ST Report: 26-Dec-92 #851
From: Bruce D. Nelson (aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 12/27/92-01:07:32 PM Z
From: aa789@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Bruce D. Nelson)
Subject: ST Report: 26-Dec-92 #851
Date: Sun Dec 27 13:07:32 1992
*---== STReport International Online Magazine ==---*
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
"The Original 16/32bit Online Magazine"
from
STR Publishing
""""""""""""""
December 26, 1992 No.8.51
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_____________________________________________________________________
> 12/26/92 STR 851 "The Original * Independent * Online Magazine!"
""""""""""""""""
- The Editor's Desk - CPU Report - PORTFOLIO NEWS
- SLM LASER & FALCON - People Talking - CONNECT ANNOUNCED!
- The Flip Side - NVDI For You? - ST NoteBook
- ZENOBOT CONF - STR MAILCALL! - STR Confidential
-* FALCONS SPOTTED IN GERMANY?!? *-
-* EUROPEAN MARKET NARROWS! *-
-* ITS DECEMBER'92 -> FALCON030 - WHEN? *-
==========================================================================
STReport International Online Magazine
The Original * Independent * Online Magazine
-* FEATURING WEEKLY *-
"Accurate UP-TO-DATE News and Information"
Current Events, Original Articles, Tips, Rumors, and Information
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COMPUSERVE WILL PRESENT $15.00 WORTH OF COMPLIMENTARY ONLINE TIME
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WHAT'S NEW IN THE ATARI FORUMS (December 25)
NEW IN ATARI VENDORS FORUM (GO ATARIVEN)!
CODEHEAD provides a new patch to upgrade Warp 9 to version 3.74, the
latest free update for Warp 9 with Extend-O-Save, the first modular
screensaver for Atari computers. This archive contains everything you
need to update from v3.73 to v3.74. (Previous updates are available in
this same library for earlier versions.) See the file W9374U.LZH in
Library 16, CodeHead Tech.
GRAPHIC FILES...
A number of new graphic images are available for download from the Atari
Arts Forum (GO ATARIARTS). Check out the following files:
(Filename)(Lib)(Description)
ALIEN1.LZH 9 CEL animation from Ralph Bakshi's "Wizards"
BBOOP.LZH 9 Betty Boop digitized sequence (from P.D. footage)
BIRD.LZH 9 Gangly bird hops along swaying its neck (3D)
CAN.LZH 9 A license plate is peeled from a cola can.
CLOWN.LZH 9 Rotating 3D clowns head
DOMINO.LZH 9 rendered dominos knocking each other down.
GLOBE.LZH 9 rendered animation of the world spinning
MARVIN.LZH 9 Marvin the Martian (w/o ACME disintegrator)
PTERO.LZH 10 Flying 3D pterodactyl (good example of 3D cartoon
ROBOTR.LZH 10 Transforming semi gets out of a traffic jam.
PLAY ASTEROIDS BY MODEM!
Download file RAYOID.LZH from LIBRARY 2 of the Atari Arts Forum (GO
ATARIARTS) for a three-in-one package of games. Includes a game similar
to Asteroids with great sounds (DMA sound supported). Action and
strategy. Documentation in English and French.
UPDATE TO VENDOR.DAT
Download file VENDOR.DAT from LIBRARY 6 of the Atari Productivity Forum
(GO ATARIPRO). This file contains an update to the Atari Vendors
database. Includes names, addresses, phone numbers, product info, and CIS
UserIDs for developers and vendors of Atari products. Please see
VENDOR.ARC in the same library for the viewer PRG/ACC and documentation.
NATIONAL ATARI BBS LISTING
Download file ACBBS.TXT from LIBRARY 2 of the Atari Productivity Forum (GO
ATARIPRO) for Atari Classics magazine's Atari 8-bit/ST National BBS
listing.
PRINT PORTFOLIO TEXT SIDEWAYS...
Download file PDSW.ZIP from LIBRARY 3 of the Atari Portfolio Forum (GO
APORTFOLIO) for a great little Public Domain Dos utility will print text
sideways from your Portfolio. Small - about 1k in size and great for
preadsheets!
OR PRINT IN TWO COLUMNS...
Download file 2COL.ZIP from LIBRARY 5 of the Atari Portfolio Forum (GO
APORTFOLIO) for a DOS application program (which works on the Portfolio)
that will format and print documents in two columns.
THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM ON COMPUSERVE
HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AN
OFFICIAL SUPPORT SITE BY ATARI CORPORATION
"GO APORTFOLIO TO ACCESS THE ATARI PORTFOLIO FORUM"
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> From the Editor's Desk "Saying it like it is!"
""""""""""""""""""""""
The end of the year.... a time for reflection on the past year and a
time for resolutions for the coming year. The past year has produced some
'not so surprising' happenstances, Atari announced a new machine, the
Falcon030... it was made mention of in a number of online conferences last
summer that the Falocn030 would be shipping within two weeks. Well, we
all saw that time come and go. So what you say? I agree. You and I both
know that time and time again Atari has said this or that and then lo and
behold it never happens or, its a horse of an entirely different color.
After having a long discussion with a colleague of mine, I discovered
that he had the 'magic solution'. He said; "who cares what they say,
you'll know what is really going on by their performance. Nothing you or
I say or do will affect a darn thing". He's right and I know it. As much
as I'd like to think 'they listen'... its simply not the case. As a
result, I am going to relish in boasting about the wonderful things Atari
does in the future, not the things they say they are going to do and
don't.
With Christmas right behind us and the New Year coming up fast, its
time to wish everyone, friend and "foe" alike a healthy, happy and
successful New Year. As bleak as things began to look, they're looking a
whole bunch better now and bound to be fully resolved within the first
quarter of 1993. Bless you all and thank you for your support.
Ralph @ STReport International Online Magazine
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
STReport's Staff DEDICATED TO SERVING YOU!
""""""""""""""""
Publisher - Editor
""""""""""""""""""
Ralph F. Mariano
PC DIVISION AMIGA DIVISION MAC DIVISION
----------- -------------- ------------
Roger D. Stevens Charles Hill R. ALBRITTON
STReport Staff Editors:
"""""""""""""""""""""""
Lloyd E. Pulley Sr. Dana P. Jacobson Michael Arthur
Lucien Oppler Brad Martin Judith Hamner
John Szczepanik Dan Stidham Joseph Mirando
Steve Spivey Doyle C. Helms
Contributing Correspondents:
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
Michael Lee Richard Covert John Deegan
Brian Converse Oliver Steinmeier Tim Holt
Andrew Learner Norman Boucher Harry Steele
Ben Hamilton Neil Bradley Eric Jerue
Ron Deal Robert Dean Ed Westhusing
James Nolan Vernon W. Smith Bruno Puglia
Clemens Chin
IMPORTANT NOTICE
""""""""""""""""
Please, submit letters to the editor, articles, reviews, etc...
via E-Mail to:
Compuserve.................... 70007,4454
Delphi........................ RMARIANO
BIX........................... RMARIANO
FIDONET....................... 112/35
FNET.......................... NODE 350
NEST.......................... 90:21/350.0
GEnie......................... ST-REPORT
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
STR'S "BELIEVE IT? OR.. WHAT?"
<>###############################<>
"There is no comparison! The Atari Falcon
is far superior to the PC platform."
Sam Tramiel, 08/92
"As I said before, all marketing announcements will be made at
Duesseldorf. I will not comment on future models of the Falcon.
WE ARE TALKING TODAY ABOUT A MACHINE.....
WHICH WILL BE SHIPPING NEXT WEEK."
Sam Tramiel, 08/92
"I've just returned from Asia, where I saw the first Atari Falcon
production coming off the lines. Let's hope this new offering will
make it in North America. I know that the specs are great."
Sam Tramiel, 08/92
"...... We are not working for Wall Street but to
make money for our shareholders and only think long term."
Sam Tramiel, 11/92
psssst.
FYI.... The Shareholder's equity is fine.... NOT!
The Stock is hovering around $1.31
CHRISTMAS '92 has COME and GONE...
FALCONS ....anyone?
By the Way.... Does the Falcon work well
with any of the SLM Laser Printers?? NOPE!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> ONLINE WEEKLY STReport OnLine The wires are a hummin'!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
PEOPLE... ARE TALKING
=====================
On CompuServe
-------------
compiled by Joe Mirando
Well folks, Christmas is here. If you're anything like me, you are in no
mood to sit around and read a whole bunch of information right at the
moment. Well, as my Christmas present to you, you can put this column
down and come back and read it later. (;^{> <--(that's my smiling,
bearded face, by the way). At any rate, I hope that the holiday season
found you in good health and spirit.
Okay, on with the show...
From The Atari Productivity Forum
=================================
I remember a time a few years ago when a friend told me that he had bought
an Amiga. Knowing that I am "up" on current computer stuff, he asked me
what the nicest thing was about the Amiga (had he asked me first, I'm sure
he would have bought an ST). I told him that the nicest thing about the
Amiga was that would fit almost perfectly in the trunk of an Edsel.
Needless to say, he was not amused. Times have changed since then. A
simple "Edsel" joke no longer seems to suffice. Albert Dayes of Atari
Explorer Magazine tells us:
"I have tried putting the two together (an Atari fan (me) and my
friend and his Amiga) ... the explosion always occurs. <grin> I
usually keep a sledge hammer near by for the "other" brands. <grin>"
Not one to miss out on the fun, Boris Molodyi tells Albert:
"Well, a sledgehammer should work for Macs and Amigas. Will be a bit
more trouble for clones with their big metal boxes, tho... <g>"
John Amsler jumps in and adds:
"Yeah, why do these damn clones think they need armor-plated boxes,
anyway?? <g>"
Sysop Bob Retelle joins in the fun and posts:
"How about... to pass the FCC type acceptance testing..? Atari
plastic toys might be stylish (depending on your personal tastes), or
they might just be cheap.. but nothing stops those nasty RF emissions
like a heavy metal box."
Jim Ness tells us:
"Recent clones are using plastic boxes, with metal shielding attached
to the insides of each box part. Lift the cover, there's a metal
shield attached to it. Atari could use the same concept, if they
wished. Maybe they do, on the Falcon."
Hal Dougherty offers us information on the "competition":
"My Mac has a plastic case with some kind of metallic paint inside.
The external drive is made the same way."
Meanwhile, Bob Ledbetter asks about TOS versions:
" Would someone please enlighten me as to the advantages of TOS 2.06
over 2.05?
Also, is it "wise", "absolutely necessary", or "doesn't matter" when
it comes to using FOLDRXXX.PRG with TOS 2.05 or 2.06?"
Albert Dayes (that busy guy from Atari Explorer Magazine) tells Bob:
"Bug fixes, less programs in your auto folder needed to fix previous
problems in older TOS versions. Codehead had a good summary of all
the new and improved features. I don't know if they ever left it
on-line or not."
Jim Ness tells Bob:
"FOLDRXXX.PRG is "wise" for any ST, any TOS version. It adds memory
pool space, necessary when using deeply hidden folders. There is a
certain similarity to the DOS Autoexec command: FILES=nn. To
complete the analogy, Atari's CACHExxx.PRG has a similarity to the DOS
command: BUFFERS=nn. It adds disk cache space, which results in a
net speed increase on disk reads."
Remember when "Progress" meant that EVERYTHING in any given type of
product got more powerful and/or easier to use? Nah, me either. Tim
Patrick asks:
"Is there an ST Word Processor that will allow me to do ODD/EVEN page
print outs (for double sided documents) AND micro-space justification?
It amazes me that something I could do on my old 8-bit can't be done
on the ST! ST-Writer will do ODD/EVEN printouts, but no micro-space.
It justifies using normal spaces, which looks really bad, in my
opinion. Word-Writer won't do either?
G-DOS based word processors micro-space, but print in graphics mode,
which would be fine if I had a Laser, but looks pretty sad on my old
9-pin? (I am saving up for a Laser, but I'd like to use what I have
now...)
I have a very large document I created, and I'd like to print it out,
right-justified and double sided, using the NLQ mode of my printer,
but it looks like it can't be done on the ST? I really don't want to
port several HUNDRED pages of data over to my 8-bit just to get a
decent printout, but I can't see any other way to do it?
Considering that the ST is supposed to be one of the best platforms
for desktop publishing, I find it hard to believe that I can't print
out a nice looking double sided document?
Even PageStream won't allow ODD/EVEN printouts?"
Richard Gunter tells Tim:
"The old Publisher ST has an option to print left or right pages;
oddly, Calamus 1.09N doesn't seem to have that facility. I trick Word
Perfect into doing it, but I don't think the trick will work with
anything but the Diablo Emulator. I use its setup accessory to select
odd pages, then print the whole document. After putting the printed
stack into the tray, I then select even pages and print the whole
document again. Voila! Double-sided print -- just takes twice as
long..."
Albert Dayes of... you guessed it, Atari Explorer Magazine tells Tim:
"You might try Calligrapher from Codehead ... you can leave a message
about it in the Atari Vendors forum in the Codehead section. First
Word from GST might have what you are looking for as well."
Well, from software to hardware we go. Hal Scheie tells us:
"I'm having problem with my stock HD in my mste. when partition C
starts to get full with data I start to get data on C may be damaged
msgs. when I use diamond edge to mark bad sectors it starts showing
bad sectors about two thirds through and then the final 20% shows all
bad and the drive light wont go out till a reboot. I can reformat the
drive and it then checks out fine but goes to hell again about a week
later. I thought I saw a note where someone else had this problem, if
anybody here can help let me know."
Albert Dayes tells Hal:
"It sounds like a DMA chip problem. Are you loosing data too? What
host adapter are you using? What is your most current version of TOS?
What version of the formatting software are you using? Do you know
what type of hard disk you have? When you reformat the drive have you
changed the partition information too? I mean that you have changed
the sizes from what you are currently using? Have you marked bad
sectors at the hard disk formatter level rather than with Diamond
Edge?"
Sysop Ron Luks tells us about his experiences with hardware problems:
"I had a similar problem in my older Mega ST (not STe). The problem
turned out to the the host adaptor, not the drive itself. I've talked
to people familiar with HD hardware (I'm no expert) and they said the
host adaptor in the MSTe is one of the weak links in the hardware
chain. I was using an external host adaptor (supra) at the time. My
comments about the poor quality of the Atari host adaptor of the Mega
STe came because the first one that Atari sent for my new unit was
fried right out of the box and when I asked for another one, was told
that "this happens all time with these cheap @#$%#$%^ host
adaptors..."
For a long while now people have been waiting for CD-ROM to become popular
on the Atari line of computers. It has taken time, but I think we are
finally beginning to see some real interest in CD-ROMs for our favorite
computer. Allan Gus asks:
"Are there any CD roms available for the STs?? I haven't heard of any
and I would love to find one for the Atari.. I have a Mega Ste."
Dom Alvear tells Allan:
"Atari did produce a FEW CD-ROM drives for the ST, but that has been
shelved. If you really want one, you should buy The Link from ICD.
Then you can connect ANY (correct me if I'm wrong...) SCSI CD-ROM
drive to the ST. Atari released drivers to let you read CD-ROM disks.
You might try the ICD in AtariVen. They could tell you more. Also,
Albert from Atari Explorer online and a few others here know much more
than me. :-)"
Albert Dayes tells Allan:
"It depends on what type of CD-ROM you are looking for. If you are
looking for a multi-media program on the ST its not available yet.
There are quite a few discs full of clip art, fonts, source code, etc.
You can use those discs directly with a CD-ROM drive and ICD host
adapter and MetaDOS routines. You can check out the CD-ROM forum they
have a file called vendor.txt which lists all the vendors that sell
CD-ROM discs.
I'm sure you will see more discussion of CD-ROM issues in the future
too. Its a very exciting technology."
ALL HANDS: ALERT! ALL HANDS: ALERT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL. One winged
object has been sighted making its way to North America from overseas.
Bob Wilson posts:
"I was at my dealer today. One of his customers had bought a Falcon
in England and was wondering about a monitor. Seems extreme since the
power supply is different as is the video. Don't know the price."
Dazzz Smith tells Bob:
"BOLLOCKS!! Theres not a dealer in England with a Falcon for sale, at
least that wasn't on the 13th of Dec.
