three
palettes for each scan line (597 total). The color map is stored as a
sequence of records. Each record starts with a 1-word bit vector which
specifies which of the 16 palette entries are included in the data
following the bit vector (1 = included, 0 = not included). If a palette
entry is not included, it is assumed to be zero (black). The least
significant bit of the bit vector refers to palette entry zero, while the
most significant bit refers to palette entry 15. Bit 15 must be zero,
since Spectrum 512 does not use palette entry 15. Bit 0 should also be
zero, since Spectrum 512 always makes the background color black.
The words specifying the values for the palette entries indicated in
the bit vector follow the bit vector itself, in order (0 - 15).
<Art Director> *.ART (low resolution only)
16000 words picture data (screen memory)
16 words palette
15 * 16 words 15 more palettes for animation
-------------
32512 bytes total
<C.O.L.R. Object Editor Mural> *.MUR (low resolution only)
16000 words picture data (screen memory)
(palettes are stored in separate files)
-----------
32000 bytes total
<Doodle> *.DOO (high resolution only)
16000 words picture data (screen memory)
-----------
32000 bytes total
<Animatic Film> *.FLM (low resolution only)
1 word number of frames
16 words palette
1 word speed (0 - 99; value is 99 - # vblanks to delay between
frames)
1 word direction (0 = forwards, 1 = backwards)
1 word end action (what to do after the last frame)
0 = pause, then repeat from beginning
1 = immediately repeat from beginning
2 = reverse (change direction)
1 word width of film in pixels
1 word height of film in pixels
1 word Animatic version number (major)
1 word Animatic version number (minor)
1 long magic number 27182818 (hex)
3 longs reserved for expansion (should be all zeros)
--------
32 words total for header
? words image data (words of screen memory) for each frame, in
order
<GEM Bit Image> *.IMG
1 word version number of image file [1]
1 word length of header in words [usually 8]
1 word number of color planes [1 for monochrome]
1 word pattern length in bytes [1-8, usually 2 for screen images]
1 word pixel width in microns (1/1000 mm, 25400 microns per inch)
1 word pixel height in microns
1 word line width in pixels
1 word number of lines
-------
? words header length defined in 2nd word of header
? bytes data
NOTES: If the image is a color image (planes > 1), the planes are stored
separately starting with plane 0. There is, however, no standard way of
storing the color palette. Some programs may save the palette in separate
files, some may extend the header. For this reason, you should never
assume the header is 8 words long, always get the header length from the
2nd word of the header. Also, the line width in the 7th word is the
number
of pixels in a line. Since the data is encoded in byte-wide packets, the
actual unpacked line width is always a multiple of 8, and may be 1-7
pixels
longer than the length specified in the header.
For each byte x in the data section,
x = 0 Pattern/scanline run.
Read the next byte, n (unsigned).
If n > 0 then:
Read a number of bytes equal to the
"pattern
length" word in the header. Repeat this
pattern n times.
If n = 0 then:
Scanline run. Data for the next scanline
is to be used multiple times. Read the
following record:
1 byte flag byte [$FF]
1 byte number of times to use
next scanline data
The data for the next scanline follows,
compressed normally.
x = 80 (hex) Uncompressed bit string. The next byte
determines the number of bytes to use
literally. The literal data bytes follow.
otherwise Solid run. The value of x determines
what to draw. The high bit specifies whether
the pixels are set or cleared. A 1 indicates
a byte-run using $FF, a 0 indicates a byte-run
using $00. The low 7 bits, taken as an unsigned
quantity, specify the length of the run in bytes.
<STAD> *.PAC (high resolution only)
4 bytes "pM86" (vertically packed) or "pM85" (horizontally packed)
1 byte id byte
1 byte pack byte (most frequently occurring byte in bitmap)
1 byte "special" byte
-------
7 bytes total for header
? bytes data
The data is encoded as follows. For each byte x in the data section:
x = id byte Read one more byte, n. Use pack byte
n + 1 times.
x = "special" byte Read two more bytes, d, and n (in order).
Use byte d n times.
otherwise Use byte x literally.
<Imagic Film/Picture> *.IC1 (low resolution)
*.IC2 (medium resolution)
*.IC3 (high resolution)
4 bytes "IMDC"
1 word resolution (0 = low res, 1 = medium res, 2 = high res)
16 words palette
1 word date (GEMDOS format)
1 word time (GEMDOS format)
8 bytes name of base picture file (for delta compression), or
zeroes
1 word length of data (?)
1 long registration number
8 bytes reserved
1 byte compressed? (0 = no, 1 = yes)
If compressed {
1 byte delta-compressed? (-1 = no, > -1 = yes)
1 byte ?
1 byte escape byte
}
-------
65 bytes total for header (68 bytes if compressed)
? bytes data
Compressed data may be either stand-alone or delta-compressed (relative
to the base picture named in the header). Delta compression involves
storing only how the picture differs from the base picture (i.e., only
portions of the screen that have changed are stored). This is used to
to encode animated sequences efficiently.
Compressed data, stand-alone:
For each byte x in the data section:
x = escape byte Read one more byte, n. (n is unsigned).
If n >= 2, use the next byte n times.
If n = 1, keep reading bytes until a
byte k not equal to 1 is encountered.
Then read the next byte d.
