News From The Prez:
January of 1992

Greetings Members! Welcome to a new calendar year. There is so much that I wish to say and discuss I don't know where to begin. First of all I wish to say, again, if you missed the December meeting you missed the best meeting of 1991. A big thank you to everyone who brought food. This thank you is not nearly as personal as I want it to be, everyone was so generous with the food this year I wish could thank you all personally Also a big round of applause goes out to Sherm Erickson who single- handedly helped me set up the hall and rounded up the food and drinks. 1 cannot Thank Sherm enough for all the work he has done. He has done more so far in his first two months of office than I have seen any person do for the club ever. Thanks Sherm! Also thanks to Mike Weist for purchasing the club drinks and thanks to Rachel Thompson and Mrs. Fitzpatrick for helping serve the dinner. And another THANK YOU to the members, our raffle ticket sales totalled more than $100!

Well, 1992 is here, but where does that leave the club? I have some ideas for the club in the new year and intend to do quite a bit of talking about that this month. So far the club has seen quite a few changes including a special team many of you might not be aware of. It has always been a dream of mine to get a group of SPACE members together to program software for the ATARI computers. About six months ago, I put that dream into practice and formed SPT, or the Space Programming Team. Larry Serflaten had been behind that from the start and took the lead. Now, thanks to his brilliant planning and leadership, SPT is undertaking its first programming project, a database program for ATARI computers. So far, there are only seven members, if you would like to become a part of this, PLEASE TALK TO ME OR LARRY AT THE NEXT MEETING. SPT is not "just forming", it has been formed and is approaching warp speed, anyone is welcome to come aboard! The software that I referred to at the last meeting has been ordered (you'll remember the vote last month) and hopefully well reach us in time for the next meeting. Price will be $3 per disk

. Prior to the last meeting I received news that there is new software coming out for ATARI computers. A new company named Aerion Software has released an adventure game for the ATARI computers priced at $19.95. Also word is that American Technavision, a long time die-hard supporter of ATARI 8-BIT computers, has new software including a full featured CAD program. Details and ordering information will be available at the next meeting. That should wrap it up for this month. I hope everyone is able to make the next meeting to look at the club's latest endeavor to sell software and to see what's ahead in 1992!

See you soon.
Nathan Block

Minutes of the December S.P.A.C.E. Meeting
Respectivly Submitted by Mike Cable:

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 by President Nathan Block. The meeting started out with the announcement of the raffle. The prizes were twin SX212 1200 baud modems and some software titles. There was a free christmas disk for everyone, with the most up to date indexes on the current S.P.A.C.E. DOM library software Nathan announced the voting of 2 topics. The first was at 7:40 the profit from buying software titles from Brion Hill. The second one at 7:50 was the voting on a new bylaw presented by Larry Serflatten. Both to be voted on that night. Pat Krenn steps down from the office of Secretary, volunteers were asked to fill position. The sub-secretary was Larry Serflatten. Later that night Mike Cable steps in to fill the position. Nathan Block ajourned the meeting at 7:50 for the banquet. After the meal, President Nathan Block called the meeting to order a second time. At that time the group voted on the 2 topics earlier metioned. The group voted to buy $50 dollars worth of disks from Mr. Brion Hill. The second topic, the bylaw, was passed that the members household will now be treated as one member. Then the raffle started. The two winners of the SX212 modems were Michael Weist(curtesy of Mike Schmidt) and Gary Barnes. Then the meeting was closed by the prez.

MEETING AJOURNED!

Showdown Hockey
Review by Roger Mier:

Showdown Hockey is a game for one or two players, or two players head to head. You play as either the goalie, the skater, or both. Options can be set up from the title screen. Options include, Human or Computer controlled skater or goalie, or head to head, also how many shots per round, and the difficulty of the computer opponents. I stress the use of the difficulty selection as the first level was way too easy.

The game is very impressive graphics wise, the skater looks like he's waddling down the ice, but that's about the only thing that could be improved on. The games has many flashy colors, and the goalie has a position for all the directions of the stick. The skater has many shots available to him to use, from Slapshot to Deke, to Wristshot, you can easily control the course of the shot.

When playing the Goalie the key is, obviously, to keep the puck from getting in the goal, this is accomplished by moving the stick in any of the eight directions, each of them do a different block.

One of the best parts of the game is the cute commentary from the "announcer" that appears as a shot is either blocked or goes in. Such as, "He pops it in the corner!" or "He bulges the twine!" and my favorite one "He fakes him out of his jock strap!" when it goes in. And when it's stopped he says "A glorius save!" or "Weak save." Among others.

The game plays music if you wait too long without moving. And the crowd cheers and the score buzzer goes off after a goal.

After a game it displays a rating screen telling you (rather humorously) how you did based on your hit/miss percentage.

Overall, the game has good graphics, decent sound, and great realism. For those of you who think you could do a better job than the North Stars did, this game is for you.

DISCLAIMER

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.