I know that Atari UK got a shipment of Falcons last week, but I'd be
absolutely astonished if they got them out of the door fully tested
before christmas week!"
Pattie Rayl asks Dazzz:
"How many falcons did Atari UK get?"
Dazzz replies:
"Pattie, I dont know how many they got, but it seems they were flown
over for the developers as they did in Germany, any leftovers would be
offered for sale, but I would seriously doubt if there were any left."
Tony at GST software tells Pattie:
"As Dazzz says about a normal customer buying a falcon in the UK. If
he has then I suspect a hell of a lot of people would like to know how the
dealer got hold of it - including people who tend to drive cars which have
blue flashing lights on top of them.
I probably shouldn't tell you the number but lets say that Dazzz and a
friend would have more than the required number of fingers and toes to
do a count.
Update - make that Dazzz and two friends."
Dazzz, in a light-hearted mood, replies:
"Oh no! You dont mean I have to take my shoes and socks off again to
count those computers! :-)
What Tony means is >1 and <100, which according to my calculations,
should give every Dev in the UK a machine, unless of course some are
being greedy and getting more than one!"
Well people, its getting late and I'm sure that you all want to relax a
bit after the Holiday festivities. So go, enjoy the left-overs, the
smiles on the faces of children and loved ones, and the knowledge that
those chargecard statements won't be here for another month. ;^{>
Tune in again next week (same time, same station) to hear what they are
saying when...
PEOPLE ARE TALKING
_____________________________________________________________________
> Announcing CONNECT! STR InfoFile A New Telecomputing Magazine
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Announcing......
CONNECT -- A New Telecomputing Magazine
=======================================
ANN ARBOR, MI -- For a limited time, Pegasus Press is offering
dramatically discounted subscription rates on its new magazine, CONNECT.
Covering the major commercial online services, Internet/Usenet and
bulletin board system networks, CONNECT focuses on telecommunications from
a user's perspective. The first bi-monthly issue of CONNECT will be
available in March, 1993.
Issue after issue, CONNECT shows you how to get the most from the
commercial online services you're using -- CompuServe, Delphi, America
Online, Prodigy, GEnie and BIX. With columnists on staff to cover these
services in depth, you'll find CONNECT a valuable resource.
CONNECT also shows you what "free" networks like Internet have to offer.
Every issue of CONNECT contains Internet coverage that helps you find your
way around the biggest network in the world.
But CONNECT doesn't stop there. BBS callers also receive a wealth of
information from each issue. All varieties of computer platforms are
covered in the pages of CONNECT, as are the many different types of
bulletin board software and services found on these computers. Articles
potlighting BBSes in specific cities or similar categories (such as
medical BBSes or handicapped-related systems) appear regularly.
Finally, each issue contains platform-specific columns highlighting
programs available online for IBM and Macintosh users. Of course, you'll
also find hardware and software reviews in CONNECT.
Until February 28th, 1993, a year's subscription to CONNECT will be only
$12. On March 1st, 1993, the normal subscription price of $18 per year
goes into effect. This offer is available only to US addresses.
For more information, please contact:
Pegasus Press
3487 Braeburn Circle
Ann Arbor, MI 48108
(313) 973-8825.
For the fastest response and a copy of the subscription form,
please email us at 70007,4640.
Don't delay. Get CONNECTed today!
__________________________________________________________________
***********************************************************************
IMPORTANT NOTICE!
=================
STReport International Online Magazine is available every week in the
ST Advantage on DELPHI. STReport readers are invited to join DELPHI and
become a part of the friendly community of Atari enthusiasts there.
SIGNING UP WITH DELPHI
======================
Using a personal computer and modem, members worldwide access
DELPHI services via a local phone call
JOIN -- DELPHI
--------------
Via modem, dial up DELPHI at 1-800-695-4002
then...
When connected, press RETURN once or twice
and...
At Password: type STREPORT and press RETURN.
DELPHI's Basic Plan offers access for only $6.00 per hour, for any
baud rate. The $5.95 monthly fee includes your first hour online.
For more information, call: DELPHI Member Services at 1-800-544-4005
DELPHI is a service of General Videotex Corporation of Cambridge, MA.
Try DELPHI for $1 an hour!
For a limited time, you can become a trial member of DELPHI, and
receive 5 hours of evening and weekend access during this month for only
$5. If you're not satisfied, simply cancel your account before the end of
the calendar month with no further obligation. If you keep your account
active, you will automatically be enrolled in DELPHI's 10/4 Basic Plan,
where you can use up to 4 weekend and evening hours a month for a minimum
$10 monthly charge, with additional hours available at $3.96. But hurry,
this special trial offer will expire soon! To take advantage of this
limited offer, use your modem to dial 1-800-365-4636. Press <RET> once
or twice. When you get the Password: prompt, type IP26 and press <RET>
again. Then, just answer the questions and within a day or two, you'll
officially be a member of DELPHI!
The latest version of Ron Hollins' STUDIO MANAGER demo is available in
Recent Arrivals. This is an Invoice/Accounting program, written for
recording studio operators. Check it out!
Anthony Watson <MOUNTAINSOFT> has just released a new database program
called Easy Base v1.0. A demo version is available now in the Recent
Arrivals database.
TOP TEN DOWNLOADS (12/23/92
AUTOSORT 4.1
DENISE CROSBY
PHOTOCHROME 3.0
STREPORT 8.50
ZNET 9222 & 9223
RAYOID!
MADONNA IN PHOTOCHROME
SPC-3375 1.7
HDX V5.0 - ATARI HD SOFTWARE
NEODESK SECRETS
All of the above files can be found in the RECENT ARRIVALS database for at
least one week after the posting of this list. Please Note that in the
case of online magazines, only the most current issue in the database at
the time of this compilation is considered for the Top 10 list. Also, for
all files, a submission is eligible for the Top 10 list for only four
weeks after its original uploading.
DELPHI- It's getting better all the time!
***********************************************************************
> The Flip Side STR Feature "...a different viewpoint"
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
A LITTLE OF THIS, A LITTLE OF THAT
==================================
by Michael Lee
Nope, it's not Michael Lee this week. It's Lloyd Pulley. Since Michael
won't be able to do his column for the next few weeks, I decided to jump
in this week with some posts from Delphi. I figured they were long over-
due to be visited.
A few comments before we start. Delphi uses handles instead of names, so
get used to seeing a lot of weird 'names'. Also, I will be dividing the
column up into general 'threads' in hopes that it will make it easier to
follow the conversation. Finally, the gentleman that goes by the handle
of 'OCS' is from Germany. So keep this in mind when he talks about stuff
that you've never heard of in the U.S.
----------------
Conversations about how to log onto an IBM mainframe via an ST...
BOBTROW -
I am curious as I am a Computer Room Supervisor on a IBM ES/9000 with
MVS/ESA. What software were you using to access the 3090? Were you
calling into an application, or ISPF/PDF (TSO)? I may someday be able
to logon from home and would like to know if my ST would handle the
job.
OCS -
Bob, I have been using Uniterm for that purpose for years, and it
works fine (80 columns on the SM124, that's what you need for
MVS/ESA). Yes, I can use ISPF/PDF (isn't it PFD? anyway...) without
problems. Either type in the commands (DOWN, UP,... ) or define the
function keys in Uniterm (like I did). I can do everything I can do at
one of those TN3278 terminals (urgh!).
MICKEYANGELL -
I used Uniterm 2.0E. I called into a Lee Data Protocol Convertor. This
supports about 17 different terminal types that can access the main-
frame. Before this I use to dial in on the dial in line using Uniterm.
Before that I use to use the old Atari 800 and 800XL. I used VT100 on
the 8-bit but it was hard on the eyes. In straight TSO, I set my
terminal linesize to 133. But I only saw 40 columns on the screen but
it wrapped. The purpose of this was so when I captured the text, I had
my printer set to condensed mode and I was able to see my print the
way it was supposed to be.
The Lee Data Protocol Convertor is 2400BPS and I am able to use SPF,
COMPLETE, TSO, or anything I would use at work.
If I want to download or upload, I have to emulate and IBM computer
and use EXECULINK(Put out by the LEE Data Protocol Convertor people).
I sometimes use the TSO command TRANSMIT and send my data to an IBM
Mainframe using VM which happens to support KERMIT. I use Uniterm to
download and upload via KERMIT using my ST. Then I do a SENDFILE to
send the file back to the IBM 3090. I have been doing this since about
1982 when I first got my Atari 800.
One time the operator deleted jobs 400 thru 4118. They were supposed
to delete jobs 400 through 418. I was laid up in bed. My back was out.
Back then I used my old 800 to dial in on the TSO line and did a TSO
edit to resubmit all the jobs that were deleted for the agency I was
doing work for. Saved me a 2 hour trip into the office and back.
When you are ready I will give you the settings. Off of the top of my
head, I believe it is 7-E-2. 7 data, even parity and 2 stop bits.
----------------
Conversation about hard drive backup programs and options...
JGALLARDO -
I just ordered my first ST hard drive (the Toadplus 130 from Toad
computers of course) so now I was wondering what is the best backup
method out there. Is it DiamondBack, or some PD backup, or is it a
tape one - ICD's, DVT-VCR, or using the tapebios program in the data-
bases here (& if so, what tape drive and how should it be connected in
the DMA chain.)
JDUCKWORTH -
I use Diamond BAck II. I haven't had any problems yet with my HD, so I
can't really say how well it restores...but it does backups almost
painlessly. It will take a while (forever) to back up a big drive onto
floppies, but Diamond BAck is supposed to be upgraded in the near
future to include SCSI Tape drives. That will be great. I think there
are a few Tape backup systems already, but I will wait until I can
afford to get a tape drive to worry about it.
MICKEYANGELL -
The ICD Tape Backup unit is expensive but it is the Rolls Royce of
tape backups. It is very very fast. Much faster than most of the
cartridge type of tape backup units. The ICD software lets you dump
all files or individual files to any hard drive partition or ram disk.
THE ICD TAPE BACKUP UNIT is a excellent piece of equipment and I have
never had a bad back up in the last 2 years. The only thing negative I
can say about it is the price. But I guess that what happens when
something is reliably built. I would also check into the Floptical
drive. It is much cheaper around $399. The 21 meg disks are around $20
each but it will also read and write 720k and 1.44 meg diskettes.
Check out Toad Computers.
JGALLARDO -
I anticipate that I'll be doing it on floppies, I don't think that I
could afford to buy a SCSI tape drive just yet - after all, it took me
3 years to be able to buy a hard drive even.
....I have been thinking about a floptical, and come to think of it,
it would be much better than backing up onto 720k floppies.
DOMINGO -
If you are considering getting a Floptical, get it from PMC. Theirs is
a mere $399.00 and that includes ICD's The Link! And if you have a
SCSI out they'll sell you one for the same price with 4 extra flop-
tical disks in lieu of The Link.
Here is their old # (206) 747-1519. They just moved, so I am not sure
if the number has changed at all.
P.S. The $399.00 price is only good until Dec. 15 so you'd better
hurry. ;-)
DPJ -
I agree with you about the ICD tape drive, Mickey. It is one of the
best investments that I made for my 2 systems. It has saved me many a
headache very reliably. I bought mine used with a hard drive added to
the Fast Box, probably for the same price as the tape drive alone,
new.
MICKEYANGELL -
I bought the cleaner kit for my tape backup unit but I have not used
it yet. At work, I am setting up PS/2 mod 70 386 and WIN 486. The
WIN's have a 212meg hard drive and a 60 meg tape backup unit. Boy is
it SLOOOOOOOOOOOW. Also, the tapes that came with it are not format-
ted. It takes 40 minutes to format the tape!(60 meg tape)! In that
time I could just about backup 2 155 meg hard drives if I do not do an
optimize copy.
MRBURKLEY -
I really like the DVT-VCR tape backup for my hard drive cartridges.
It's fast, easy, and very reliable (if you use the best quality Video
tapes. The restoration of your drive is a pain, though it really isn't
all that bad, just time comsumming. The only bug I have about the
program is that is only supports 999 files per hard drive partition.
If you have more than that you can't use the backup system. But, that
might not be a problem for you. It is definately inexpensive (I've
seen it listed for $50) a nd compact (one tape for 100 meg of data!).
DPJ -
I haven't seen any tape cleaner kits for the ICD drive; I'm usually
leery of such kits for some reason. I have seen other tape units, and
agree that they are slow. I would be interested to learn how, now with
the Beckemeyer's software, the "generic" tape units fare.
MICKEYANGELL -
I purchased the tape cleaner kit from ICD at a WAACE AtariFest about 3
years ago. It is called TEAC TZ-380 Cleaning Kit. It contains 3 swaps,
TEAC Cleaning Liquid, TEAC Cleaning Cassette, and instructions. I
purchased it on Oct. 6, 1989 at the Fairfax High High School location.
That was where the WAACE AtariFest used to be held. At that time, I
paid $22.00 at the show.
Since this cleaning kit TZ-380 is for exclusive use with the TEAC MT-
2ST cassette drive, we now know the name and model number of our
favorite tape backup unit.
PS-I am using MAXELL CS-600XD cassette tapes. I purchased them from
the DISKETTE Connection for $14.39 each. Their 800 numbers are:
East 800-451-1849 MidWest 800-654-4058 WEST 800-621-6221
Great deal plus about $4 for shipping up to 10 tapes. Beats ICD's $35
for the TEAC tape.
----------------
Discussion about whether you can upgrade your old Calamus 109n if you
used it to upgrade to Calamus SL...
SGOLD -
Well the Calamus 1.09n's license was already upgraded to Calamus SL by
me. You might wish to ask ISDMARKETING (Nathan Potechin) if he will
allow it to be upgraed to CALAMUS S.
MRBURKLEY -
It's my understanding that you are NOT allowed to sell Calamus 1.09n
when you have upgraded to Calamus SL. Some people thought that they
could do that (because they didn't have to send in the original disks
if they were registered), and Nathan even hinted that that might be
so--briefly. He later said that selling Calamus 1.09n after upgrading
wasn't an option.
SGOLD -
Well until Nathan tells me otherwise I see no reason not to sell it as
long as I inform the purchaser that it can not be upgraded to Calamus
SL. If I do that I am not lying. If Nathan allows the person to
upgrade to Calamus S that's fine, but I'm making no claims that he
will.
OCS -
German companies (and DMC Germany, the developer of Calamus, is a
German company) usually make very clear in their update/upgrade
conditions that you may keep the manuals/disks of the program to be
updated, but that both the old and the new version are considered to
be ONE product which may not be sold in parts. Also one very often
gets an update with the very same serial number, and I bet SGOLD
wouldn't want someone to have a program with a serial number
registered under his name. If he sold his Calamus 1.09 without DMC's
permission and someone (the buyer) sold pirate copies of that version,
DMC would have SGOLD's name and could held him liable for the damage!
MISSIONWARE -
While I can't speak for Nathan, I *can* speak for myself and
Missionware Software. When I send out an upgrade to Flash II to a
current owner, they get a new version with the exact same serial
number embedded into the code as their old version had. They are not
permitted to sell that old version to anyone else, at least not
legally. In any case, if they did sell the old version and that "new"
owner tried to upgrade, they wouldn't be able to do it since they
aren't the official owner of record. I can also guarantee you that the
owner-of-record would get a note from me as well asking what was going
on.
The one thing I will do, though, is transfer ownership of a copy of a
program to someone else. I've done this a number of times for folks
that sold their system and software to someone else. Of course, at
that point the new owner becomes the owner-of-record, and the old
owner is no longer eligible to participate in any upgrades.
Generally speaking, when upgrading to a new version, you are still the
owner of both the old and new version, but that doesn't give you the
right, at least without my permission, to sell that old version to
someone else. Of course, if you contact the company that sold you the
software, you may be able to work out some sort of arrangement.
John R. Trautschold
[Note: STReport's editor decided to go straight to the source for the
correct answer. The following is a copy of my letter and his response.]
Sub: Question
Nathan,
What is DMC's official policy concerning versions of Calamus 1.09n
that were upgraded to Calamus SL by their owners? Can the owner
legally sell the Calamus 1.09n version and still keep Calamus SL?