If the number of 1 bytes encountered is o,
use d (256 * o + k) times. I.e.,
if (n == 1) {
o = 0;
while (n == 1) {
o++;
n = next byte;
}
k = n;
d = next byte;
Use d (256 * o + k) times.
}
else {
d = next byte;
Use d (n) times.
}
x != escape byte Use x literally.
Compressed data, delta compressed:
For each byte x in the data section:
x = escape byte Read one more byte, n. (n is unsigned).
If n >= 3, use the next byte n times.
If n = 1, do the same as for n = 1 in
stand-alone compression (above).
If n = 2, then set n = next byte.
If n = 0, end of picture.
If n >= 2, take n bytes from base
picture.
If n = 1, do the same as for n = 1
in stand-alone compression
(above),
but take (256 * o + k) bytes from
base picture.
x != escape byte Use x literally.
<IFF Format> *.IFF
4 bytes "FORM" (FORM chunk ID)
1 long length of file that follows
4 bytes "ILBM" (InterLeaved BitMap file ID)
4 bytes "BMHD" (BitMap HeaDer chunk ID)
1 long length of chunk [20]
20 bytes 1 word = image width in pixels
1 word = image height in lines
1 word = image x-offset [usually 0]
1 word = image y-offset [usually 0]
1 byte = # bitplanes
1 byte = mask (0=no, 1=impl., 2=transparent, 3=lasso)
1 byte = compressed [1] or uncompressed [0]
1 byte = unused [0]
1 word = transparent color (for mask=2)
1 byte = x-aspect [5=640x200, 10=320x200/640x400,
20=320x400]
1 byte = y-aspect [11]
1 word = page width (usually the same as image width)
1 word = page height (usually the same as image height)
4 bytes "CMAP" (ColorMAP chunk ID)
1 long length of chunk [3*n where n is the # colors]
3n bytes 3 bytes per RGB color. Each color value is a byte
and the actual color value is left-justified in the
byte such that the most significant bit of the value
is the MSB of the byte. (ie. a color value of 15 ($0F)
is stored as $F0) The bytes are stored in R,G,B order.
4 bytes "CRNG" (Color RaNGe chunk ID)
1 long length of chunk [8]
8 bytes 1 word = reserved [0]
1 word = animation speed (16384 = 60 steps per second)
1 word = active [1] or inactive [0]
1 byte = left/lower color animation limit
1 byte = right/upper color animation limit
4 bytes "CAMG" (Commodore AMiGa viewport mode chunk ID)
1 long length of chunk [4]
1 long viewport mode bits (bit 11 = HAM, bit 3 = interlaced)
4 bytes "BODY" (BODY chunk ID)
1 long length of chunk [# bytes of image data that follow]
? bytes actual image data
NOTES: Some of these chunks may not be present in every IFF file, and may
not be in this order. You should always look for the ID bytes to find a
certain chunk. All chunk IDs are followed by a long value that tells the
size of the chunk. This is the number of bytes that FOLLOW the 4 ID bytes
and size longword. The exception to this is the FORM chunk. The size
longword that follows the FORM ID is the size of the remainder of the
file.
The FORM chunk must always be the first chunk in an IFF file.
The R,G,B ranges of AMIGA and ST are different (AMIGA 0...15, ST 0...7),
as is the maximum number of bitplanes (AMIGA: 5, ST: 4).
Format of body data
An expanded picture is simply a bitmap. The packing method is PackBits
(see below), and is identical to MacPaint and DEGAS Elite compressed.
The (decompressed) body data appears in the following order:
line 1 plane 0 ... line 1 plane 1 ... ... line 1 plane m
[line 1 mask (if appropriate)]
line 2 plane 0 ... line 2 plane 1 ... ... line 2 plane m
[line 2 mask (if appropriate)]
...
line x plane 0 ... line x plane 1 ... ... line x plane m
[line x mask (if appropriate)]
The FORM chunk identifies the type of data:
"ILBM" = interleaved bit map
"8SVX" = 8-bit sample voice
"SMUS" = simple music score
"FTXT" = formatted text (Amiga)
<MacPaint> *.MAC
1 long version number [0=ignore header, 2=header valid]
38 * 8 bytes 8x8 brush/fill patterns. Each byte is a pattern row,
and the bytes map the pattern rows top to bottom. The
patterns are stored in the order they appear at the bottom
of the MacPaint screen top to bottom, left to right.
204 bytes unused
-------------
512 bytes total for header
< 51200 bytes compressed bitmap data
-------------
< 51712 bytes total
NOTE: The version number is actually a flag to MacPaint to indicate if
the brush/fill patterns are present in the file. If the version is 0,
the default patterns are used. Therefore you can simply save a MacPaint
file by writing a blank header (512 $00 bytes), followed by the packed
image data.
Bitmap compression:
The bitmap data is for a 576 pixel by 720 pixel monochrome image.
The packing method is PackBits (see below). There are 72 bytes per
scan line. Each bit represents one pixel; 0 = white, 1 = black.
<PackBits Compression Algorithm>
The following packing algorithm originated on the Mac, was adopted by
Electronic Arts/Commodore for use in the IFF standard, and then by Tom
Hudson for use in DEGAS Elite. The algorithm is currently used in
MacPaint, IFF, and DEGAS Elite compressed file formats. Each scan line
is packed separately, and packing never extends beyond a scan line.
For a given control byte 'n':
0 <= n <= 127 : use the next n + 1 bytes literally (no repetition).
