Hello once again fellow club members! New and exciting things are on the way for us now that fall has started. November will see the eagerly awaited SPACE ELECTIONS and December will be our annual Christmas bash, so you will want to be sure to plan on making both of those meetings. As for this month, we will be having nominations for officers and there will be a vey special deal for club members which you will see listed in the pages of this newsletter. I have been planning many things for future meetings in order to enhance the club further. One thing that I have planned are the production of "informative pamphlets" designed to help out the ATARI user with information regarding printers, modems, business software, etc. Richard Mier and myself are already producing the printer pamphlet and hopefully we will be able to get that ready for the January meeting. We have had many questions in the past regarding printers and modems so I thought that was a good place to start. That is really about all I have this month. The meeting is October 12th, so please make a special point to be there for the nominations. Also, October 12th happens to be my Birthday, so I will have a special something for all who attend!
Happy Computing
Nathn Block
1. The meeting was called to order by President Nathan Block at 7:40 P.M.
2. The "Antic" magazine has ceased publicaton; rumor has it that the "STart" magazine is now going to carry some of the 8-bit information. Issues of the "Atari Interface" magazine from Unicorn, Publications (3487 Braeburn Circle, Ann Arbor, MI 48108, phone (313)973-8825) were available to look at the meeting. This publication consists of articles from various Atari user groups around the U.S. It was pointed out that SPACE had considered joining this publication in the past.
3. A good Atari 8-bit mail order dealer is American Techna-Vision (15338 Inverness St., San Leandro, CA 94579, phone 1-800-551-9995), which distributes a catalog freely. Also, Lance Rinquist from Video 61 (21483 Viking Blvd NE, Linwood, MN, phone 462-2500), is in the back at the Club meetings. He's the only known Minnesota Atari 8-bit dealer.
4. Nathan Block reported that there are many Atari people in Europe and many more outlets selling Atari merchandise.
5. A question was asked on response from the Witchita Atari Club. Nathan sent information to them two weeks before this meeting but has not heard back from them. A follow-up appears necessary.
6. A HAMFEST is occurring Saturday. October 27th. The club in the past has had a booth at this event. It's to be the largest Minnesota Indoor Hamfest and will be held at the Hennepin Technical College, 9000 Brooklyn Blvd., Brooklyn Center, MN. President Nathan Block was looking for volunteers to help run a booth at this event. Please let one of the officers know if you are interested in volunteering your time to handle the SPACE table at this hamfest.
7. The BBS has been up and down since the electric power at SysOp Ken Modeen's house has been going off for 1/2 minute or less. This causes the system to hick-up and it must be rebooted by hand.
8. It was noted that additional Atari Clubs exist in Duluth and Fargo-Morehead areas. If you are ever visiting these areas, you should check if the local Atari Club is meeting and attend the meeting.
9. Joe Danko reported that he has hooked his Atari to his IBM PC system using BOBTERM on the Atari and QMODEM on the IBM, using a null modem cable between the two systems. Atari and IBM disk formats are similar and he has backed up his entire Atari library to the hard disk on his IBM system.
10. Joe Danko reported that he is re-catagorizing all the programs in the SPACE library; future disks will be grouped by similar functionality and will be available at the meeting.
11. The meeting concluded with demonstrations from the DOMs available at the meeting.
End of the minutes for the September 14th, 1990 SPACE meeting.
Respectfully submitted by Pat Krenn, Secretary
Monitors!!!!!!!!
The club was offered AMDEK and HITACHI
monitors that became surplus equipment
in Columbia Heights School District. A
notice was posted on our BBS and the
response from members for these
monitors was tremendous! As of this
writing (Sunday Sep 30th) there were
still 17 (seventeen) monitos available
for $35 each.
I'm using one of the monitor while putting this newsletter together and the color and sharpness is just great. So, for those members who don't use the BBS, you might have missed out on this deal. The remaining monitors will be available at the OCT 12th meeting to current paid up members only!
T-SHIRTS!!!!!!
I've only recieved one order for T-Shirts so far, not counting my own for two. We need more orders to enable us to have the T-Shirts silk screened. So if you want one, there will be order forms at the meeting and one included in this newsletter.
HAMFEST!!!!!
I still need some bodys to volunteer to
help me man the table at the HAMFEST.
You wouldn't need to be there the whole
8 hours. A couple of hours would be
fine. Also if you want me to bring any
Hardware or Software to sell there, let
me know at the next meeting so we can
make arrangments to get the stuff to me
by Oct 26th. If you submit anything for
sale, I'll want a complete list of the
equipment you give to me.
MODEMS!!!!!!
I'm going to attempt to get a modem
hooked up again. I'm going to try and
get and adapter for the multiline so a
single line phone can be used. I saw
one in a mail order catalog, but not
enough time to order one, will have to
try and locate one locally.
The library will be offering software
for sale as usual, at the meeting or
via the US mail. All disks are $3
each. If you can't make the meeting
call Joe Danko at 777-9500 after 6 PM
or mail your request to:
Joe Danko
2766 Chisholm Av. N.
N. St. Paul, MN 55109
Mailed software will cost an
additional $1 for each multiple of 3
disks or so.
BLANK DISKS will be for sale at 30 cents ($0.30) each. DISK OF THE MONTH
SIDE 1 * SPACE DOM 000 YATZ BAS 102 * OCT90SIDE1 000 BLACKJAKBAS 130 * XXXXXXXXXXX 000 DESMOND COM 086 * DOS SYS 037 BUGATTAKCOM 101 * DUP SYS 042 ASTROWARCOM 076 AUTORUN SYS 001 DIRLABELBAS 035 MENU 026 HELP DOC 016
YATZ.BAS
ATARI BASIC simulation of the popular
dice game for one or multiple players.