I need this info for this week's STReport, so any help/information
will be appreciated.
Sub: Question
Thanks for asking Lloyd. I appreciate it.
I have no problem with someone, having upgraded to Calamus SL,
selling off their 1.09N and moving onwards and upwards. :-)
However, there are a few things that need to be taken into
consideration.
1. You cannot upgrade the same copy of Calamus 1.09n twice!
2. You must register the change of ownership.
3. In the case of "Original Typefaces" that I licensed from the
various foundries, the Calamus SL owner has the option of
either keeping them or selling them with his version of 1.09N.
He cannot do both as that would be PIRACY and illegal.
I think that about covers it. Along with the value our registered
customers receive when they do upgrade, if they choose to sell
off their 1.09N as well, the bottom line value for your dollar
is quite significant.
Sincerely
Nathan @ DMC
----------------
Discussions - pro, con and indifferent - about NVDI and Warp 9...
CMILLAR -
I have simple question: How does NVDI compare to Warp 9 in speed ad-
vantage? Can both work be run concurrently? Do they compliment each
other, cancel each other out, or is there not much difference if both
or only one is loaded?
OCS -
I have heard lots of good things about NVDI, but I'm not willing to
buy any product from Bela (the German developer/producer/distributor)
so I'll stick with my good old Turbo ST (which I did buy from Bela in
1988 or so). It works just fine with _any_ of my programs! I don't
care if Warp9 or NVDI are 10 percent faster or so, I wouldn't notice
that.
Sorry, can't tell you anything about speed comparisons. A new version
of NVDI will come out shortly.
...NVDI is NOT shareware or freeware, it is commercial, comes from
Germany, and being produced/distributed by Bela. Don't know if they
have a US distributor.
...Here in Germany NVDI is the only screen accelerator that is still
avaiable. Turbo ST was sold by Bela, but they stopped importing it
when they got NVDI, and Artifex used to sell Quick ST, but its success
here was somewhat limited, because it came out too late. Nobody ever
tried (or cared?) to import Warp 9...
The German developer/distributor is:
BELA Computer GmbH
Unterortstrasse 23-25
6236 Eschborn
Phone: +49-06196-481944
Fax: +49-06196-481930
The new version (for the TT) costs 119 marks. When I called them a few
minutes ago the lady on the phone couldn't tell me how much they'd
have to charge you for shipping etc. to the US (see? I don't like
Bela!). They don't accept credit cards, you'd have to send them German
money or a check in German currency. Guess that doesn't really help
you, eh?
DOMINGO -
Warp 9 has many enhancements and is a GREAT program. It includes a
neat screen saver called Extend-O-Save that has modules (like After
Dark). Of course it only has a few, but that will change soon.
OCS -
I know about the features of Warp9 (and I do know John and Charles
personally from several occasions, I even was at CodeHeadquarters),
but I simply do not need a loadable background picture, and neither do
I need a screen saver. I either work with my Atari or tune my screen
dark if I leave for a while. I still have my 1986 SM124, and it is in
perfect shape. Turbo ST does everything I want, so why spend money for
features that I don't need? Of course, if I encountered any
compatibility problems with new software I'd have to re-consider, but
right now everything works the way I expect it... Hey, I just lost my
job, I gotta save money! <grin>
VILLARREAL -
I couldn't find an address, but did find a phone number:
Atari Workshop 0753 832212 39.95 Pounds Sterling
ST FORMAT gave NVDI a rating of 89% and had given Quick ST 3.03 a
rating of 88% in an earlier issue.
The price of Quick ST is advertised at 19.95 pounds and Warp 9 at
29.95 pounds.
SCHUYLAR -
I have a TT and I bought Warp9. It's good, but I would buy NVDI any
time I could ever find in English in the USA. If you ever know of it,
please let me know.
...I got NVDI by accident before I knew it was not a PD or shareware
program. I have a TT, and it worked fantastic. I loved it. I assume it
is an OLD version. I bought Warp9, it has features that NVDI did not
have, and I do not have the latest versions of Warp9. I had some
problems with some acc's or other auto folder programs causing crashes
with the older version of Warp9. I don't know if it's been fixed or
not? and I tried but could not track it down.
[Editors note: The current version of Warp 9 is solid as a rock.]
I never had any problems with NVDI, and I would buy it in a minute, if
I could ever find it? Let me know if you have any luck.
SGOLD -
RIO in Vegas was selling NVDI. I don't know if they still are. You
could call and ask. Steve
----------------
Discussions about SCSI software and CDROM drives...
BIBLINSKI -
ICD includes the necessary software with their product, the Link, I
believe. there was also some talk of releasing the software as a
seperate package, with the name SCSI Pro (or something like that). I'd
heard a price of something like $50 for the software alone, but I
might be mistaken. I need to call ICD tomorrow anyway (over a month
after returning my hd-trashing AdSpeed STe and still no refund), so
I'll ask them about it.
WAYNEDUNHAM -
ICD has released their "Pro" version of their software (i.e. it
doesn't require an ICD host in the chain) and the price was either the
$50 you stated, or $59. It's in that ballpark anyways.
The "Pro" software gives you all the same functions as "The Link" with
the exception of the ASCSI-SCSI adapter. It's perfect for the TT, and
Falcon which already have a true SCSI port.
ABARBIERO -
You are right about ICD, I have the LINK and it supports all the major
CDROM drivers. They are going to release the driver software for
aprox. $50. If you find out from ICD, let me know! It will save me a
call!
SCHUYLAR -
Has anyone seen or heard of the software for accessing SCSI CDROM
drives for the ST-TT? Is it from Atari? PD or comercial? And will
it allow you to read CD's formated for IBM or MAC, or is it only for
CDROMs formated for Atari only? I realize the programs won't run, but
things like clip art CDROM's would be nice to be able to access.
BIBLINSKI -
Do you mean software on CD-ROMs or software that will let you use CD-
ROMs? (The answer to both is yes.) ICD's AdSCSI Pro software provides
drivers for virtually any SCSI peripheral device, including CD-ROM
drives. So far, I've only gotten ICD's voice mail system when I've
called, so I don't know what the price for the software alone is.
(It's included with the Link.)
Walnut Creek Publishing, a major CD-ROM publishing house, is supposed
to be coming out with a new CD-ROM of Atari software sometime early
next year. And there are already a couple CD-ROMs available (one
clipart, one software) for the ST/TT series.
SCHUYLAR -
I have a SCSI CDROM drive. I have not tried to hook it up to the TT. I
assume that the current software will not access it. I would like to
be able to read CDROM's made for IBM compatables, I know that the TT
will not run the software, but I would like to be able to read the
clip art, etc. I have an ICD hooked up to the TT on an old hard drive
through the DMA port.
I am not aware of walnut creek. Does the current ICD software support
SCSI CDROM drives? Thank you, Schuylar
BIBLINSKI -
Well, actually, there are 3 'current' versions of ICD's software. The
version that comes with the Link and the package called SCSI Pro both
support virtually any SCSI device. The regular software, available
here in the databases, does not support them.
Walnut Creek can be reached at 1-800-786-9907. The Atari CD-ROM is
still in development, but they should be able to give you some
information on it.
----------------
System problems...
WGALUSZKA -
I am afraid that there is something wrong going on with my system. I
have a 1040 STF and an SC1224 that I bought new about two and a half
years ago. I first switch the monitor on and then I switch the power
on my computer. Never had any problems with my monitor or the computer
until recently... What happens now is that my monitor display flickers
shades of gray for a few minutes since the power-up but the the
flickering effect seems to dissapear. Do you know if the problem is
with my monitor or is it my computer that is sending faulty signal.
Please tell me what you think is happening.... My technical background
is nil so I don't know whether I should take my monitor or my
computer to someone to check out.
ABARBIERO -
It would appear to be a monitor problem. Unless your monitor cable has
a fault, there is a pin detect which decides for the Atari whether the
color or mono monitor is hooked up (the mono grounds a pin) maybe your
flyback or power supply to the monitor is going. My color monitor died
a little while back, and I found a NEW (refurbished) color monitor
from San Jose Computer for $120.00!! I have purchased about four
monitors from these guys and no problems yet to report. 1-408-995-5080
is the number, ask for the refurb and then quote the price! Otherwise
the price would be about 160.00.... (I didn't say that! :-) SJC is
reputable and an Atari only store.
The replacement for a flyback board would be about 75.00 to 125.00
without replacement labor. Power supplies might be cheaper, but still
the cost of putting it in, if you cant do it yourself, can eat up the
cost of just getting a new one.
BIBLINSKI -
Well, my techical expertise is just a shade higher than yours, so I'll
make the only suggestion I can feel confident about. Check to make
sure the plug on the monitor cable is firmly inserted into the socket.
My system gets a little flicker now and then, and so far, it's been a
loose cable. I'm sure others will have more involved comments, but I
always start out with the easiest thing to correct... <g>
WGALUSZKA -
As I tried to boot my terminal program just a few minutes ago I got a
nice row of bombs across my screen. I tried rebooting a few times and
finally I got the program running. As the floppy drive was loading the
screen would flicker in synch to the drive's head moving around ! For
some reason it looks to me that it might be a problem in the computer.
I think that I will have to find someone to check it out thoroughly.
Yesterday I logged-on a board of ST Users Group. Maybe they will have
some technical person who would want to check my computer out for a
reasonable fee.
Abarbiero, from the prices you quoted it appears that I would not have
spend a fortune to get a new monitor. However, for the time being I
will opt for having my computer checked. Now, I have to find me-self a
good computer-doctor :)
----------------
About the ST Notebook...
LEEFROMINDIO -
Has anyone tried an ST Notebook yet. If so, how about a report on it.
OCS -
I have seen the ST Book at Atari shows a couple of times, and I had
the chance to play around with it for a couple of minutes. The
keyboard is okay, the display sucks (compared to what I have seen with
cheap DOS notebooks). The mouse-pad thingy, hmmm, some people like it,
I don't like it. I used the ALT combinations to control the mouse, was
much easier for me. At least without hours of practice. The price?
Hmmm, 3200 marks for a 1 meg machine without disk drive and 40 meg
hard disk is way to much. You get OS notebooks with more mem, more
hard disk space, better display for less than 2/3.
The design is great (I love it, best design Atari ever came out with
for ANYTHING their name is on!), and as far as I know the batteries
last up to 8 hours (which is much better than what PCs give you).
***********************************************************************
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Atari ST Roundtable
Happy Holidays from the Atari Roundtable and GEnie!
Darlah's Holiday Treat of the Month [page 475;9] is PHNXDEMO.LZH from
LEXICOR2. This is the DEMO version of the Phoenix object render program
from Lexicor Software. The LZH file also includes SPC & GIF sample files.
This is a "must have" program for all ATARI computers. Phoenix supports
different light sources, 3 different cameras, texture and image mapping:
SPC, GIF & TGA are supported. This program renders FAST!
Welcome ****** ******** ** ** **
To the ** ** ** ** **
GEnie ****** ** ST ** ** **
ATARI ** ** Roundtable ** ** **
****** ** ** ** **
*** ** ***
The Official Online Resource of Atari Corporation *** ** ***
New Files in Your Library
-------------------------
No. File Name Address Description
----- ------------ ----------- -------------------------------------
27074 ALADVU20.ARC J.ALLEN37 Version 2.0 Aladdin File Viewer
27073 SPACSHUT.LZH D.BECKER8 Space Shuttle Connections Family
27071 CFN_SHOW.LZH GRMEYER Display Calamus fonts on screen
27070 BTKILL14.LZH GRMEYER BootKiller utility v1.4
27069 BOXDRAW.LZH GRMEYER ASCII box drawing utility
27068 AUTORM11.LZH GRMEYER AutoFileMover v1.1
27061 GFXCAROL.ZIP STARSHIP ASCII Graphics & Christmas Carols...
27060 50PLAY.LZH M.CULVER4 50khz stereo MOD player for ste!
27059 CENTGDS2.ARC S.GAREE Century Schoolbook GDOS fonts
27058 GREETCRD.LZH J.NYMAN Calamus SL Greeting Card & Envelope
27057 FLEX237.ZOO J.LEHETT2 Flex 2.3.7 - Gnu Port
27056 NEW_GOTH.LZH ST.LOU Calamus Font Sample #43
27055 ITC_ZAPT.LZH ST.LOU Calamus Font Sample #42
27054 ITC_SYMB.LZH ST.LOU Calamus Font Sample #41
27053 ITC_SOUV.LZH ST.LOU Calamus Font Sample #40
27049 PIXEL_DM.LZH REALM Saving Screen Grabber Demo!
27048 STOSUP.LZH D.MOSHER12 STOS UPDATE COMPILER & LANGUAGE
27046 CALNDR.LZH R.DEAN6 Calendar DA GFA Source doc & doc's
Darlah's Treat of the Month [Page 475;9] - PHNXDEMO.LZH
Other NEW FILES available in the Atari RT Libraries are Sound Files
(library 11), Digitized Sounds (library 17), Graphic pictures (library 5),
Atari Archives (library 13), and Sale/Wanted Files (library 26).
Sale/Wanted items are also available in the Bulletin Board Category 27.
Regular Open Conference every Wednesday night, 10PM EDT, 7PM PDT
DTP conference every Monday at 10PM eastern in room 3.
GEnie Information copyright (C) 1991 by General Electric
Information Services/GEnie, reprinted by permission
***********************************************************************
> ST Games RTC STR FOCUS! Editor of ST Gaming Digest "Tells All"
"""""""""""""""""""""""
Wednesday Night Real Time Conference
December 16, 1992
Host - Brian H. Harvey
Guest Speaker - Eric-Alexander Bitton
<BRIAN.H> On behalf of the Atari ST Roundtable, I welcome all of you to
this GAMING Real Time Conference. Tonight I would like to welcome
Eric-Alexander Bitton. Eric, is better known on GEnie as ZENOBOT. He is
the editor of ST GAMING DIGEST which is uploaded by him monthly on GEnie.
ST GAMING DIGEST is a guide to new and soon to be released software for
the ATARI ST(E) and Falcon computers. He is also well known in Cat 9,
GAMES for his up to date information regarding available software for the
ATARI platform.
Welcome Eric, do you have a few words to begin this evening RTC?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Let me start off by telling you a little bit about
myself and what I do. My name is Eric-Alexander Bitton, I'm from France,
and I've been living in Los Angeles for almost 12 years. I've always had
an interest in computers and I purchased my first system in August '83.
It was an Atari 800 with 48K along with a 410 cassette recorder and 2
Pointmaster joysticks (which I grew to loathe). 6 months later, I
purchased an Indus GT drive. The 800 is long gone, replaced by an XEGS,
but the drive is still there, still working and still looking as good as
the day I bought it. I purchased a 520STM in '86, and I still use it
everyday. I'm planning to upgrade to a 1040STE or a Falcon eventually.
Around March '89, I got fed up with the lack of timely coverage of ST game
releases, so I started compiling a monthly list of new and upcoming games.
That list was available on 3 big Los Angeles Atari BBSs. The guide was a
mess, more like an extended article, with companies listed in anything but
alphabetical order. From '89 to '91, I gradually refined it, changed its
name twice, tweaked it over and over, added new things, removed others,
until I was satisfied with it. In '92, I made only 2 changes: I
reformatted it for ease of reading within the Flash! capture buffer, and I
added a specific miniguide for Falcon releases. The guide is called the
ST Gaming Digest, and is released during the first week of every month.
Topic 22 in category 9 (games) of the ST RT is used to handle feedback
about STGD.
I also put together a big textfile full of hints, tips, cheats, and access
codes for all sorts of ST games. It's called Tricks ST (TRST) and a new
update is released about every 4 months. I also contribute game articles
to AtariUser International. I play every ST game I can get my hands on.
That's about it...(and that's all in my so-called "spare time"!
<BRIAN.H> Great ERIC!!
<[Mike] M.ALLEN14> Does electronic arts have an E-Mail address on GEnie?
I want to upgrade populous for my MSTe and also I need to replace my
Starflight disk
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> I don't think it would help, since they would only
turn you toward EA UK. You have to contact the British office.
<BRIAN.H> Do you have their address Mike?
<[Mike] M.ALLEN14> I don't have their address.