-127 <= n <= -1 : use the next byte -n + 1 times.
n = -128 : no operation, not used.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Roland Waldi contributed extensive information on the following formats:
GEM, IMG, Doodle, STAD, Imagic Film/Picture, Art Director, IFF
** John Brochu, ST picture formats guru, provided sage advice and many
corrections to the following formats:
NeoChrome, DEGAS Elite Compressed, Spectrum 512 Compressed,
GEM Bit Image, IFF, MacPaint
Version of Wed May 16 18:02:25 EDT 1990
____________________________________________________________
> THE ATARI APOCALYPSE STR SPECIAL? Why is Atari dying?
================================
NOTICE: This is the first in a series of eight (8) articles which are
designed to stimulate thought and bring to the light of day, the
underlying causes behind the very apparent decline of Atari
Computers worldwide. We will be taking a very thorough look at
every aspect of Atari's management, procedures and policies that
continually seem to send the same message to the users,
developers, contractors, dealers, distributors and prospective
users, "HOORAY FOR US AND THE HELL WITH YOU!"
DO THE TRAMIELS HAVE REAL DIRECTION?
====================================
by Ralph F. Mariano
At the Top
----------
Segment I
As I sit down at the keyboard muttering to myself "well Ralph, the
gloves are finally coming off!"
The folks at the top running Atari have seemingly treated the entire
market, worldwide like a game, a God-awful game! Only they had nothing
much to loose or if they did, they certainly didn't act that way. We know
that the individuals under them have a great to loose as does every user
throughout the world. All have degrees of investment in both Atari and
the future of Atari to loose. Does the current management team at Atari
show any inclination to care about this? There are those at Atari who say
" well, Atari showed a profit while others did not". The point here is
that if Atari had not been diversified, selling game machines (Lynx etc..)
and the Portfolio, they may have sung a different song. The real question
here is simple when is Atari going to truly support the United States of
America market with more than empty promises of advertising for the
COMPUTERS and COMPUTER RELATED PRODUCTS?
Sam Tramiel is, no doubt, the "man in charge". Or is he? Who is
running the 'show in Sunnyvale', from the viewpoint of industry observers,
"the actual guidance and control is highly erratic and unpredictable",
Atari has no real direction other than the repetitive rhetoric seen from
them annually for the last three years. They are "reviewing" multi-
million dollar ad campaigns.. Question: When haven't they been reviewing
and rejecting ad campaigns?
Europe enjoyed the benefits of the bundled software and 520 package
how long ago? Along comes Sam wanting to do the same thing in the states,
but because either he or those directly responsible to him can't seem to
get their act together, the "Atari Advantage" as its slated to be called
in the States, is yet to get off the ground! Could it be that the changes
in management need to start right at the very top? There seems to be
absolutely no follow-up to decisions made at the top levels. It would
appear that the attitude is; "ok, Its decided, therefore its done!" Not
bad. However, to be able to call the shots and never look back is just
fine when the people responsible for carrying out the 'decisions' are
capable of completing the tasks properly and ON TIME.
The entire industry was, just a scant three years or so ago, left
awestruck by the advent of Atari's design and production skills and the
"wonderful 520ST." Every publication that was related to or about
computers had nothing but glowing praise to heap on Atari. What do the
Tramiels do? Fire, retire or, otherwise convince the folks who MADE THE
COMPANY A WINNER to take a hike! Most certainly, at every instance, there
were proper and courteous corporate lingoisms for every 'departure', but
the bottom line was evident, the "Katzenjammer Kids" was very busy
wrestling for absolute control of Atari and appeared to want nothing but
'yes men' beneath them. (The Revolving Door)
The LATEST "why-whatfor" at Atari is in the office; it seems that one
of the fabled Katzenjammer kids must "signoff on everything, EVEN
PAPERCLIPS!" Folks, of course a paperclip is somewhat overly
demonstrative, but the fact remains that if the employee who made this
remark was so thoroughly turned off by the rather senseless actions of a
top executive who insists on "having to have his hands in every picayune
decision made", we would never have heard any of these remarks. Surely,
his time could most certainly be put to much better use.
Getting to the point of this article, we will now attempt to show you
in this segment who is supposed to be in charge at Atari. First, we have
the three Tramiel sons, Sam, Leonard and Garry. Whom we fondly refer to
as the Katzenjammer Kids*. Under them we have a number of rather expert
corporate warriors whose sole mission at Atari appears to be survival at
the expense of the new, younger and less experienced executives. These
corporate warriors have one big problem, they have forgotten what their
real mission at Atari is, they are instead actively engaged in what they,
in the last three years have learned to do best... impress the boss at
being perhaps the most able of yes-men the industry has ever been witness
to. Its obvious folks, almost every user out there agrees that, in the
last three years, Atari has fumbled and bungled continually! The
Katzenjammer Kids will take the blame but they had plenty of help from
their pet 'brownies'. Beneath the Tramiels exists an amazing "Dynasty
Atari". Where only a few of their recently appointed execs seem immune to
its deadly dice rolls. Antonio Salerno certainly appears to be among
those capable of withstanding the internal squeeze plays rather well, in
fact, he may very well emerge as "King of the Mountain".... time will
tell, so far he is showing an expert ability to play the game well.