BLCKJACK.BAS
ATARI BASIC simulation of the casino
game of chance, blackjack or 21, that
supports one or multple players.
DESMOND.COM
Machine language levels and ladders
type of game where the player has to
collect bags of gold and deposit them
in a chest on the top level while
dodging spiders and falling bowling
balls dropped from helicopters.
BUGATTAK.COM
Machine language millipede type game.
DIRLABEL.BAS
By popular demand I am releasing a
version of the program I wrote to
print disk labels for the SPACE
library disks. It is designed to print
a 59 character title line and eight
lines of four columns of files names. It
can print the directories of both sides
and can be set to ignore certain kinds
of file names. Hardware required is a
printer that will print condensed
subscripts on single-width 7/16 inch by
3 1/2 inch labels.
SIDE 2
* SPACE DOM 000 TPDOC TOC 062 * OCT90SIDE2 000 TPDOCE 14 125 * TEXTPROX455 000 TPDOCE 15 065 * DOS SYS 037 README ME 009 * DUP SYS 042 TEXTPRO MAX 005 TPX455 COM 144 TPHELP 044 LIBRARY 008 TPHELP 00 005 MAILLIST 003 TPHELP 01 006 CALENDARMAX 007 TPHELP 02 006 CLOSE MAX 003 TPHELP 03 005 ENV MAX 008 TPHELP 04 006 FIXMAC MAX 005 TPHELP 05 005 LETR MAX 009 TPHELP 06 006 LIBR MAX 006 TPHELP 07 006 MAIN MAX 005 TPHELP 08 006 MEMO MAX 004 TPHELP 09 006 QUOTE MAX 004 TPHELP 10 006 XCLEAR MAX 002 TPHELP 11 005 XLOAD MAX 002 TPHELP 12 006 XSAVE MAX 002 TPHELP MAC 003
TEXTPRO version 4.55X
Yet another release of the fantastic
shareware word/text processor by Ronnie
Riche. This is actually a beta test
version preliminary to the release of
the last and final version, 5.0 sometime
in early 1991. Riche has decided he
can't stand to look at the code anymore
after that. He will also be releasing
the source code at that time so that the
user community can continue development,
a rare and unique occurance.
This version adds powerful features to
the macro capabilities. One can now have
libraries of macro commands with
individual functions selected from the
command line. There are also many fixes
for minor bugs fron the earlier version
4.54. For 130XE/800XL expanded memory
systems there is enhanced support for
badk switching. Version 4.55 mow
supports two independent styles of macro
commands, XXXXXXXX.MAC and XXXXXXXX.MAX
and display fonts can now be changed
on the fly from the command line.
There are more other changes so get
the disk and give it a try. I have
included the HELP system from the
earlier version 4.54. I may not get it
all converted over in time for release
but it will be there just the same.
For complete documentation, version
4.54 is required which can be found on
side 2 of the SPACE DOM for March,
1990.
OTHER SPACE LIBRARY RELEASES THIS MONTH
CC65 'C' PROGRAMMING SYSTEM
As this is going to press I have not finished constructing the release disks for CC65. I have all the files and I am still assembling them in the proper order. I am sorely tempted to release them in two ways, a two-disk ready-to-use version and a one-disk ARCed file version. That way the user would save money and it would be easier for the library inventory. ANYWAY...CC65 is supposed to be the most complete and compile the fastest 'C' code of all ATARI usable 'C' systems. I have not used it but there are benchmark programs on the SPACE DOM for September, 1990 that show execution speeds about double prior systems.
SPACE LIBRARY DISKS
I would like some input concerning the manner of release for SPACE disks.
1. It would be simpler and cheaper for everyone if certain software was released in ARCed form, especially complex applications that have a large number of files and require multiple disk sides.
2. De-ARCing is 100% reliable these days if Bob Puff's latest version of SUPERUNARC is used. This would be made available for $1 to all members who would require it. This system can be configured to UNARC with a single disk drive using disk swaps and it is compatible with every DOS
3. I am now prepared to start release of Disk Of the Month files on disks collected into program categories. The traditional DOMs will still be released as sufficient new material is collected. After about six months the new DOM material will be added to the new base of specialized disks.
4. If it is desirable, this new class of disks will be configured as Double-Sided, Single Density with no DOS but with a HELP.DOC file.
5. The cost of this new class of disk would be $5 each. For users requiring a DOS and MENU a UTILITY disk would be sold for $1. This would be the same disk mentioned above for DeARCing.
6. This new system will make cataloging and distribution much easier for the SPACE Librarian.
Speaking of which, I have been doing the disks for nearly three years and my life is changing somewhat. The time has come for me to pass the library on to someone else. I will continue until 1991 by which time I should have the new library disks assembled. Due to space problems in my home and new activities the SPACE LIBRARY must be out of my house no later than December 20th or so.This has been a very hard decision but one I can not delay.
The job can be broken up somewhat. One person can handle the ANTIC/ANALOG copying and distribution and one or two can handle the SPACE LIBRARY. I will continue to assist in the collection of new material and the purchase of blank disks if necessary. I will be available indefinately for advice and counsel. I will certainly be coming to all the meetings and will be glad to assist with sales or anything else at the meetings. I may even be available for an elective postion again. (jeez, what an ego). See you at the meeting. BUY DOMS!
Published by the Saint Paul Atari Computer Enthusiasts (SPACE), an independent organization with no business affiliation with ATARI Corporation. Permission is granted to any similar organization with which SPACE exchanges newsletters to reprint material from this newsletter. We do however ask that credit be given to the authors and to SPACE. Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of SPACE, the club officers, club members or ATARI Corporation.