<BRIAN.H> I will upload it to the end of this RTC, OK.
<BRIAN.H> Go, swigert..
<D.SWIGERT> Was Elite II actually released in the UK ? How can we get it ?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> As far as I know, Frontier: Elite 2 hasn't come out yet.
It's been pushed back to January '93. I am waiting for it with bated
breath
myself!
<BRIAN.H> Go again Swigert.
<D.SWIGERT> Who is our local distributor for Elite?
<BRIAN.H> Any local distributor/dealer will have it once it is released.
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> You'll have to get Elite 2 through the usual channels:
local ST dealer, mail-order. It's from Konami UK, apparently.
<BRIAN.H> Thanks, Eric.. I am really interested in the game Castles by
Interplay. This is a medieval strategy game. Is it out yet? If not when?
Any advance word on it?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Castles came out last month. EA UK did the conversion.
Interplay doesn't do anything for the ST in-house.
<BRIAN.H> Great! Can you tell us about it, briefly [grin]. Is it good,
great or so-so. In your opinion.
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Well, Castles looks interesting but there doesn't seem
to be a whole lot of things to do once the actual castle is built...
<BRIAN.H> Thanks Eric. OK, your turn for a question Mike.
<[Mike] M.ALLEN14> Has anyone ever actually finished Imperium? Is there
any chance that S-H (or someone) will fix Falcon & FOTI for tos 2.0x? Any
word on new companies interested in the Falcon?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> They're not planning to fix either game. As for the
Falcon machine, so far we have Mirage, Psygnosis, and Intergalactic
Development, Millenium, and Cocktel Vision for sure. Plus Atari, of
course...The other companies are NeXT developers working on utilities,
pretty much.
<[Mike] M.ALLEN14> Hope we can convince Psynogsis to abandon theur silly
copy protection schemes. My brother used to design board games for SPI -
He wonders if there would much interest in 'porting' those style games to
the ST?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Who is SPI?
<[Mike] M.ALLEN14> Simulation Publication Inc. The went belly up and were
bought by TSR. mostly conflict simulations. You know, lots of hexagons and
50 million counters.
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Well, several boardgames have already been ported to the
ST: Heroquest, Space Crusade, Third Reich, Space 1889...
<BRIAN.H> Thanks Eric. Go Rick.
<[Rick] R.RIMKEVICUS> Is Lucas Arts making Indiana Jones & the Fate of
Atlantis, Super Star Wars or any other title for the ST, Falcon, &
Jaguar???
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis is out. It's an
isometric action-adventure that requires 1 meg. Super Star Wars is a
console specific title, so you won't see it on a computer. As for X-Wing,
the upcoming simulator, I don't think it's Coming out for the ST. Then
again, it's not out for the IBM yet either.
<BRIAN.H> For the ST? I thought Lucas gave up on the ST?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Things could change. But the Falcon must sell and sell
well for a change to occur... Brian: US Gold did the Indy game. Jaguar
info is very hard to come by.
<[Rick] R.RIMKEVICUS> Is B.O.B. by Bullfrog out yet ?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> EA UK is being difficult again, and I think they're
discouraging the Bullfrogs from releasing anything on the ST. The game has
definitely NOT been released yet, and might not be.
<[Rick] R.RIMKEVICUS> How about Gunship 2000 from MicroProse?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Microprose UK says no. Everything now revolves on the
Falcon. If it sells well, companies will start supporting it. But if a
machine has no software for it, nobody will want to buy it, so no
companies will want to support it, so nobody will want o buy it, ad
nauseum...
<BRIAN.H> OK, Greg has a question or more for you Eric. Go Greg!!
<G.ABBOTT1> Here is the first one. When will 3D Construction Kit II be
released?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> That, I don't know. I'm not even sure if it will come
out, as Domark has been making noises about dropping the ST. They will
release Harrier Assault and Columbus first.
<BRIAN.H> The new simulator by Rowan is called "Reach For The Skies".
How does it compare to the game "Battle Of Britain"?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> It doesn't <G>. It's all done with 3D polygons, so the
planes will look real as opposed to those Lucas Arts moving paintings. I
think Reach For the Skies is going to kill B Of B.
<D.SWIGERT> Yo zenobot...what are your three favorite st games and don't
say Deutros
< <[Eric] ST-GUEST> Well, I liked Millenium 2.2 a lot... <G> Actually, my
all-time favorite ST game is... Carrier Command. I can't get enough of it.
I wish those goofballs had released a genuine sequel to it, not that
Battle Command thing. I also like Microprose Formula 1 Grand Prix a whole
lot. I like a lot of games, I can't narrow it down to just 3.
<BRIAN.H> I have been waiting for SIMEARTH by Maxis for ages! Will it ever
be release?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Well, Maxis doesn't do ST. Ocean said they would release
it a while back, but they've been kinda quiet lately. Maybe they're hoping
we will forget about it... <g>
<BRIAN.H> I haven't forgotten [grin]!!! Please tell me about
Intergalactic Development, who are the makers of UMS I and II, and their
new ATARI project?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Okay... I had some more info lying around here
somewhere... Got it!!
<BRIAN.H> Will it be a Falcon only project? Or will it work on my MEGA
STE?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Okay, it's a murder mystery game based on the Jack The
Ripper murders in 19th Century London. You are a detective charged with
finding the culprit. The game includes over 140 period pen and ink
drawings that have been scanned in. It looks like a Falcon only project.
<BRIAN.H> DRAT!! OK, Rick OK, your turn for a question.
<R.ROSAURO> Hi, I would like to know if the rumors on wolfenstein coming
out for the lynx whether true or not?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> You got me. I learned about it from that topic in
category 36. I do mostly ST games. I let my pal Robert Jung take care of
Lynx stuff <g>.
<BRIAN.H> Is it really true that Avalon Hill (US) will be releasing
Diplomacy for the ATARI? I thought they gave up on ATARI?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Avalon didn't give up on Atari, they're just very very
slow. And yes, they really planning to release Diplomacy.
<BRIAN.H> Will it be any good? Any advance rumours?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Nope. Too early to tell.
<BRIAN.H> Last questions for the night, folks. You have been with the
Atari for awhile. What is your vision of the future of Atari ST(E)/
Falcon? For example, Palace, Domark, Mindscape, etc is leaving the Atari
market. I know you have earlier stated a lot depends on the FALCON.
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Yes, that and the Jaguar. Atari has lost its name
recognition, and that's a big negative factor. People have now picked up
"Nintendo" as the catch-all label for home video game units, now called
"consoles". Nintendo has also reprogrammed a whole generation of gamers
into being left-handed. The control pad in all Japanese consoles is on the
left while the buttons are on the right. This was started by Nintendo with
their first big coin-op Donkey Kong. The joystick was on the left, the
jump button on the right. Some people played it with crossed arms! That's
partly why I bought a Lynx: the screen is flippable and you can move the
pad with your right hand. And the weird thing is that nobody seems to
have noticed this strange right/left affair. Anyway, this is Atari's last
chance. They have to get on the ball.
I've read several articles in British magazines about UK game developers
who were having problems getting Falcons. One particular example being
Kevin Bulmer, who designed Corporation for Core Design (released on the
Genesis as Cybercop) who is now working on Legends Of Valour, a rather
nice looking 3D fantasy RPG in the mold of the revered 8-bit classic
Alternate Reality: The City. He was talking about how the IBM graphics
were already Falcon compatible, that he wanted to do the game on the
Falcon, and that Atari was giving him the runaround! Not only that, but
somebody at Atari apparently told him that the Falcon was a business
machine!! Then, we have Archer MacLean, a legend in the UK software.
Bob: this might have been before the conference.
<BRIAN.H> We're drawing to a close for the formal portion of the RTC.
Before I put the room into Frenzy Mode, do you have any closing
words, ERIC?
<[Eric] ST-GUEST> Atari machines are great!! PC Clones are evil. Just say
no.
<BRIAN.H> hehe.I wish to thank you Eric for making it here tonight. I
also wish to thank all the attendees for their questions and patience.
End of Formal RTC
Post RTC Information
<BOB-BRODIE> I'm sure that as Falcon030 availability increases, all the
devs. will be much happier. There is a considerable amount of interest in
the Atari Falcon030, and the number of *new* developers coming on board is
very encouraging for us all.
Eric, we put on a developer conference about 90 days ago for the UK game
developers. We brought in an expert on the DSP from Cambridge Univ. in the
UK to help them learn about using this powerful new chip that they now
have access to. It was an impressive event by all reports. MANY of the
best software houses across Europe attended, and are "quite keen" on the
Falcon030. Basically, a lot of the input from the conference was that to
use the DSP chip, means changing the entire way that the devs do stuff
like their sound. And of course, ALL the developers want a Falcon. ALL OF
THEM! We feel very strongly that what's needed for the Falcon are things
that will give people a reason to buy Atari. Applications. And of course,
games.
Mike's question re: address for EA:
ELECTRONIC ARTS
Langley Business Centre,
11-49 Station Road,
LANGLEY
Berkshire SL3 8YN
ENGLAND
Tel: 0753-549442
Fax: 0753 546672
==========================================================================
(C) 1992 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be
reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie
are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for
GEnie service; Set your communications software to Half Duplex (or Local
Echo) Call: (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection, type HHH (RETURN)
Wait for the U#= prompt. Type: XTX99587,CPUREPT then, hit RETURN.
=========================================================================
> COMPO PC EMULATOR STR Spotlight 286 TO 486 EMULATOR!
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
COMPO
FROM THE JERRY POURNELLE RT ON GENIE
====================================
Compiled by:
Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
Senior Staff Editor for STReport
From Category 4, Topic 36, Posts #83, 84, & 87
Hi Folks!
We will be shipping a 286 emulator [for the Falcon030] in January. It
is exceptionally fast for a 286. 386(SX) chips aren't cost efficient
for either us or our customers, so yes we're skipping over it and going
to a 486, to be released some time after the 286 emulator.
Although we haven't announced prices, the 286 will be introduced at a
very reasonable price.
Our intention with the emulator is to provide the highest compatibility
possible, based on what most folks seem to be using PCs for. Although
it demonstrates VERY high compatibility, games are the segment that
really pushes it, so we cannot guarantee that all games will work well.
-- Robert Engberson
Perhaps you could say who "we" is, Compo?
Plez - RT Archivist
Who are we?
COMPO began making products for Atari computers back when the first
520ST came out, in 1985. We're still Atari-only, and we have offices in
Holland, Germany, Great Britain, and most recently the U.S. We've been
doing PC emulation products for some time, having introduced the first
PC emulator (PC Speed) in 1989.
Besides the emulators (and a couple other hardware pieces) we also
produce software applications, including That's Write.
Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe is a good example in the games arena. I
expect it will work fine, but perhaps not at the speed you'd like. Many
recent games, including "Luftwaffe," prefer really fast video, faster
than I think we'll get with the emulator. Mind you, standard video
(including Windows in 16 and 256 colors, etc), will be quite fast.
If you want to run PC applications (and even some games) our emulator
will suit you quite well. If you're only interested in games, you're
probably better off buying a PC suited to games.
-- Robert
__________________________________________________________________
> SWAP MEET TIME! STR InfoFile ACT Atari Group HAS A SWAP MEET PLANNED
""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
SHOPPING/SELLING SPREE IN CONNECTICUT
IS
SURE CURE FOR 'CABIN FEVER'
Stamford, Conn. -- So what if it's 20 degrees outside and a
Nor'easter' has added a little sting to the wind? Things will be
hotter than ever at Mid-Winter Trading Fair designed with the Atari
computerist in mind.
ACT Atari Group, organizer of the popular Connecticut AtariFest
trade show, has cooked up a little "snack" for Atari computer users and
would-be owners everywhere. On Saturday, February 6, 1993, the group
will host its first regional event aimed at the Atari bargain-hunter.
Between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. serious shoppers will converge on St.
Benedict's Church Social Hall in Stamford, Conn., for unbeatable deals
on new Atari computers and software as well as closeouts,
discontinued merchandise and used equipment. User groups and selected
vendors will also be on hand to demonstrate and sell their extensive
libraries of public domain software for the Atari 16-bit computers
and hard-to-find 8-bit goodies.
Anyone with Atari gear to buy or sell will find the Mid-Winter
Trading Fair the place to be in '93. Just as Connecticut AtariFest
has become the premier show in New England to compare the latest in
Atari products, event organizers Brian Gockley and Doug Finch expect
this swap session to become a popular venue for making deals and
moving merchandise. "There's no expensive hotel this time, no
amenities, no banquet, no extras," they explain. "For this gathering
we've cut out the frills of a full-blown trade show in order to make
it affordable for everyone. No formalities; this is a come-as-you-are
bargain blast!" Admission to the Trading Fair is $4 per adult,
half-price for children under 12.
As any visitor to the crowded "swap room" at the WAACE in the D.C.
area will attest, deals on Atari hardware, software and accessories
can save consumers lots of money. Prizes, hands-on demonstrations,
upgrades and other activities will be part of the agenda.
ACT Atari Group is admitting some commercial vendors who want to
exhibit new products for the Atari line, but will limit their numbers
in order to give individual traders will plenty of room to haggle
prices and make deals. Among those that have tentatively agreed to
attend are Gribnif Software, Joppa Software and BaggettaWare Software.
Exhibitors and individual traders should reserve tables for the
event now because of limited space and the expected demand for booths.
Commercial vendors and distributors who expect to do volume business
or require a fully-equipped booth will be charged $100 for a booth
consisting of three tables. The exhibiting fee for Atari user groups
is $30. Individuals who want to guarantee floor space and a table on
which to display items for sale will be charged $10. Individuals and
user groups may not act as agents for other user groups, software
developers, distributors or other commercial entities without written
permission from ACT Atari Group.
It's easiest to reach St. Benedict's by car, via Interstate 95.
Here are the directions taking that route:
* Northbound I-95. Take Exit 8 (Atlantic Street) and turn right at
your 3rd traffic light onto Elm Street. Go two blocks on Elm, bearing
left onto Cove Road at the Shop-Rite Supermarket plaza. Continue for 2
lights, taking a right at the flashing caution light into St.
Benedict's Circle. The parish parking lot is on your immediate right.
Additional parking is available on Sound View Avenue (one block
down the hill from the caution light), at the Social Hall. Parking is
also plentiful on nearby streets in this residential neighborhood.
* Southbound I-95. Take the Elm Street exit (No. 8), and turn left
under the turnpike onto Elm Street. From here, the rest of the
directions are the same as above.
The Trading Fair coincides with ACT Atari Group's plan to publish a
new quarterly newsletter containing news and features aimed at
Northeast Atarians. The premier issue (February 1993) will contain
an up-to-the minute preview of the Trading Fair, as well as
features and bulletins about Atari activities in the Northeast
region. Trading Fair exhibitors will earn a discount for advertising
in the newsletter. Several hundred attendees of last summer's
Connecticut AtariFest '92 will also receive a year-end "sneak
preview" issue with user group news, a "best buy" tip, and more.
For more information about exhibiting or volunteering at the Feb. 6
Trading Fair or to inquire about advertising in the upcoming
newsletter, contact Brian Gockley, 18 Elmwood Avenue, Bridgeport, CT
06605 [Phone (203) 332-1721; E-Mail B.GOCKLEY (GEnie) or 75300,2514
(Compuserve)]; or Doug Finch, 46 Park Avenue, Old Greenwich, CT
06870 [Phone (203) 637-1034; E-Mail D.FINCH7 (GEnie) or 76337,1067
(Compuserve)]. To receive a complimentary copy of the newsletter,
send a self-addressed stamped envelope with your request.
________________________________________________________________
> A FEW COMMENTS STR FOCUS! A Guest Editorial for the Holidays
"""""""""""""""""""""""""
'TIS THE SEASON...
==================
by Dana P. Jacobson
Well, a good many topics for this near-end-of-the-year editorial
crossed my mind. I couldn't settle on any singular topic, so maybe I'll
do a little rambling and see where it takes me, and you.
First of all, I'd like to wish everyone a sincere Happy Chanukkah and
Merry Christmas. It's a hectic time of year, but nevertheless, an
enjoyable one. I hope that these holidays bring a time of joy; and that
they are safe.