Then we come across the little known fact that the present leadership
Atari is apparently so out of touch with the pulse of the industry and
reality itself because they may feel they "Already know it all". From the
inside track on Mr Kahane of the JDL, to the structures on the "Dark side
of the Moon"!! Their blatant elitist attitudes are now perhaps catching
up with them and rather fast. Throughout the years we continually hear
the old expression; "all the book learning in the world ...but not a lick
of common sense!" Of course, this adage fits 'nobody at Atari.'
NEXT WEEK; A look from the other side of the fence....
STReport welcomes an opposing opinion from "the powers that be" at Atari
if they so desire....
Due to the sensitive nature of some of the material covered in this
series, we must protect other folks lest they be subject to the
irresponsible reactions so readily apparent by the present leadership at
Atari. Therefore, where quote marks appear, ["] that is an actual quote
but the names will be omitted to protect the dedicated, loyal folks who
still think there is a chance for Atari.
* The Katzenjammer Kids were three cartoon characters in the NY Journal's
Sunday funnies for years. They actually were three spoiled brat kids of
an older German Sea Captain. The kids were continually doing the wrong
things, in trouble with 'Mama' all the time.. etc...
___________________________________________________________
> Stock Market ~ STR Stocks? Watchin' the Sheckles Grow!
=========================
THE TICKERTAPE
==============
by Michael Arthur
Concept by Glenn Gorman
No stock was traded on Monday, Memorial Day. On Tuesday, the price of
Atari stock shot up 3/8 of a point, and went down 1/8 of a point on
Wednesday. Atari Stock went down 1/8 of a point on Thursday, and went
down another 1/8 of a point on Friday, finishing the halt of Tuesday's
increase. Finishing up the week at 5 5/8 points, the price of Atari Stock
did not change since the last report.
Apple Stock was up 3/4 points from Friday, May 25, 1990.
Commodore Stock was up 1 3/4 points from 5/25/90.
IBM Stock was up 3 1/8 points from 5/25/90.
Stock Report for Week of 5/28/90 to 6/01/90
_________________________________________________________________________
STock| Memorial | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
Reprt| Day |Last Chg.|Last Chg.|Last Chg.|Last Chg.|
-----|-----------|-------------|-------------|------------|--------------|
Atari| ----- | 6 + 3/8|5 7/8 - 1/8|5 3/4 - 1/8|5 5/8 - 1/8|
| | | | | 70,500 Sls |
-----|-----------+-------------+-------------+------------+--------------|
CBM | ----- |7 1/2 + 1/8|7 1/2 ---- |8 1/8 + 5/8|9 1/8 + 1 |
| | | | | 730,700 Sls |
-----|-----------+-------------+-------------+------------+--------------|
Apple| ----- | 41 + 1|41 3/8 + 3/8|41 1/4 -1/4|40 3/4 - 1/4|
| | | | |1,403,900 Sls|
-----|-----------+-------------+-------------+------------+--------------|
IBM | ----- |119 3/4 |120 7/8 | 120 - 7/8|119 1/2 - 1/2|
| | +3 1/2| +1 1/8| |1,542,000 Sls|
-----'-------------------------------------------------------------------'
'Sls' refers to the # of stock shares that were traded that day.
'CBM' refers to Commodore Corporation.
'----' means that the stock's price did not change for the day.
_________________________________________________________
> PCD II <--> STR Spotlight? Getting any better???
=========================
C.GEEROMS posts;
In the meantime, while waiting for Avantgarde to respond to my request for
refund because "the thing" won't fit in my mega with an internal hard
drive...anyone wanna buy it? new pals chips installed..nr installed or
attempted "factory fresh"..$154 takes it. Leave email.
------------
BOOJIBOY posts;
Hello everyone. It has been a while since I have replied to this topic. I
have been logging on very regularly though. I must report a problem with
my PC Ditto II. Since yesterday, I have not been able to use it and have
had serious problems using my "A" drive. Basically, I can boot the DOS
disk, but once I get to the A> prompt, the computer locks up. Also my A
drive has been refusing to boot even GEM disks. When I remove the PCD2
board, it works fine. Now this is odd since up until yesterday, it had
been working flawlessly. Is it possible that because here, in San Diego
we have had a heat wave and with all of the air conditioners being used,
my power supply is not providing enough "juice" for the computer with PCD2
installed? If so, how do I go about increasing power? I have a Mega 2,
upgraded to 4 megs. Any suggestions?
D.RICHARD posts;
I sent my Ditto II back to AG about 8 weeks ago. I was having problems and
they were going to look at it and return it. It has not come back. I have
been unable to get through by phone (I work during most of their 'support'
hours) and could use some help. If anyone gets through to them, would you
be kind enough to ask if my Ditto II (ser #10232) is on it's way back? If
I can't get it to work on my machine I would like to sell it, but right
now I have neither refund nor Ditto II, so I am beginning to wonder if
I've been ripped off. AG has been very good in past about these things
(prior to the Ditto II stuff) for me, but I am beginning to wonder what's
going on. Thanks.
_____________________________________________
> TT in CANADA STR NewsPlus? CANADA GETS THE TT030 FIRST!!
=========================
Media Release:
Atari (Canada) Corp.
90 Gough Rd, unit 1
Markham ON
L3R 5V5
Markham, Ontario, June 4th, 1990 - With the powerful new TT, ATARI is set
to challenge the high-end business productivity and workstation market.
"ATARI puts technology first", says Geoffrey Earle, General Manager, ATARI
(Canada) Corp. "We're leading edge innovators in everything we produce.
ATARI offers high technology at affordable prices. Nowhere in the more
evident than with the TT. It offers a whole new array of features and
processing power, while remaining compatible with thousands of existing ST
software titles."
Based around the 68030 processor, the 32-bit TT comes standard with 2 Mb
of RAM. It has the power for intensive applications, such as CAD and DTP,
while offering the friendly graphic interface which has made the ATARI ST
so popular.
Unlike MS-DOS systems, which use an 8/16 bit operating system, the TT is a
true 32-bit machine with a 32-bit operating system, allowing greater
throughput. The video processor and the optional math coprocessor act as
superchargers, pushing the 16 MHz clock speed to its maximum potential.
This Machine is FAST.
The TT accepts both industry standard displays or ATARI's own inexpensive
models. Six graphic modes are available on the TT - 1280 x 960 mono, 640 x
480 in 16 colours, 640 x 400 x 2, 640 x 200 x 4, 320 x 480 x 256, 320 x
200 x 16. With a palette of 4096 colours, 8-bit stereo digital sound and
the popular MIDI in/out ports the TT is a true multi-media machine.
With industry standard ports (VME, SCSI, Appletalk, MIDI, parallel,
serial, ASCI), the TT can use a wide array of peripherals such as
scanners, plotters, laser printers, hard drives and CD-ROMs. With this
versatility, the TT is a useful new member to almost any existing computer
network.
In the future, UNIX V will be available for the TT, creating a workstation
environment comparable to that of a SUN workstation at a fraction of the
price.
The TT uses standard 1.44 Mb 3.5" disks, allowing easy exchange of WP, CAD
and DTP files between the TT and MS-DOS machines. For design applications
the combination of DynaCADD, Calamus DTP and the ATARI TT set a new
benchmark in both price and performance.
In a DTP benchmark test performed by Linotype, Calamus performed three
times faster than any other package. Simply put, there is no comparison
between cost, price and ease of use of Calamus on a TT and other systems.
DynaCADD runs 2 to 10 times faster than a similarly equipped 386 running
Autocad. Because DynaCADD used the industry standard DXF file format, the
TT users has the power as well as the portability. DynaCADD's superior
user-interface, allowable due to the intuitive nature of ATARI TOS,
ensures that more time is spent being productive than learning how to use
the software.
The TT is now being shipped to developers and is scheduled for Canada-wide
release in fall 1990 with a retail price of under $5000 (configurations
and prices vary).
First Impressions of the TT in Canada
=====================================
(or, how I Quick Indexed the TT to death in Canada)
(or, I'm waiting for the Americans to start freaking out!)
(C) 1990 by Darek Mihocka, June 4, 1990.
Well, today was the day Atari Canada made it's big debut of the TT at
a downtown Toronto hotel. Free food too. You'll probably be hearing a lot
about it in the next few days (the TT, not the food) and it'll be
interesting to see how soon the promises start getting broken. As
expected, the machine is not available yet, and is supposed to ship later
this year.
As of today, TT's are available to developers in Canada, and dealers
can expect a few for demo purposes by the end of August, with real
shipments starting in fourth quarter. The press release states "The Atari
TT is scheduled for Canada-wide release in fall of 1990". The invitation
talked about a "North American" debut, so I don't know what that means for
the U.S. market. Probably 1993.
The retail price is $3995.00 Canadian, (that's about $3395.00 U.S).
That includes 2Meg of RAM and a 40 meg hard drive. Add from $200 to $1000
for a monitor, depending on which one you get. The floppy disk drive is
still IBM compatible, now supporting the 1.44M format.
The machine supports 6 screen resolutions, including the original 3
from the ST, plus a 1280x960 Moniterm mode, a 640x480 16 color VGA mode,
and a 256 color 320x480 mode. The color monitor being used at the time, an
Atari TTC30 or something was capable of supporting everything but the
Moniterm mode. The desktop in VGA mode looked quite good, comparable to a
Mac II desktop or a Windows desktop on a VGA monitor. The display was
crisp and free of any interference. The TT has the 4096 color palette of
the STE, as well as the 8-bit stereo sound, making it a machine ready for
multimedia applications.
The TOS running in this machine was still TOS 3.0, 03/01/90 version.
The real TOS for the TT is supposed to be 2.0, and it's supposed to be a
lot faster than 3.0. I ran Quick Index on the TT just to see the kind of
performance I'd get. With the cache on, the CPU numbers are between about
350% to 500%, and with the cache off, about 30% slower. What this means is
that in terms of raw processing speed, the TT can run 68000 code about 3
or 4 or 5 times faster than an 8MHz ST or STE. I tried some sample
software which I had earlier timed on my STE, and found the increase to be
consistently about a factor of 3.
All the Atari reps were emphasizing the speed. Calamus was being
displayed, and the TT flyer and press release were both riddled with
references to DynaCADD, and a 6 page DynaCADD brochure was included with
the press release. The explanation given was that Atari wants to
demonstrate that the machine is a full blown CAD workstation, and can run
existing ST CAD packages. Once software like Calamus and DynaCADD is
recompiled for the 68030, it will run even faster.
All of the documentation presented was created with Calamus, and the
press release mentions that Calamus running on the TT prints three times
faster than any other package. It doesn't mention which other packages,
but goes on to say that DynaCADD running on the TT is 2 to 10 times faster
than Autocad running on a 386 based machine.