Getting into the Atari end of it, it's unfortunate that there won't be
any new Fujis under the tree (bush?) this year, as has been the case in
recent years. With retail sales this holiday season being the best in the
past four years, Atari has truly missed a golden opportunity to make a
splash in sales this year. Oh well, at least a few fortunate users in
Europe may find a new Falcon under their tree this year. I'd really love
to know what the reason(s) is behind this error in judgment.
About the only item that is being advertised and sold this season is
the Lynx. Atari has been promoting a special price and free delivery of
the Lynx, a great opportunity for those of you who have been
procrastinating getting one. If you like games and prefer the comfort of
playing them while in your favorite easy chair, give Atari a call and
order one now!! You can also order any of the available
Lynx carts although they're not "on-sale."
In recent weeks, both on the services and the online mags, there has
been controversy about an editorial within these pages dealing with the
portrayal of the recent Atari showing at COMDEX. While that same issue
contained an excellent unbiased report of that show, we're led to believe
that the report was lacking. Our report was done, like all of our show
reports, as one in which the show-goer reflects his views. It's a shame
that a select few seem to feel that our reporter should have written a
press report rather than a viewer's account. Had there not been an
editorial in that same issue, I wonder of John Amsler's report would have
been pooh-poohed.
Since the time that the Falcon030 started to receive a lot of
publicity, from the AtariMesse through WAACE, Atari users were really
starting to feel good again. We got a chance to see, hear, and touch this
new machine. We heard many good things from various Atari
representatives. They went out of their way to be available to the
userbase to promote the Falcon. We were prepped for it; we could almost
taste it. COMDEX, from all of the reports we've all read, was a letdown.
Yes, some incredible things are being worked on. But, regardless of all
of the hype, we have no firm notion of when we'll see these new machines.
We have no idea where we're going to be able to see them (where are all of
these new dealers?). We have heard of a very few new developers for the
Falcon. We have no idea of when we'll be able to buy them. If anything,
this is disconcerting. A number of "deadlines" have come and gone, yet
we're given the impression that great things are happening; and that they
will be coming soon. Sorry, but we've been disillusioned before and it's
really difficult to keep on this emotional roller coaster. Me, I'll
watch while planted firmly on the ground!! I'm hoping that this period of
waiting is used wisely by Atari. I also hope that Atari sticks to its
original plans and will be aiming the Falcon at the potential new user.
The existing userbase will most likely wait for the "upper level" version
of the Falcon, whatever that might be.
While we wait for Atari to start pushing the Falcon, developers are
still cranking out new and improved products. Lee Seiler's Lexicor
Software has released a demo of their upcoming Phoenix software. This
looks like a real winner. Look forward to getting this piece of software
soon. Alan Page's (remember Flash?) Storm is just about ready for
release, as well. Reports are that this will be one of the premier
telecomm programs available in the Atari market. Hopefully, Alan will also
give us a preview with a demo version. There are also a number of new
things coming down the pike, but I can't recall them. Phoenix and Storm
are the two that seem to be getting the most "publicity" so it makes sense
to mention them both. It's exciting to see Atari developers continue to
work on new products.
On a sad note, we may be "losing" STReport's Senior Editor, Lloyd
Pulley after the first of the year. Disillusionment over the current
state of Atari is one reason; but also, not being able to maintain a
personal identity outside of STReport is another. It appears that no
matter what eh says, or where, it's automatically determined that he's
speaking for STReport. It's too bad that some people feel this way and
yet require that others can, and do have separate "hats." I hope to learn
that Lloyd Pulley and his obvious talents continue to flourish within the
"pages" of STReport for a long time to come as he would be sorely missed
by many of our readers. I guess time will tell...
Well, it's getting closer to NEW YEAR'S as I wind this little piece
down. Everyone is looking forward to a great holiday season. Perhaps
we'll start to see Atari more visible soon after the holidays. I know
we've heard it many times before, but _maybe_, just maybe, 1993 will be
_the_ year of Atari.
Happy Holidays to you all, and have a wonderful, prosperous New Year!!
________________________________________________________________
> STReport CONFIDENTIAL "Rumors Tidbits Predictions Observations Tips"
"""""""""""""""""""""
- San Diego, CA True Type Fonts to Join Speedo?
-------------
Rumor has it that True Type Fonts will also be supported by Atari's
new "standard" Speedo G-Dos. While its not a verified story its been
corroborated with a number of other Atarians and its a good idea whose
time has come.
- Frankfurt, Germany ATARI GERMANY DOWNSIZED
------------------
"It has been reported that, ATARI SWITZERLAND and ATARI SWEDEN
have both been CLOSED and ATARI GERMANY has MOVED. What about the
reported construction of Atari Germany's alleged new headquarters
and warehousing facility? Atari Germany, once regarded as the
vanguard for Atari in Europe as it was the central control point, is
reported to be operating on an extremely small scale at this time.
Atari has been steadily losing market share in Europe. Atari, at
one time, used to report its bigger share of income came from
Europe." (STR #850)
While I have no information about what's going on in Switzerland and
Sweden I might be able to provide some information about Atari Germany.
It is truethat Atari Germany moved to a new location. This is no
surprise. They had planned and built a new Germany headquarter for quite
a while, and when it was finished in October they moved from Raunheim to
Schwalbach. Both places are in the Frankfurt area. The moving to the new
location has nothing to do with the current situation on the Atari market
here.
The new building is said to be huge, too huge actually to be used by
Atari only (no machines means no need for warehousing facilities).
While I cannot *confirm* that Atari Germany is operating "on an
extremely small scale at this time" I can confirm that I have information
from usually well-informed sources that this is the case. Stumpf was not
the only one who left Atari (or was fired).
O. C. Steinmeier
- Chicago, IL CLASS 'B' CERTIFICATION AYE -NAY?
-----------
After the story became known about the TT030 rumored being "approved"
as Class 'B' but the version was not placed in production, many have asked
what are the numbers for the Falcon030? Its a very simple question; "What
is the number the FCC issued for Class B certification for the Falcon030
and on what date was is issued? Having this information at hand can do a
great deal of good in dispelling the the rumor that there "may not" have
been a number issued when it was clearly stated by Atari that the
Falcon030 was Class B certified. Being able to pass the standards set for
class B in an outside facility is not the same thing as being issued the
actual Certificate of Class B acceptance. So please, what's the number
and when was it issued?
________________________________________________________________
> HOLIDAY CHEER STR FOCUS! A Couple of superb Online Greeting Cards
""""""""""""""""""""""""
MERRY-CHRISTMAS-FROM-CODEHEAD-TECHNOLOGIES-MERRY-
CHRISTMAS-FROM-CODEHEAD-TECHNOLOGIES-MERRY-CHRIST
MAS-FROM-CODEHEAD-TECHNOL OGIE
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DEHEAD-TECHNOLOGIES-MERRY-CHRISTMAS-FROM-CODEHEAD
Happy Holidays to all from CodeHead!
===Tomas===
Happy Holidays
From: NORMAN238 To: ALL
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> STR Mail Call "...a place for the readers to be heard"
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STReport's MailBag
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Messages * NOT EDITED * for content
-----------------------------------
From GEnie's ST RT
About the State of Atari...
Category 36, Topic 5
Message 101 Thu Dec 17, 1992
D.ENGEL [Thunderbird] at 19:02 EST
Steve:
I was in Electronicks Blowtique today doinf a little Christmas
shopping. In the past 3 months, they moved their Lynx 'wall' down to a
Lynx 'rack' down to today's Lynx 'shelf'!
How can this be happening? Well, I found out today... I couldn't resist
the markdown on some of the older titles, so I asked for one. The sales
guy took the empty box out of the display shelf, replaced the contents
from a file cabinet, and had the other guy shrink-wrap it. They said they
didn't plan on restocking it.
After my visit, they were down to 12 titles, 2 'core' Lynx, and 1
deluxe package (with Batman promo sticker removed).
______________________
\hunderbird
------------
Category 14, Topic 20
Message 112 Sat Dec 19, 1992
BOB-BRODIE [Atari Corp.] at 17:31 EST
Dave,
I'm hear, reading the messages. And when I see one that I can offer a
reply to, I'm happy to do so.
You and Jerry Richter don't seem to be very impressed with the Falcon030
and that's OK. You both seem compelled to post about it often. I suppose
that's OK, to a point. I've made my point about it before, and don't see
much point in debating it with you, especially in a topic that is intended
to be informative, not a debate topic. :)
Regarding your question about current software in your last message...
this was a big part of the reason that I went to such efforts to ensure
decent coverage of COMDEX. There is new software, it's been shown, and
there is North American representation for all of it. What exactly did you
want to enquire about?
I think that we've strayed far and away from the intent of this topic.
There are Atari Falcon030s out in developers hands, and in the hands of
reviewers. Byte has one, CNN has one, and there are others. EQ Magazine
gave the Atari Falcon030 their "Blue Ribbon Award" as best new product at
the recent Audio Engineering Society Show. It was the only computer
product even mentioned. You'll read about it in Z*Net and AEO, and of
course, EQ Magazine. Check out the current issue for yourself.
While I haven't read BYTE yet, Jerry Pournelle told him back in Sept. that
we would start to see him writing about the Falcon030 in the January or
Feb '93 issues of BYTE...because of the lead time that BYTE has. Lead
times like that mean that you have to be patient to see the results of
efforts done MONTHS ago.
Finally...starting today many of us at Atari are *supposed* to be on
vacation for the next two weeks. Bill Rehbock is on his way back to
Chicago for the holidays. Dan McNamee is going out of town, Eric Smith is
on his way back to Toronto, Mike Fulton is heading back to So. Cal to see
his Mom, and....I'll be popping in and out of here some. :) Our family
will enjoy doing day trips around the bay area, watching plenty of
football <grin>, and I may even finally get to take my daughter to see
Aladdin! I'll probably buy one of the shirt that says Aladdin on it from
the Disney Store to send to Mike Kellar!!!
<grin>
BTW, among the other folk that have a Falcon030 is Ron Robinson, our tech
guy at Atari Explorer. You can spot his posts as EXPLORER.1 With him
being in the St. Louis area, he's pretty sure of not having any of us look
over his shoulder when he posts!
Happy Holidays to all!!
Bob Brodie
------------
Category 14, Topic 20
Message 113 Sat Dec 19, 1992
FAIRWEATHER [David] at 19:18 EST
Bob! Wait a minute! Before you and the other Atari employees leave
on your two week vacations, how about a few words of EXPLANATION as
to why the Falcons are not yet available for sale? You say that
developers now have Falcons, but that was supposed to have happened
MONTHS ago. I can understand why you don't want to engage in a
debate with Thunderbird and his ilk, but can't you please offer some
explanation and hope to the rest of us who would LOVE to run out and
buy a Falcon IF WE COULD ONLY FIND ONE SINGLE UNIT FOR SALE
ANYWHERE ON THIS PLANET!
I remember ALL TOO WELL the statements from Atari that the ST Book
would be released in Sept '91, Oct. 91', Christmas 91, First Quarter
'92, June '92 and then without warning Atari pulled the plug on the
ST Book. (I know, I know, it's being re-designed for musicians . . . .
riiight.)
Is this also going to be the story of the Falcon??? Say it ain't so
Bob! Tell us WHY the Falcon is late! Please! And don't just say "It's
not late. We always said we'd be 'ramping up' in January." Sam
Tramiel said in August that he "realistically expected" the first
dealer shipments to reach the U.S. in October. WHAT HAPPENED?
Give it to us straight Bob! We can take it!
------------
Category 14, Topic 20
Message 114 Sat Dec 19, 1992
J.RICHTER [J.RICHTER] at 21:45 EST
Bob Brodie,
Thankyou for the post.. I promise not to whine anymore! .... I feel better
know that I bought (2) LYNX systems.. I LOVE THEM.. how can you beat it
for 80 bucks!!! and my Dealer is going to be renting them for 5 days for
$5 !!!! AWSOME idea... the games he does not get back are already payed
for for so HOW can he loose? I think he will make a KILLING after the
Holidays.. WHOOPS sorry this is Falcon030 stuff.. but without any
Falcon030 there IS NOTHING to talk about! I still have complaints.. but
just maybe ATARI is listening and will be attentive to SOME of them
anyway... It is OBVIOUS to me that folks here of the Falcon040 ILK, there
just nothing more left to talk about!! .... ANYWAY if everyone out there
would buy a LYNX for themselves and a friend, it might keep ATARI alive
long enough for the Falcon040 to make it here??!!
Bob,
you might be interested to know that I have seen the NEW PCI bus for PC's,
DEC,(including 68K stuff) or just about anything you want to design it
for!! THIS IS awsome, it completely REMOVES the bottle-neck with PC
video!! I mean 1024x768x64K colors WITH SPEED... I sure hope you guys will
consider using this BUS in the 040 as it WILL be the standard for ALL
video in the future!! After seeing it I am sure you would agree!!! and
the Falcon040 could use any number of AWSOME graphic solutions with this
BUS Read Electronic Design and see what you think! This will completely
replace the PC the LocalBus stuff... DO IT and you will bury AMIGA once
and for all...
Bob,
Would you be SO kind as to answer the question from Mr. FAIRWEATHER? I
know your out there!! ... this is NOT a complaint, PLEASE answer!!!
------------
Category 14, Topic 20
Message 115 Sat Dec 19, 1992
J.ALLEN27 [FAST TECH] at 22:35 EST
The PCI bus won't win, the VESA standard will. Why, because VESA is open
and all the clone makers can go for it, while Intel's PCI has some
licensing fees involved on patented items, and as IBM found out with
MChannel...it just ain't gonna catch on.
------------
Category 14, Topic 20
Message 116 Sat Dec 19, 1992
BOB-BRODIE [Atari Corp.] at 23:59 EST
David,
You didn't read my post very carefully...I said that I would be popping in
and out of here, and doing day trips in the bay area. I'm not running
away for two weeks.
Sam did indeed realistically expect Falcons to hit in October, and the
date slipped for the US. There was a problem that I am not at liberty to
discuss, although I will say that it was not technical in nature. Among
other concerns were slow negoitations with companies for some of the
products that we want to have either bundled with the Falcon030, or have
available at the same time. For example, the Photo-CD software is
something that we very much want to bundle with the Falcon030. However,
that contract wasn't signed until November. That creates a rather obvious
problem in shipping the software.
The demand for units by developers (current, new, and returnees) has been
considerable. All across the globe Atari Falcon030s have been in high
demand. While it is disappointing that they are not for sale in North
America, it is very encouraging to see the demand from developers is
extraordinarily high! And it is for sale "on this planet", in Europe.
I take exception to your "riiigghht" description about the re-design of
the ST Book, David. We were highly criticized by people right here for the
lack of the backlight on the ST Book. We explained the intent of the unit,
and the fact that backlighting it would dramatically reduce the viability
of the unit as a notebook. We went to NAMM and heard the very same
concerns...and reacted. "Without warning, we pulled the plug on the ST
Book." Hardly! We took the concerns of our dealers and users to heart and
have the unit in for re-design. If the "don't bother, it's no use"
sentiment of your message is indeed correct, I'll be happy to pass that
information along to the appopriate people here in Sunnyvale.
And again, even though you don't like to hear it, we always indicated that
the main push was slated for January. We got the "what no Falcon for
Christmas?" messages _way back_ in August. It was felt that by being up
front and telling you realistically what we felt we could accomplish we
were doing the right thing. I still think that we were correct in being up
front about it. We should always tell what we can do, and when we believe
we will be able to do it.
Will the "story of the ST Book be the story of the Falcon030?" NO! The ST
Book was regarded as an addition to the existing lineup of computers. It
was/is, a highly portable unit. It's main technical advantages were the
incredible battery life, which was rejected by users and dealers as
significant. The Atari Falcon030 represents a substansial technical
advancement in personal computing. Publications like EQ recognize that, so
does Electronic Musician, Keyboard, people like Jerry Pournelle, Craig
Anderton, and CNN is talking extremely positive as well.
I'm happy to participate here, if there is something to discuss. Many of
the messages here lately have been about which clone bus is the best,
which one will "win". Where the best deals are on the most t advanced of
the clones. In short...nothing for me to comment on.