Atari is also working with an unnamed third party to develop a
software PC emulator that runs at the speed of an AT. And I'm sure
another unnamed third party is busy on a Mac II emulator.
The TT also comes with an Appletalk interface (gee, I wonder why!),
MIDI ports, VME slot, 2 serial ports expandable to 4 (hey sysops, imagine
the possibilities!), and SCSI and ACSI. The machine is certainly set up
to communicate with the rest of the world. UNIX, X Windows, and Ethernet
support are listed in the "Future Support" category of the spec sheet.
Hopefully this isn't being handled by the same department that was
responsible for getting the STacy and STE to US markets last year.
The thing that I found quite odd with the TT is that with all the
nifty hardware built in, this machine does NOT have a blitter chip. The
last thing I would have expected in a machine that's being presented as a
powerful graphics workstation is that all graphics operations are being
performed by software, and by TOS 3.0 of all things. This TOS, I'm told,
is almost identical to the TOS 1.6 currently installed in STEs, which as
we all know, is almost the same thing as TOS 1.4, just slightly faster.
TOS 2.0 is supposed to change all that and really be fast, but I seriously
doubt that they'll whip together something by August, given that TOS has
already been worked on for 5 years.
So, back to Quick Index I went and benchmarked the screen performance.
Someone at the presentation had mentioned that you could load in a
DynaCADD file with 10,000 objects and watch them redraw REALLY fast. Well,
the numbers I got from Quick Index, for example, in medium resolution,
gave the TT a GEM index of 166% relative to the STE. That's about 180%
relative to a Mega ST. So in other words, the TT, running TOS 1.4 (or
close enough to it) on a 68030 was not even twice as fast as an 8MHz 68000
with blitter support. Take away the blitter and you're slightly over 200%.
However, take into account that you can drop in Jim Allen's T-16
accelerator board into almost any ST, and for $300 give yourself a 50%
speed boost. That cuts the lead of the TT down to about 30% at best for
screen redraws, and about 200% for general CPU operations. Needless to
say, I wasn't kidding last week when I said that an ST running Quick ST
blows away the TT in screen performance. Text operations gave similar
results, and about the only screen operation the TT was good at was VT52
scrolling. That's due to the 32-bit data bus of the 68030 compared to the
68000's 16-bit bus.
Don't forget also that there will be the usual incompatibility
problems with older ST software. You think TOS 1.4 compatibility was bad.
Wait till they try running the stuff on a 68030!
So, the TT is a nifty machine, and for only $4000 you can emulate an
AT and run UNIX as well. I should say "you'll be able to...". I still have
bad memories of the 1450XLD and 260ST. You all remember the 260ST? The
original ST, until they actually tried to put it together and realized
they couldn't make TOS run on 256K. Hopefully TOS 2.0 will run on 2 meg!
But in all fairness, since this information was presented by ATARI
CANADA, in Canada, and was not just another Sunnyvale stab in the dark
about what they might ship in 3 years, I have faith that Atari Canada
will deliver as promised. They delivered on the STE and STacy and CD-ROM,
so all I can say is that I'm glad I'm not in the US.
About 6 months ago, I was wetting my pants and then some over the STE.
Not so for the TT, at least not yet. It's out of the price range of most
casual ST users, and as an ST compatible machine, offers less than a
doubling of power for more than double the price of, say, a Mega ST 2.
Sure the TT specific software written for the 68030 will be faster, but
that will mean buying a whole new set of software.
I think what will probably evolve will be some sort of a 68030 upgrade
for existing STs (c'mon Dave!), similar to the kind of upgrades we saw a
few years ago for converting 8088 machine to 80286 machines. I've already
got 3 STs and 2 monitors, I don't need more. I would much rather pay $1000
or more to upgrade my 4 meg STE to a 4 meg STE/030 instead of shelling out
another $4000 for something only slightly better.
The TT will still hopefully sell well in the business market. The
hardware is certainly there and at the right price. Perhaps not as fast as
we'd like to believe, but the same hype existed with the 386 chip. Perhaps
the TT will follow the same path as 386 machines, and a year or two from
now we'll see a more affordable TT working its way into the home market
replacing the then obsolete 68000 based STs.
Well, that's the way I see it anyway.
- Darek
---------------------------------------------------------
> AUA NEWSBRIEFS STR FOCUS? ATARI USERS ASSOCIATION NEWSBRIEFS
========================
by D. C. Signorini
What happened to 1990? We are now half way through the year and I
look back at the first 6 months and think about how fast this year has
progressed! I can attribute this fast paced year only to my hectic work
schedule and my rather vast social life (ahem...).
I guess we can call this article the "Mid Year AUA Report" or
something equally as descriptive. As promised in my last article in STR
(thanks Ralph for going back to the ST Report name, by the way), I bring
you the latest stats for the AUA membership. I almost want to save this
information for the AUA NewsBriefs Disk Magazine, but I think these
statistics are important for both members of the AUA and those ST users
who are hoping to join the AUA in the VERY near future. So, I decided to
go ahead and publish this information publicly for all to share. Let me
begin by saying that the AUA membership has more than doubled since the
month of January. At this pace, we project that total membership in the
AUA will cross the 2000 plateau by year end, a number that does not
include user groups and developers. I believe that it is safe to assume
that at that time, the AUA will be the largest Atari organization in the
world as we know it!
So what does all of this mean? Well for one thing, with such a large
membership, we will have greater resources to tap for the disk magazine
and the printed newsletter. Secondly, we will have established the one
large voice to Atari that the AUA had originally set out to accomplish.
And thirdly, we will have the strong inter-user link established that will
allow the AUA to communicate to its members, its members to communicate to
the AUA, and usergroups to communicate to each other. If you have been
hesitant about joining the AUA until now, I would like to encourage you to
do so. Remember that the AUA membership is FREE! You need not pay a
single dime to join! All you have to do is help us out by renewing your
membership once a year so that we can keep our data up to date.
Before I get to the actual stats, I would like to comment on a few
letters that I received concerning the status of the AUA and the
Pittsburgh controversy. One of our members, whose name I will hold
anonymous, wrote to me expressing his concern about the AUA and its views
of software piracy. He stated that he could not continue to promote the
AUA to his user group until the AUA establishes its stance against
software piracy. It occurred to me that in all of my articles and message
posts, I never actually made it clear that the AUA will fight to curb
software piracy. How will we do this you ask? Well, our first philosophy
is to educate the community by showing them the reasons why software
piracy hurts the ST. Secondly, we are currently perusing membership in
the Software Publishers Association (SPA), a world wide organization
established to fight software piracy. By doing joining the SPA, the AUA
will hopefully set an example for our members and the ST community. The
AUA alone can not stop software piracy on the ST. It takes a combined
effort by everyone of us to help bring this plague to an end. The AUA
will not in any way, shape, or form support any practice of software
piracy nor will it condone actions that may indicate software piracy!
Period. I hope that this statement will satisfy our member who wrote to
us this past month.
Next, I would like to thank all those who have dropped a line
expressing their enthusiasm for the AUA. These types of letters always
help us to see clear on the AUA goals and to get the AUA to move a little
faster. Keep the letters rolling as well as the applications!
Finally, I would like to stress to our foreign friends that when
sending membership dues to us from abroad, to please send the check in US
funds! We can not afford to convert the checks to US dollars here! So,
please, send us your membership dues in US dollars!
That is it for this week.
Following are some membership stats that you will find encouraging:
*** AUA MEMBERSHIP BROKEN DOWN BY COUNTRY as of May 31, 1990
======================================================================
United States 91.0% New Zealand 4.9% Canada 2.9%
Finland 0.27% Australia 0.9%
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Countries represented: 5 TOTAL: 100%
======================================================================
*** AUA MEMBERSHIP BROKEN DOWN BY STATES as of May 31, 1990
======================================================================
AL 0.49% AZ 9.49% CA 4.87% CO 0.49% CT 2.68% DC 0.24%
DE 0.49% FL 1.70% GA 1.46% HI 0.97% IA 0.49% IL 2.19%
IN 0.73% KS 0.49% KY 0.49% LA 1.22% MA 0.97% MD 1.70%
ME 0.24% MI 0.49% MN 0.24% MO 0.73% NC 0.24% NE 1.70%
NJ 18.25% NV 0.24% NY 3.65% OH 3.65% OK 0.49% OR 0.24%
PA 29.93% RI 0.49% SC 0.49% TN 0.73% TX 2.68% UT 0.24%
VA 1.95% WA 1.46% WI 0.73%
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Total States represented: 39 TOTAL: 100%
=======================================================================
Derek C. Signorini, AUA Coordinator
The AUA
P.O. Box 123
Canonsburg, PA 15317 USA
_____________________________________________________________
> STReport CONFIDENTIAL? Sayin' it like it is.....
=====================
- New York City, NY HEAD OF ATARI FRANCE TO "SAVE" ATARI US
-----------------
Atari is planning to transfer the President Director General, Elie
Kenan of its French subsidiary to the US and give him the title of GENERAL
MANAGER NORTH AMERICA. There is talk that he will be separate from Atari
Corp in Sunnyvale. Elie Kenan is a long time personal friend of Jack
Tramiel's. Seems Jack has finally stepped in and taken some corrective
measures. Atari will begin its new approaches and be under his guidance
as of the 15th of July. Now, if he can keep the Katzenjammer 'out to
lunch long enough...'
- Sunnyvale, CA. DESKSET II EUTHANIZED!
-------------
DeskSet II, much heralded at one time as the creme de la creme of
Typesetting solutions, has been quietly put sleep. This program, with
tens of thousands of development dollars under its belt, never was
accepted by the userbase as a solution for much of anything. The reason
stated; "there was so much better to be had in Calamus and Pagestream and
they didn't cost as much." Calamus is slated to be bundled with Atari's
Laser Printers.
- Orlando, FL. FAMED ORLANDO DEALER CLOSES DOORS
-----------
Ranked among the better dealers nationwide, McDonald's Computers of
Orlando Florida has closed his doors. While not completely out of the
running, he will operate on a limited basis out of his home in a valiant
attempt to continue to service the loyal Atari computer userbase in that
area. Nice going Atari... where's those hundreds of dealers you're
signing up??? Take better care of those you have!
___________________________________________________________
> WHY???? STR OnLine? OBSERVATIONS OF A CONCERNED USER....
==================
ctsy GEnie
Message 131 Sat Jun 02, 1990
JACK.D at 22:56 EDT
Say, has anyone at Atari ever given consideration to the fact that for
the last 4+ years (the first few months were pretty positive!), that we
users out here have been saying the same things...that if Atari U.S.
doesn't get off of its duff and start advertising, supporting, etc., that
they are going to fail...andja know what's been happening for the entire
time? Yup...it's just a slow crawl to complete disappearance...