In almost every instance where a developer has a Falcon030, they are
pleased, and have new applications coming. HiSoft has a terrific paint
program coming, Lexicor is working on a bunch of stuff, JRI has a GENLOCK
and a video digitizer, and of course there are brand new products like the
voice mail system from D.O.A. I wonder why those aren't being discussed?
regards,
Bob Brodie
------------
Category 14, Topic 20
Message 121 Sun Dec 20, 1992
FAIRWEATHER [David] at 01:51 EST
Thanks for the quick answer Bob. Maybe someday you'll be "at liberty
to discuss" the cause of the delay. Don't take too much offense at
some of my more pointed comments. My "riiight" remark about the
ST Book wasn't meant to imply that Atari has lied about the
reasons for pulling the Book; only that I'm not expecting
to see a redesigned Book released in my lifetime. Prove me wrong and
I'll buy TWO of them!
You ask why the new Falcon developer's products aren't being discussed?
Maybe it's because nobody here has seen them but you.
Tell me about the Hi-Soft paint program! I've
seen some ads for it, and can't wait to get my hands on it. Have you
played with it?
------------
Category 14, Topic 20
Message 122 Sun Dec 20, 1992
J.RICHTER [J.RICHTER] at 01:57 EST
J.ALLEN,
Wait six months.. you will see! Intel does not own sole rights to this..
even DEC Alpha based systems will be using it ... Intel DOES NOT operate
like snooty IBM, who tried to get greedy with Micro Channel! You can
Multiplex 64 bits and SCSI II.. You forget Intel is in the BUSINESS for
platforms BIG-TIME.. ATI Ultra PCI cards are available..
Bob,
If you continue giving us updates in this manner, I solute you! Yes, the
Falcon030 is a GREAT sound engine!! Would anyone disagree! but this forum
is about the Falcon030 General Purpose Computer also, correct? Many of us
still have to type on the thing! correct? and it has been reported here
that Jerry Pournell himself was none to happy about the OLD keyboard and
CASE.. I am NOT whining!! I hope and pray that if ATARI finds the correct
price range for the Falcon, that it sells like HOTCAKES.. Most ATARIANS I
know just DO NOT like the keyboard, and the one-piece case is very
limiting to those loyal ATARIANS with Mega's and MegaSTE's !! .. I know
your sick of hearing about it!! Anyway, thanks for the QUICK response..
OH.. would you happen to have the FCC "Class B" number handy? ... not that
we don't trust ATARI or anything like that.. its just a confidence
builder.. you know!! We here have all experienced that painful waiting on
the TT030 Class "B" so you can't blame the skepticism can you?
Thunderbird is RIGHT...
Six months ago.. if we could have bought the Falcon.. it was ahead.. now
with Apple coming with the CHEAP 040 in February.. probably slightly ahead
of the Falcon030 ... well you may be behind!! again.. timing is
everything.. and so.. we are VERY concerned.. as you should be also!!!
Gee.. I opted for the LONG BATTERY life and no backlighting!! anyone here
seen the new DEL 3 lbs'er!
------------
Category 14, Topic 20
Message 136 Mon Dec 21, 1992
BOB-BRODIE [Atari Corp.] at 14:40 EST
Jim Allen,
I understand what you're saying about the price of the ST Book. But trust
me when I tell you that it was not an issue. The backlighting was, in the
minds of the musicians, the fundamental issue. They have music
applications that run on our platform that make the price a moot point. I
think that you're on target that we will need to re-evaluate the price in
light of the re-design, though.
Mike Kellar...
OK, no Aladdin shirt for you! :)
Fairweather-
Rather than have me tell you any more about HiSoft's True Paint program
I'd prefer that you direct those questions to Bob Luneski of Oregon
Research Associates. He's HiSoft's representative in North America, and is
really the best prepared to discuss this product. I don't ever go over to
his category, so I'm not even sure if he's got a topic for the product yet
(or how much he'll appreciate me telling everyone to go bug him!) ...yet,
he's the right man for the job.
Soul Manager-
I went to great lengths (honestly!...spent almost a weekend) working on my
COMDEX report for our online magazine. The information on the new
products is in AEO_SE1.LZH file in the library. HiSoft, GoldLeaf, Micro
Creations, DMC, and others I outline in that article are online here. They
are much better suited to inform you on their products that I am.
I was very impressed with HiSoft's paint program. It's been awhile since
I've seen such a very nice package! And there are other things in the
works, too. Lexicor was not at COMDEX (Lee got married and went on his
honeymoon) and they have some dynamite applications coming.
I'm not trying to avoid describing the products, I just don't want to be
caught in a developer crossfire for not offering equal time to all of 'em!
Ron,
Thanks for the posting!
regards,
Bob Brodie
------------
Category 14, Topic 20
Message 132 Sun Dec 20, 1992
C.FLUEGEL [Curt] at 22:23 EST
Well, the latest anyone at Atari told me was, were going on vacation for
a couple of weeks (the whole corporation, says something..), dont expect
Falcons for consumors until after the NAMM show. That does sound
realistic, though I would like one sooner. All until then will go to more
developers (maybe theres more developers!)
ps. We sent a computer in for repair in April, a Mega ST2 (not E) and
it still hasnt come back yet. I got the problem corrected, but I still
thought it was kinda funny. Curt
------------
Category 14, Topic 31
Message 127 Sat Dec 19, 1992
M.SUBSINSKY1 at 05:48 EST
Hello All;
First, sorry for the delay in responding but I work at night and
basically only get on GEnie on the weekend. To answer y'alls
questions:
1)I do not have a laser printer, so that wasn't a problem.
2)The disk was the official grey and blue Atari disk. Like I mentioned
above, it doesn't have a serial number on it that I see, unlike the
HDX disk that was supplied with my STacy, which has a serial number on
it ( I think ). There are a bunch of numbers stamped on the label of
the STacy HDX disk, I'm assuming it's a serial number.
Here's basically what I did:
I bought the Mega STe mail order from Toad Computers, a
reputable and from my experience very good Atari dealer. I do believe
the HD in the STe was dealer-installed, as the QA seal over the HD
cover screw was broken and in talking to Toad on the phone they said
they had done that and the original box the computer came in did not
indicate the unit had a HD. That doesn't seem too relevant but in case
Atari wants to know...Also the HD I think is not an Atari product (
I'm once again not certain ) as it is a Maxtor 130 meg.
Anyway, the unit came ready to run, I plugged it in, hooked up
my SM124 and fired it up and it booted up just fine from the HD. Ray
at Toad told me over the phone he had preformatted it and checked it
out prior to shipping it out and it worked fine. I explained that it
did work OK, but me being the curious type, I wanted to check out the
HDX software supplied and try everything out before I loaded my
application software into it. Basically, I wanted to be sure I could
reformat, repartition, etc, just in case I had to. Let me digress for a
moment, I've had a Supra HD for my old 1040st and had to do all the
setup myself, and the same was true about the STacy I have. Both of
those have served me well with nary a bit of trouble. In fact, over a
5 year period, I've never had to reformat my Supra drive! I did ONCE
just because I wanted to try out a different partitioning scheme. This
always made me wonder because ms-dos folks I know seem like they are
always having to reformat, rebuild, optimize, defragment and do some
sort of maintenance to thier HDs. ( One guy I work with I think spends
more time doing this than actually using his computer. ) When I
recently aquired the freeware GMAP utility and ran it on my 2 Atari's,
I was supprised to see that it came up and said optimization was not
recommended for any partition of any of my HDs.
I ran the HDX program from the floppy supplied with my Mega STE.
About half way through the format ( approximately ) an error message
came up and it quit. I could no longer access the HD. Every attempt to
run HDX came back with the message that the device did not exist. Now,
I understood that the driver AHDI had to run to recognize the HD, so I
dug out the manual and used the proceedure in the book for
initializing the HD. SYMPTOM #2- I booted the HDX disk in the Mega
STE, running AHDI from the AUTO folder. It would lock up the system
with 4 bombs. So I booted from the CPX disk-no problem. I ran AHDI
from the HDX disk via the desktop, and it would return the message
that SCSI Device 0 was a Maxtor #something or other ( it was too quik
to read exactly). I then would run HDX. It would come up with Device 0
highlighted, but after selecting it it would come back with the
message that the chosen device did not exist. So did the "Install
Device" selection from the desktop. I had been following the
instructions in the manual exactly, and began trying other things as
it didn't seem to work. I then tried the same things using my STacy
HDX disk. It all seemed to work but the software was different and
only presented me with the choices of Stacy, or Megafile
configurations to format, I never tried them. I also tried using my
STacy AHDI program run from the desktop after a floppy boot and after
using a blank formatted disk to floppy boot. It seemed to work, but
running HDX from the mega STE disk always came back with the no device
error.
I called back Toad, and explained what was happening. Ray at
Toad walked me through a bunch of steps, and after I opened up the
machine to check that nothing came loose during shipment, seemed to
believe the HD was at fault and wanted me to send it back. He said the
Stacy HDX format probably wouldn't work, or my old Supra formatter due
to thier age and my current hardware configuration. I DID disconnect
the HD in the mega and hooked up my old Supra drive to the DMA port,
it worked just fine.
By now I was somewhat bummed out that my new computer's HD was
lame. So I tried an experiment, after all it seemed like I couldn't
hurt anything any worse. I booted the mega from floppy, using the ALT
key and a blank, formatted disk. The Desktop came up, and I ran AHDI
from the desktop off the mega's HDX disk. It returned the same SCSI 0
Maxtor HD installed message I'd been getting all along. Then I ran the
Supra formatter, it recognized the HD as a Seagate 40 meg. I figured,
what the heck, and clicked on FORMAT. The drive formatted! Of course it
only formatted to 16meg, but it completed without any errors. I
enabled HD boot using the mega HDX again and it worked. I was able to
boot from the HD again. I noticed when AHDI ran this time I got a
slightly different message ( new symptom to note ) that device 0 was a
something and device 1 was not present. I then ran HDX from the mega
disk, from the desktop, and it worked! I reformatted the HD back to
full capacity successfully. At this point I concluded my problem was
indeed software and not hardware, as an attempt to boot from my mega
HDX disk resulted in 4 bombs.
Now for the sad news. For the heck of it, I ran VKILLER to see
if the boot sector of my mega HDX disk was corrupt. I almost jumped
out of my seat when the devil's face popped up on the screen and said
the disk had a Known Virus ! Like I mentioned before, I'd never
encountered a virus with any Atari software I've purchased or DL'd.
This was a first for me. I plan to DL the HDX utilities to ensure my
version is non-corrupt and reformat again as a safety measure, then
build my software on the HD over the Xmas holiday. This explains why
my attempts to boot up from HDX disk bombed out. So here are my
conclusions:
1)Atari dealers: PLEASE check out the disks suppled with the computers
you sell. Being as my Mega STE was NOT in a FACTORY SEALED box, and in
fact the dealer said they unpacked it and checked that it worked prior
to shipment, it is highly probable the disk was tampered with AFTER it
left Atari. Luckily, I am a somewhat experienced Atari user and was
able to get things to work but a rank novice would have wound up being
really befuddled and disappointed that an official Atari product ( the
Mega STE HDX disk ) had been the source of problems. This kind of
stuff really hurts the Atari world, and I am still disgusted that some
low life would do something like this to hurt Atari. Jeez, go mess
with Bill Gates if you feel you hafta do sh*t like this.
2)Atari Users: Keep plenty of backups. I checked out all the disks I
used while troubleshooting and none of the boot sectors are corrupt
but it puts some doubt in any of the programs I ran as to how good
they are now. Luckily, everything I ran before I discovered the virus
was from a BACKUP disk that I can rewrite fresh from the original.
Disks are cheap if you buy from a bulk dealer ( I buy 50 at a time
from a mail order dealer for like $0.39 each ).
3)I'd like to thank those of you who have shown an interest in this,
especially Dan and Bob Brodie at Atari. I never meant my original msg
to be a "flame", but I just wanted to share the info with you. Your
interest shows you care. I've been an Atari user since I bought my
original 16k 800 in 1979. ( I still have a WORKING copy of the 8-bit
DOS 1.0 that came with my 810 disk drive ! ) I really like the new TOS
in the Mega STE.
Well, that's my long winded story, hope it helps any other users out
there. Matt Subsinsky
------------
Category 14, Topic 45
Message 11 Fri Dec 18, 1992
MIKE.KELLER [ST Aladdin] at 17:41 EDT
- the more "responsible" people at Atari got involved and immediately
- initiated contact with Kesmai. I have no idea what happened initially,
- I wasn't there.
My understanding is that Kesmai is supposed to "expect a phone call
from someone at Atari." Sounds like immediate contact.
- got too high. It's kind of unfair to have free users who can play for
- hours, and hone their skills to near perfection, shoot the jehosaphat
Jim, GEnie has rules about that stuff. The free users do not get
their scores kept, for one thing. And I know plenty of users paying
three figure AW-only Visa bills. Charlie Townsley commented two years
ago that if he keeps his bill to $300 a month he's happy.<g>
Wayne, if you haven't gotten a new front end in two years, you should
check in and maybe download the latest while it's still a free
download.
As for the screen view, the ST has always had the best situation in
that regard. They programmed the ST (and only the ST) with a
horizontally panoramic view that incorporates about 100^ left-right.
No other cpu has that view, so the others have to use the view keys
to get diagonal views that we can see in the straight views. So the
SVGA is just following what everyone else has already had.
BUT, you should also note the nice 3D modeling of the attacking
aircraft. This is the kind of stuff that requires the faster cpus and
better video.
Now if we all at least bought Turbo030s or SSTs...
Thing is, with AW going and Battletech only for MSDOS and Harpoon
being developed for clones, and Terra Firma for clones...
Where's a game for Atari on GEnie?
mike.k
------------
Category 14, Topic 45
Message 14 Fri Dec 18, 1992
R.BINGHAM2 [Da Sloth] at 21:45 EST
I've been flying regularly for MANY years now. The number of Atari users
has been dropping constantly for all of them. Volstag and I are the only
two players flying the ST that post on the board regularly now, and
Volstag hasn't posted in a few weeks. Even using a 10:1 ratio, that's
just 20 people flying Ataris moderatly regularly.
Meanwhile, everyone is talking about the ten THOUsand dwee...errr... new
players that could well be coming on line with the boxed sets. Thousands
to 20...you really think Kesmai can afford to program for Atari?? Still,
they made quite an effort to do so. They value their old player base.
This all actually goes back to a message from John back in November when
he said he called Atari and didn't come away with a good feeling.
Dunno what was going on last week. Robert at Kesmai called me personally
on Friday night last week, and all looked to be gloom and doom then.
Robert mailed everyone on Saturday. Lots of that letter was repeated in
the public post on Wednesday.
Yo Clean! I know for a FACT that the IBM version looks just like the ST
version, though the colors are slightly different and you have a different
choice of resolutions. The SVGA version is a bit smaller, but getting rid
of those T's makes it worth it.
Harpoon: Naval battle game. S'posed to be great. It's also going to be
for DOS only, at least for a good long time.
Terra Firma: Tank battle game. These folks said they would likely do an
Atari version once they got the DOS version stable. Of course, that was
many moons ago - before Kesmai announced what they were doing. (Anyone
think of the chill Kesmai's action is going to put on all the other
developing MPG designers?)
BattleTech: DOS only and it'l stay that way. The company that sells the
game now insists on it, or some such. I forget the details. Plays much
like the game DOS folks can buy in stores, only it's MULTI player.
------------
Category 14, Topic 45
Message 20 Sun Dec 20, 1992
BOB-BRODIE [Atari Corp.] at 00:20 EST
We'll see what can be done. Bill Rehbock was caught completely off guard
by this, and so was I. I don't understand how we can be on GEnie and not
hear a word from Kesmai.
In any event, Bill has the number to contact them now, and I'm sure the
situation will be in good hands.
Thanks for all of the input on this matter.
regards,
Bob Brodie
------------
Category 14, Topic 45
Message 21 Sun Dec 20, 1992
MIKE.KELLER [ST Aladdin] at 00:48 EDT
AW is written and supported by an independent corporation, Kesmai.
GEnie is not their only client, although it's the only American
service with their graphic multiplayer games.