I dunno 'bout you, but I should think that all of those users may just
be right. I mean, if nothing else, _trying_ what they've begged for all
of this time just MIGHT make a difference!
Yeah, sure...I've seen the ads for the Portfolio...and that's real
nice... but WHERE does the potential customer GO? There are virtually NO
DEALERS left across the U.S. Again, I dunno 'bout you, but if I _do_ get
the urge to go look at (and maybe buy) a new "toy ", I'll make a bit of an
effort, but if it means that I have to travel from NYC to L.A. in order
to even _see/touch_ one, fergit it! Beyond that, let's assume that I find
and buy one...Now I need software for it, yes? WHERE do I get _that_???
There just don't seem to be too many choices for programs, so when my
business associates ask, guess what I'm gonna tell them about buying
one???
It would certainly seem to make a LOT more sense (to we users, that
is), that Atari provide the support for the EXISTING hardware and
software, advertise it, etc., and I think that the new customer will be
far more inclined to understand that a new product requires time to be
supported. (In the interim, perhaps the no-longer-disgruntled 3rd-party
developers will be a bit more happy to work WITH Atari at developing some
other new materials for the Portfolio and Lynx.) Ah well...just my
semi-annual suggestion...that used to be daily, 'til I came to the
conclusions listed above...sigh.
Seeya! [Jack]
______________________________________________________________
> FAST FAX! STR InfoFile? MichTron's NEW Fast FAX ....
======================
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fast FAX
For the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, and IBM PC's and compatibles.
There are many things to consider when purchasing a fax machine or a fax
modem. You can purchase a fax machine for $600 that will take one page of
paper at a time and send it to one location while you stand beside it and
dial the phone.
You can purchase a more expensive fax machine for around $1000 that can
handle more then one page and even send a fax after you have left for the
day. (But it will probably take you about 10 minutes to program it to send
that fax).
You can buy a really nice fax machine for $2000 that will send more then
one fax. However these machines are even more difficult to program. Even
worse, if you get an error while sending the first fax in the series,
that's all for the night.
Fast FAX is more efficient at scheduling and transmitting fax's then any
self-contained fax machine at any price!
The software is exceptional!
With just a few clicks of the mouse you can send one fax to hundreds of
people!
With another click or two you can schedule transmissions to occur around
the globe during non-peak hours and enjoy reduced telephone rates.
(Normally, you'll be able to save about 50% on these calls.)
These features save you time and money. Fast FAX will actually pay for
itself in only a few short months.
Quality is another prime consideration when purchasing a Fax machine.
The normal process for sending a fax is to prepare your document, print it
out using your printer, then take it to a fax machine which scans the page
and sends it. The receiving machine then prints it out.
However, problems arise if the original document was not perfectly
straight when it was scanned.
The receiving machine is going to print it out just a tiny bit crooked.
This may not seem important, but the page is scanned in a series of dots.
These dots will not line up in a straight line and this will cause the
letters printed by the receiving fax to be jagged and hard to read.
Fast FAX simultaneously converts and transmits Graphics, Letterheads, and
signatures along with text directly from your disk using its own 8 MHz
68000 microprocessor and 32K of built in memory giving you outstanding
transmissions every time!
Advantages in receiving with Fast FAX.
When Fast FAX receives a fax it is saved as a disk file. This file can be
displayed and read on your screen, or printed on most popular printers.
You can also save the fax in graphics format and load it into the more
popular graphics programs.
If someone faxes you a graphic you can save many steps and improve
quality greatly. A normal graphic is scanned in, printed at the receiving
end, scanned into the computer and by then needs extensive touchup.
Fast FAX lets you load the original scanned image directly into a graphics
program.
Fast FAX:
o Saves your money by scheduling non-peak hour
transmissions.
o Saves more money by using ordinary paper.
o Saves your valuable time by sending multiple faxes to
multiple locations.
o Has better quality than normal fax machines due to its
onboard 68000 processor and built-in RAM and ROM.
o Has outstanding software making it easy to use.
o Communicates with G3 fax devices at 9600 baud.
o Provides document storage and forwarding capability.
o Allows automatic scheduling of operations.
o Automatically provides a transcript of each
operation.
o Has User-definable fax headers.
o Works with most widely used dot matrix and laser
printers
o Permits you to view fax documents on your computers
screen.
o Saves Graphic images as .IMG files on the Atari and IBM
PC.
o Saves Amiga graphics as .IFF files.
For more information and to place your order,
call MichTron at (313) 377-8898.
**********************************************************************
:HOW TO GET YOUR OWN GENIE ACCOUNT:
_________________________________
To sign up for GEnie service: Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369.
Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that).
Wait for the U#= prompt.
Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN.
**** SIGN UP FEE WAIVED ****
The system will now prompt you for your information.
**********************************************************************
> Hard Disks STR InfoFile? Affordable Mass Storage....
=======================
NEW PRICES! & MORE MODELS!!
============================
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LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS
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____________________________________________________________
> A "Quotable Quote"?
=================
"ADVERTISING IS LIKE AN ADDICTION; ONCE YOU START, YOU CAN'T STOP"
....Sam Tramiel
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STReport? "Your Independent News Source" June 08, 1990
16/32bit Magazine copyright = 1990 No.6.23
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