Kesmai developed the SVGA version basically thanks to an infusion of
cash from Japan, where a network desired an SVGA version to run
there. American AW and GEnie benefits.
There's even a small network running AW in England, I believe they
are using a 386 box as their host! I think this is where Robert Wolf
referenced that even ST support overseas was dwindling.
So, it's not necessarily GEnie's choice, although I'm sure they could
negotiate. But how many ST'ers are going to play enough AW to justify
their own game area? I realize there is a Mac-only game, A-Mazing,
but how much GEnie cpu does it require? In fact, AW is no longer
running on the actual GEnie mainframes: Kesmai now has an Aries box
(or is it two, Sloth?) that runs the AW host, sitting right in their
Charlottesville offices.
Dollars talk, and what's needed is for Kesmai to get strong
committment from Atari that there will be new machines in quantities
for folks to play AW on, and that Kesmai can get some development
help in the way of equipment to work on.
mike.k
------------
Category 14, Topic 45
Message 23 Sun Dec 20, 1992
WAYNED. [Wayne] at 20:07 EST
- We'll see what can be done. Bill Rehbock was caught completely off
- guard by this, and so was I. I don't understand how we can be on
- GEnie and not hear a word from Kesmai.
The fact that the Atari version of AW wasn't going to be updated once
the SVGA Ibm stuff was finalized has been 'fairly' common knowledge for a
LONG time. I knew about it well over a year ago, but probably found out
sooner than most because I'm friends with a couple people who were helping
Beta test AW.
Simple fact is we need fairly large #'s of machines out there in order
for them to be interested. Especially since the Clone crowd is now
involved. They could drop all other versions and still have more people
playing than the system could support. :-(
I do hope for a positive outcome of this situation though. I do
remember the heyday when Atari RULED Air Warrior!! I was the first on in
my area to get involved and hooked almost a dozen other Atarians I knew.
We used to go over to a friends house dragging our machines because he had
4 phone lines in his house. We'd get together and take over whole areas
of the map for hours at a time. The enemy never could figure out how we
were so organized without using the radios. :-)
Wayne
------------
Category 14, Topic 45
Message 29 Tue Dec 22, 1992
MIKE.KELLER [ST Aladdin] at 21:45 EDT
I've been in touch with Robert Wolf of Kesmai since I discovered that
Kesmai planned to drop AW for the ST. After exchanging a couple of
GEmails, I received the following notes, which he has given me
permission to repost here publicly.
GE Mail
Message: 1059694, on December 22, 1992 at 18:43
From: AIR.WOLF Robert Wolf
To: MIKE.KELLER Michael Keller
Sub: Atari-ST RoundTable
Mike:
I did read through your new BB topic. I have exchanged letters with
Bob Brodie but so far no phone contact. The holidays surely are
preoccupying everyone.
I'm sure that if we were in contact with the right people at Atari
they would have found a way to get us some development machines. At
this point the lack of machines may be a distraction from the central
issue. There isn't yet a demonstrated base of current owners of the
more powerful Ataris.
As for the suggestion to have an Atari only arena open, for at least
a month there will be a copy of each host arena from 870;2 to 868
where the older FE's will still work. If a decent number of Atari
players were keeping the 'old host' area active, we would have
something to think about. We can determine usage by machine type from
the log records.
Your idea for at H2H mode as a parting gift to Atari players is a neat
concept, but it is not practical for us to attempt, unfortunately.
(sigh.)
I really meant what I said in the letter. We don't mind upping the
ante for machine horse power, but we really mind losing some great
people who came to Air Warrior from the Atari world.
Happy Holidays,
--Robert
----------
GE Mail
Message: 5378476, on December 22, 1992 at 18:43
From: AIR.WOLF Robert Wolf
To: MIKE.KELLER Michael Keller
Sub: Atari-ST RoundTable
Mike:
Feel free to post the offer I described in my letter. Please fix the
punctuation for me! (where DID those leading blanks go off to...)
I would rather lurk in the ST topic than post. I don't want to get
into a tug of war with anyone.
You have a point about the playing field leveling in 870 (old host).
I worry that it may be too sparse in there, but if you folks want to
use it and we see the activity, we will keep an arena for you. There
will be no changes to the Atari FE's unless a Falcon version can be
justified, but the host will be up to date with the other hosts that
are active on ARIES. Are we replaying the New Coke Old Coke
scenario?!
Best wishes,
--Robert
Well, there's an offer there, of sorts. We can have an ST area, IF we
can keep it busy enought to justify it. They WILL upgrade the AW FE
to the Falcon (and I hope TT) IF Atari can show some numerical
strength.
BTW, I had suggested that they incorporate the head to head mode into
the final ST FE as a parting gift.<g> Oh well.
mike.k
------------
On another note...
Category 15, Topic 11
Message 83 Tue Dec 22, 1992
POTECHIN [RT~Sysop] at 18:27 EST
My apologies to everyone. It seems I've posted in error. Patti has not
posted here since April. On other services it has been said that there
will not be another AIM until maybe March next year while she brags about
her new Mac. She has also posted info on a new online magazine she is
publishing, in every RT here but the Atari RT. Clearly she feels her
future lies elsewhere.
Just thought I'd share this with you all. Sigh.
Nathan
------------
Category 15, Topic 11
Message 85 Fri Dec 25, 1992
D.D.MARTIN [Swampy] at 12:31 EST
Gee, if I had a new MAC, I'd brag too! %^)
Swampy
------------
Category 15, Topic 11
Message 86 Fri Dec 25, 1992
POTECHIN [RT~Sysop] at 21:57 EST
And D.D. says:
- Gee, if I had a new MAC, I'd brag too! %^)
Hmmm, even if you published an Atari magazine and had some kind of
obligation to meet your subscribers orders? I wasn't making a comment
about a MAC one way or another. I have a Mac, and an IBM or two. I might
even have an Amiga kicking around. But I USE my Atari all day long D.D.,
as an Atari. That was not why I posted the other day. I guess I didn't
make myself clear enough.
Nathan @ DMC
------------
Category 14, Topic 31
Message 137 Thu Dec 24, 1992
R.WATSON15 [Wayne Watson] at 05:31 EST
According to Byte, the 68060 is closer to 77 MIPS. Once Atari gets stable
again, it might be nice for them to design a workstation (real powerful
one) which used the 68060 and have a lot of the features talked about in
the Future Falcon topic. I mean lay it to it and let nothing be crippled
or old technology that included slots. This would probably be a very
limited market but, you never know, it may take off.
------------
Category 32, Topic 11
Message 78 Fri Dec 25, 1992
J.EIDSVOOG1 [CodeHead] at 12:07 EST
Gerry,
We are currently expanding into both the Windows and the Mac platforms.
It's really hard to say which platform will have the first releases of our
products at this time as it will not be any time soon. Ideally, there
will be parallel releases of our software on both platforms.
To All,
DO NOT infer from this that we are dropping support for the Atari. We will
continue to support our Atari software as long as we have a drop of blood
left in our Atari veins. Hopefully a tranfusion is forthcoming soon.
<grin>
John
------------
Category 32, Topic 11
Message 81 Fri Dec 25, 1992
CODEHEAD [Charles] at 15:01 EST
Gerry,
As John said, we have things planned for both the Macintosh and Windows.
If you're asking which machine we prefer ourselves (grin), for me there's
no question -- go with the Mac. The Mac operating system is just
terrific; Windows is nice too, but it's not as consistent, friendly, or
powerful as Apple's System 7. (System 7 is a wonderful example of what
can happen when awell-designed operating system is constantly upgraded
over the course of many years, by talented programmers who listen to the
people who use the computers...) And those Powerbooks are beautiful --
especially the new Powerbook Duos, which double as "docking" desktop
machines.
- Charles @ CodeHead Tech
Friday, December 25, 1992 10:12 am
------------
from CompuServe's Atari Areas....
also about the current state of Atari's market....
#: 77898 S17/Community Square
21-Dec-92 05:30:43
Sb: #77719-#Falcon appears
Fm: LEXICOR Software 75300,763
To: bob wilson 72355,1637 (X)
There be FALCONS HERE!
I can assure you that US Consumer Units are in the USA. These are fully
functional NTSC machines.
With out abridging the developers code of Silance I can say I have read
reciently that ATARI should be releasing in the US as soon as the FCC
certificate is issued and the HWD is delivered When that will be I don not
know, I do know as an absolute fact that ATARI is manufacturing US NTSC
machines.
WE have them and It is a good bet that many other developers have them as
well.
It is worth mentioning the Bill rechbock at ATARI has bent over backwards
to get these machines for Developers and is doing every thing possible to
help see to it that Falcon specific and Falcon compatable softwre will be
ready when the Machines are ready to release.
Lee
#: 77984 S17/Community Square
22-Dec-92 05:18:08
Sb: #77927-Falcon appears
Fm: LEXICOR Software 75300,763
To: GST Software 71351,332 (X)
I am not an official of ATARI, I have not been formally told by ATARI
anything about FCC, what I can tell you is what I heard in a public
conversation at an ATARI convention.
The Falcon has been FCC rated and passed, the application has been made
and that after the normal certification time passes ATARI will receive
their Falcon certificate.
My guess is that ATARI is making up orders to fit a well thought out
distribution plan which takes into consideration FCC approval market
demand (World wide) and production capabilities.
Information I do have which is confidential is satisfactory enough that I
have no problem with continuing the development of both Falcon specific
applications like "Merdian" and Falcon pointed programs like Phoenix!
The commerical version is very well made and runs like a top.
Once you start working with the true color modes you will fall in love
with it!
Lee
#: 78292 S17/Community Square
25-Dec-92 23:51:34
Sb: #78276-Falcon appears
Fm: Lloyd Pulley 72637,745
To: LEXICOR Software 75300,763
Lee,
That's exactly the point I was trying to make! It's entirely possible
that the Falcon030 had passed the FCC certification test - NO ONE had
doubted that. What was being questioned was if the Falcon030 had been
approved by the FCC and had a FCC number. Passing an independent FCC
certification test doesn't automatically mean the product has been cer-
tified by the FCC and has a number - or one pending.
And that is what certain Atari reps tried to imply, that they had the
FCC's approval - which to this day they haven't proved they have. They
tried passing off a 1/2 truth as a full truth - and got caught. Inste-
ad of saying at Comdex, "These machines have passed an independent FCC
test and we are waiting to get the paperwork back from the FCC", they
had to say (paraphrased), "These machines have passed the FCC and we
just haven't got around to putting the actual numbers on them yet."
So who's at fault for the rumors and arguments? IMO, ATARI!! If they
had been up front, there would not have been any rumors. But due to
their past history of blaming the FCC for everything, for saying that
certain machines had passed when they hadn't (I remember them telling
us the TT had finally passed class B - there are still no TT's with a
class B certification on them), and for telling 1/2 truths this time,
THEY were responsible for the rumors.
Lloyd E. Pulley, Sr.
#: 77821 S8/Hot Topics
20-Dec-92 10:24:53
Sb: #77811-#Naked Truth!
Fm: INTERSECT Software 76004,1577
To: Domingo B. Alvear 74030,3254 (X)
--I replied to the original message. I don't think Atari has ever
--made a BAD machine, only BAD DECISIONS.
I totally agree with you. I think that is the view of many of the most
critical.
Atari produced a computer in 85 that was excellent, they waited too long
to come out with the Falcon and we are >>worried<< that they are not
keeping up. That management doesn't know what they are doing!
What they need to do, in my opinion is to release information on the other
computers to come in the Falcon line. I'd like to hear them say for
instance:
We are delaying the release of the Falcon except to developers because of
delays in the new TOS, because we are following the example of the
Japanese's 0 inventory method, the assembly lines are not geared up to
produce anything but limited runs until the new Multi-TOS is ready.
Believe me this idling of a assembly plant is costing us money and we are
pushing to release it asap.
When the new TOS is completed we do not expect delays to be incurred for
the upper scale machines in the Falcon line, these machines will feature
faster CPU's, full 32 bit buss and higher video resolutions. There will
be two new machines to come in the Falcon line, we expect to release these
machines (X) months apart after the Falcon's initial mass shipment.
The poor reception the Falcon has received among many of our loyal
supporters (too little too late) has prompted us to announce the features
of our new machines (see attached list of new machines features).
We do have a business plan for the future, with machines to meet the needs
of the average user and for advanced applications, with pricing that will
insure a healthy growth of third party hardware and software for our
machines.
We have resisted announcing our plans, giving our competition an
advantage. We feel that our R&D and production plans are far enough along
that this announcement will not damage our competativeness.
The above is a wish....or what I think would be a good business move
#: 77742 S17/Community Square
19-Dec-92 14:20:26
Sb: #77306-#Falcon: Flies or Dies
Fm: John J. Amsler 70275,676
To: Jim Ness 75300,3155 (X)
Jim:
I met Leonard at COMDEX 87 and, I think, 88. He seemed to be the
typical Type-A bundle of nonstop energy and talk ... which is probably
good for a computer company executive: people who stand around waiting
for something to happen (as opposed to MAKING something happen) are
likely to get run over.
- John
#: 77780 S17/Community Square
19-Dec-92 23:39:02
Sb: #77742-#Falcon: Flies or Dies
Fm: Jim Ness 75300,3155
To: John J. Amsler 70275,676 (X)
I have never met the guy myself, but yours is the first description I have
seen that did not include the word "arrogant."
-JN
#: 77800 S17/Community Square
20-Dec-92 02:02:49
Sb: #77780-#Falcon: Flies or Dies
Fm: SYSOP*Bob Retelle 76702,1466
To: Jim Ness 75300,3155 (X)
The first (and only time) I ever met Leonard Tramiel, he ignored
everything I'd said to him, replying only "The name is pronounced Tra-mel.
I give everyone one chance to get it right." Then he walked away.
BobR
#: 77957 S17/Community Square
22-Dec-92 00:04:19
Sb: #77800-Falcon: Flies or Dies
Fm: John J. Amsler 70275,676
To: SYSOP*Bob Retelle 76702,1466 (X)
Bob:
Well, you had your chance, and you blew it! <g>
(As he walked away, did he mutter something like, "Harumph!" ?)
- John
<g>
#: 77911 S17/Community Square
21-Dec-92 09:02:38
Sb: #77780-#Falcon: Flies or Dies
Fm: GST Software 71351,332
To: Jim Ness 75300,3155 (X)
Oh I wouldn't use arrogant - it has far to many positive conotations to be
used about Leonard.
Tony
#: 77942 S17/Community Square
21-Dec-92 19:34:30
Sb: #77911-Falcon: Flies or Dies
Fm: CodeHead Software 76004,2232
To: GST Software 71351,332 (X)
Tony,
<smile> I see you've had personal encounters with L______ too. I
concur.
- Charles @ CodeHead Tech
#: 78078 S17/Community Square
23-Dec-92 09:01:42
Sb: #77942-Falcon: Flies or Dies
Fm: GST Software 71351,332
To: CodeHead Software 76004,2232
Yup - classic moments at a developers conference - Leonard and I had
arrived at this thing never having met but already having managed to
develop a deep dislike of each other via fax.
Halfway through the meeting he moves onto the topic about which we had
been faxing him and says
"Unlike what some people here think, we are not idiots, I will say that
again, we are not idiots".
before I could respond another developer who had *no* idea about what was
going on behind the scenes of all this happily chips in with "But you've
got to admit you've done some bloody silly things in your time."
Cue Leonard going nuclear.
I always handle such meetings now by reminding myself that a reject dwarf
from Tolkiens Lord of the Rings isn't worth getting that hung up about.
Whereas we have nothing really but praise for Bill Rehbock.
Tony
#: 78108 S17/Community Square
23-Dec-92 13:38:53
Sb: #78078-Falcon: Flies or Dies
Fm: CodeHead Software 76004,2232
To: GST Software 71351,332 (X)
Tony,
-- a reject dwarf from Tolkiens Lord of the Rings...
Thanks for the first good laugh of the day! :)
Since we're trading stories, here's a good one. One day, we got a call
from L______, who promptly started belittling us (in an extremely
condescending and obnoxious manner) for "not following the rules" in
MultiDesk. The actual issue in question was rather technical, hinging on
whether or not it was permissible to rely on register D1 to retain its
value through a Trap #2 call. When we pointed out that Atari's own
documentation does _not_ state that D1 is unsafe to rely upon, we got an
immediate blustery "Yes it does!" response. (It doesn't.) When we
pointed out that TOS itself saves and restores _all_ registers during Trap
#2 calls, we got a short silence, and then a hang-up.
About an hour later, we got a call from someone else (not L______, he'd
never admit to a mistake), acknowledging that we were correct. And yet,
to this day, FSMGDOS (and probably SpeedoGDOS too) trashes register D1
during its Trap #2 processing.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing isn't unusual at all; it's very
routine treatment for Atari developers.
- Charles
#: 77958 S17/Community Square
22-Dec-92 00:06:05
Sb: #77911-Falcon: Flies or Dies
Fm: John J. Amsler 70275,676
To: GST Software 71351,332 (X)
Tony:
In general, though, isn't arrogance -- to one extent or another --
typical of business executives (who, without it, would get smashed
and trashed in the viciously competitive marketplace)?
- John
#: 77993 S1/Forum Business
22-Dec-92 09:51:50
Sb: Atari's Ship
Fm: Bob Ledbetter 71043,3442
To: All
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I submit for your consideration that Atari's ship has indeed come in.
Unfortunately, Atari is at the train station.
#: 78005 S8/Hot Topics
22-Dec-92 11:40:14
Sb: #77979-#Naked Truth!
Fm: SYSOP*Bob Retelle 76702,1466
To: Domingo B. Alvear 74030,3254 (X)
Dom, do you think inserting a one page flyer into several major Sunday
newspapers around the country a week before Christmas is going to
influence very many buying decisions this season..?
Will Aunt Martha, having waited until the last minute to buy something for
Little Billy, run out and buy a Lynx instead of the Game Gear he asked
for..?
Or will she, upon seeing the flyer, suddenly decide to return the GameBoy
she bought weeks ago, and get a Lynx instead..?
(Do you think it's too late for us to take up a collection and get a
coorespondence course in Marketing for the Tramiels for Christmas..?)
BobR
#: 78008 S8/Hot Topics
22-Dec-92 13:07:26
Sb: #78005-#Naked Truth!
Fm: SYSOP*Ron Luks 76703,254
To: SYSOP*Bob Retelle 76702,1466 (X)
I don't think the 4 page insert for the Lynx in the Sunday papers was
part of a broad-based marketing plan. I think it was more of a spur of
the moment, knee-jerk reaction to Toy's R Us dropping the Lynx line and
leaving Atari with unsold inventory during the holiday season. Same for
the price drop. Not planned as much as a reaction to the Toy's R Us
decision.
As you probably know, Toy's R Us is the single goliath in toy
retailing. All the other competition lumped together does not compare to
the Toy's R Us phenomenon. Its sad that the Lynx will not be re-ordered
by them and I can only guess at what kind of mishandling went into Toys R
Us's decision to drop the Lynx. The game unit by itself receives good
reviews and finally with over 50 games available, the lack of software
cannot be the reason behind the decision, so once again, its probably not
a hardware issue, but a botched up marketing situation.
When you consider that except for a small interest in the Portfolio, the
Lynx was the only product Atari had available for Christmas sales this
year. How can you justify losing your biggest customer for your only
product at what should be the busiest time of the year? sigh.
#: 78067 S8/Hot Topics
23-Dec-92 05:02:41
Sb: #78005-Naked Truth!
Fm: Richard Gunter 70117,2565
To: SYSOP*Bob Retelle 76702,1466
Bob:
Fascinating, isn't it, that all these discussions come around to
marketing? That hypothetical correspondence course would undoubtedly
cover the way ol' Santa operates, wouldn't it? All the Santas I know
listen to the little nippers' wish lists, which are heavily influenced by
two factors: what the kids down the street have, and what's advertised on
the boob toob Saturday morning. Nintendo/Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis,
and Game Boy are the only game systems the kids have heard of -- they
don't log in to ATARIARTS.
I've noticed that recent Game Boy ads have actually shown screen shots
from the machine -- something the earlier ads didn't do. However, the
screen shots are fleeting, and bracketed by lots of color and action.
Pretty sneaky.
Richard G.
From Delphi's Atari areas....
ALSO about the current state of Atari....
FORUM>Reply, Add, Read, "?" or Exit>
45209 18-DEC 16:12 General Information
Falcons in Germany
From: OCS To: ALL
It appears to be sure now that the first Falcons have been sold here in
the past couple of days. I went to my (only remaining) local dealer
today, and he said that he was told by Atari that he'd get four Falcons in
the next few days. 4 meg machines with a 65 meg hard disk for 2300 marks.
Oliver
FORUM>Reply, Add, Read, "?" or Exit>
45217 18-DEC 20:06 News & Reviews
Jaguar - 64 bit?
From: CMILLAR To: ALL
Hmmmm, the "Could It Be?" article in the "Atari Gaming Gazette", left me
both exited and scepticle. In it, it says that the predominate RUMOR is
that the Atari's Jaguar game console will use a 64 bit microprocessor
which was designed IN-HOUSE, by Atari, and MANUFACTURED by Motorola. Now,
this sounds great, and if it is true, I'd love it, but the question
remains: Was it a foolhardy idea to design their own CPU, and did they
really have the "heart" to do such a thing? I hope we find out soon......
FORUM>Reply, Add, Read, "?" or Exit>
45228 19-DEC 01:24 News & Reviews
RE: Jaguar - 64 bit? (Re: Msg 45217)
From: ABARBIERO To: CMILLAR
If it is true that Atari has designed (or Motorloa) a new chip, it isn't
so bad.... or unrealistic. How many other computers use the same chip as
the Super Nintendo (a put-put)??? There has been 2 developer conferences
about this unit, Atari is very excited and this is not a 'back-burner'
item, as I first thought it was.... it is a real active issue for Atari.
They hope to show it in June at the CES then.
Andreas@AEO
FORUM>Reply, Add, Read, "?" or Exit>
45398 20-DEC 23:50 News & Reviews
HELP!!!!
From: ATARIPOWER7 To: ALL
**************************************************************************
* *
* TIME TO DO IT TO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *
* *
* *
* We've heard about how there are more and better PD programs for *
* our choice of computer platform in Europe, especially Germany.... *
* *
* .... Now we have an opportunity to do something about it!!! *
* *
* I've received communication from a gentleman, Mr. Jens Schulz, *
* who is apparently a prolific PD author, as well as Manager of the *
* Computer Club Elmshorn e.V., a computer club in Germany sporting *
* some 400 members, and a rather extensive PD library of some 440 *
* diskettes. Many of these are scientific programs, my next message *
* includes the complete text of his letter to myself, and I will *
* upload the programmes he sent to me from Germany, two disks with 4 *
* programs. They are a Chemistry program, "Premium Mah Jongg", a *
* digital filter program, and a C64 to ST data transferring program. *
* *
* NEEDED - Someone with a good working knowledge of German and *
* Chemistry. *
* *
* I cannot do it all, however, if a few of us will work together, I *
* think that over time we can accomplish a most notable thing, that *
* being a much greater accessability and useability of European soft- *
* ware here in the United States, and vice versa. *
* *
* AP7 *
* *
**************************************************************************
>>>>>>>>> Here is the letter I received <<<<<<<<<<<<
Jens Schulz
Rosenstr. 5
W-2207 Kiebitzreihe
Germany
Joseph Martin Turner
P.O. Box 11091
Orlando
Florida 32803-0091
USA
Kiebitzreihe, 11. Dec. 1992
- Translation of german ATARI ST/TT/FALCON PD-/Shareware
Dear, Mr. Turner,
I've found your address in the german magazine ATARI JOURNAL 1/93. This
magazine wrote, that you're an very active member of the ATARI user
group in the DELPHI net. This group searches german PD-/Shareware for
free translations in English.
I am a PD-author of a very powerful and universal chemistry PD-program.
This program is called LABORANT ST/TT PLUS 1.24. A german and swedish
version of this program exist. Laborant is a very successful program
in Germany and Sweden, because no comparable PC-/Mac or AMIGA program
exist in the PD-/Shareware market. I've got many inquiries of PC users,
too.
Laborant is written in PASCAL (more than 18000 PASCAL-lines) and runs on
ST/TT/FALCON in all resolutions. The program includes a 145 KB german
ASCII-document (TeX document next time).
For the free translation in English I need an american "ATARI"-chemist
and a translator. German and the chemistry language aren't easy, but I
hope you'll find somebody.
I send you the program and an ASCII text for your DELPHI net.
2. I'am the manager of the ATARI ST/TT-group of the german Computer Club
Elmshorn e.V. The CCE e.V. is one of the greatest computer clubs in
Germany (400 members). We've a very big ATARI ST/TT PD-/Shareware-
collection (ca. 440 discs). This collection has a big part of
scientific programs. I send you the PD-list on my Laborant disc,
too. This software is free of charge, but we've no Email-connection
to America and can't pay the very high telephone costs or postage.
If a member of the DELPHI group is in Germany, he could get all this
software free. We've 4 ST's and next a FALCON in our clubroom. If
this member has a 44/88 MB Syquest removeable harddisc, we could
play the most interesting programs on the disc. At moment
the programs aren't packed (.LZH etc.) and the copy of 440 discs
will need several days. The city of Elmshorn is located ca. 30 km
northwest of Hamburg.
Address of the CCE e.V. :
Computer Club Elmshorn e.V.
ATARI ST/TT-Gruppe
z.H. Jens Schulz
Postfach 261
W-2200 Elmshorn
Germany
Tel. 04121/83298
FAX: 04121/82016
Sincerely
Jens Schulz
|||||||||| I'm willing to put serious effort into this, help!!!
Andreas, DPJ, you're welcome to publish any and all....
AP7
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STReport's "EDITORIAL CARTOON"
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> A "Quotable Quote" "... DUH...SOUND FAMILIAR?...."
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"IF WE DO NOT SUCCEED, WE RUN THE RISK OF FAILURE."
..... Quayle, 1990
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> ABCO SPECIALS! STR InfoFile * 1992 HOLIDAY Prices! MORE Products! *
""""""""""""""""""""""""""" ------------------------------------
** EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY! **
NOTICE: ABCO will BEAT OR MATCH * ANY *
Advertised or Invoiced price * WE WILL NOT BE UNDERSOLD!
ABCO COMPUTER CONSULTANTS
=========================
P.O. Box 6672 Jacksonville, Florida 32236-6672
Est. 1985
_________________________________________
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_________________________________________
HARD DISK SYSTEMS & DESIGNS TO FIT EVERY BUDGET
_________________________________________
All systems are complete and ready to use, included at NO EXTRA COST
are clock/calendar and cooling blower(s).
*-ALL ABCO HARD DISK SYSTEMS ARE FULLY EXPANDABLE-*
(you are NOT limited to two drives)
- Available for all Platforms -
-* ICD LINK & ADSCSI PLUS HOST ADAPTERS USED EXCLUSIVELY *-
WE PAY SHIPPING & INSURANCE!!! >UPS!<
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*_*_*_*
*** NEW!!! ULTRA MODERN "SUPER STYLE" ABCOFILE CASE ***
DELUXE 2 bay Cabinet W/65w Auto PS & Blower $119.00
<<<Coming Soon! ABCO Mini-Tower>>>
Case & ICD LINK or ADSCSI PLUS Host [Hard Disk Ready] $259.95
-STAND ALONE PRODUCTS-
Model Description Autopark Price
==================================================
SGN4951 51Mb Y CALL!
SQN1096 85mb Y CALL!
SQN2055 130mb Y CALL!
SQN1296 213mb Y CALL!
SQN4055 340mb Y CALL!
==================================================
Standard "Shoebox Cabinet style is also available
Call for pricing applicable to IBM - MAC - AMIGA
IDE - SCSI - ESDI
MODERN TOWER CABINETS AVAILABLE Call for Info!
PLEASE NOTE: The above is partial listing only!
Many other configurations available.
20mb - 3.5gb
NOTICE - NOTICE - NOTICE - NOTICE
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
SPECIAL PURCHASE! * 83mb - 1345mb * Hard Disk Mechanisms
Call for SUPER PRICING!! Limited Time Only!!
IDEAL FOR USE IN: IBM - MAC - AMIGA!
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ADD $35.00 for 4 BAY SUPER CABINET w/250+w PS
EXOTIC TOWER CABINETS AVAILABLE Call for Info!
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*****
>> ABCO proudly offers: ATARI PRODUCTS <<
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Call for ABCO's * HIGHLY COMPETITIVE PRICING! *
ABCO COMPUTER SYSTEMS * STILL THE BEST VALUE!
*****
If you don't see what you want listed here, call us.
Odds are, we either have it or, can get it for you!
* GUARANTEED * AT THE BEST POSSIBLE PRICE! *
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****** SPECIAL - SPECIAL ******
* SYQUEST 44MB (#555) >> ABCOFILE "44" & "88" *
* REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES *
--->> LIMITED TIME SPECIAL! NOW ONLY 44MB $ CALL! <<---
SCSI port READY 88MB $ CALL!
with
ICD Link add 80.00
COMPLETELY ASSEMBLED AND READY TO RUN!
ONE Cart Included!
44mb CARTS: $ 69.50
88mb CARTS: $ 109.50
44mb MECH ONLY: $ 319.95
88mb MECH ONLY: $ 419.95
****** SPECIAL - SPECIAL ******
* TWIN SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVES ... PROGRAMMER'S DELIGHT *
SPECIALLY PRICED ** $ CALL! **
Includes: * TWO * cartridges!
* SYQUEST 44MB REMOVABLE MEDIA DRIVE AND HARD DRIVE COMBINATIONS *
- Syquest 44 Model [555] and the following hard drives -
** 50mb SQG51S $ CALL! 105mb SQG105S $ CALL! **
Or, YOUR choice of Hard Disk Mechanism!
LOWBOY - STANDARD - DUAL BLOWER CABINETS
CUSTOM CONFIGURATIONS AVAILABLE
Listed above are a sampling of the systems available.
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* IBM/MSDOS - AMIGA - ATARI - APPLE/MACINTOSH *
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*** --> COMPLETE IBM CLONE SYSTEMS AVAILABLE! <-- ***
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CALL FOR PRICING & AVAILABILITY
386/486 25 MHZ - 33Mhz - 50Mhz - 66Mhz
From $839.95
*>> NO REPACKS OR REFURBS USED! <<*
Atari SLM 804, SLM 804PCV Laser Toner Kits
Memorex 2108, 5287
Oasys Laserpro 5287, 5308, Express 830, Express Series II
Silver Express, Gold Express
** $41.95 shipping Included **
Atari SLM 605 Laser Toner Kits
AT&T 593, CAF Laser, DSI Laser, DTP Systems, Epson EPL-6000
Facit P6060, Fontx Syslaser, Harris3M 2006, M-Tally MT905
Microtek Turbo PS, OAS Laserpro Executive, Packard Bell 9500
TEC LB 1305, Toshiba PageLaser 6
** $41.95 shipping included **
(TWO Toner Carts Incl.)
Panasonic Laser Toner Kits
Panasonic KX -P 400 series, Panafax UF-750 Facsimile
** $41.95 shipping included **
-- ALL TONER KITS * IN STOCK * --
* Toner Starter Kits-$62.95 *
* Replacement (804) Drums-$187.95 *
ABCO is PROUD to announce the acquisition of
the exclusive U.S.A. distribution rights for
** Bitblit Software's ///Turbo Board BBS. **
This fine Atari ST BBS system software and
user support is available through ABCO to all
Turbo customers in the USA. Call for current
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ALL POWER SUPPLIES UL APPROVED
Now Available
BUSINESSES, - LEASE TO OWN WITH AT&T -
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_________________________________________
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STReport International Online Magazine
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STR Online! "YOUR INDEPENDENT NEWS SOURCE" December 26, 1992
Since 1987 copyright (c) 1987-92 All Rights Reserved No.8.51
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Views, Opinions and Articles Presented herein are not necessarily those of
the editors/staff of STReport International Online Magazine. Permission
to reprint articles is hereby granted, unless otherwise noted. Reprints
must, without exception, include the name of the publication, date, issue
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