February 1992
Newz From the Prez

Greetings one and all! I Many interesting things happened at the January meeting, so without further adu, we will begin discussing them.

First of all, more thanks are in order. I would like to thank Mrs. Earline Fitzpatrick for volunteering her time to be SOFTWARE LIBRARIAN. A lot of you are probably thinking, "Well, I didn't know we had a SOFTWARE LIBRARIAN!", you're right, we didn't ... until last month. As many of you remember, SPACE purchased a large quantity of educational ATARI software from me. Mrs. Fitzpatrick volunteered her time to organize it and did such a great job, it occurred to me she would be a good choice to organize the club's software. This will relief Jim Scheib of some of his load and allow him to concentrate fully on the club paper/book library. So the next time you are at the meeting, be sure to look for our new Group Leader, Mrs. Fitzpatrick!

The software from PlayRite has arrived! A rather large box showed up on my doorstep the weekend following the meeting, so at the February meeting we will be selling the software we purchased from PlayRite. The price will be $3 each disk. Each disk has its own box and documentation is on the disk. This will be an important step in deciding if SPACE wishes to pursue further the idea of selling software. Check the newsletter for more information on the software that will be sold.

There was also a very good conversation about the possibility of some important people in the ATARI 8-BIT world coming to speak to our club. Mike Fitzpatrick is in touch with several individuals who are very knowledgeable in the world of ATARI 8-BIT machines and is trying to get them to come and speak to our club. Should that come around, that will be almost ATARI history in the making for our club. Very few incidents such as that have taken place, the only one that I can recall is when Broderbund Software spoke at TAIG, another ATARI club in the area that disbanded in 1988. If we can attract a speaker, I intend to turn it into an epic event for SPACE. I would like to see heavy advertising around the event to other ATARI clubs and put on a "SPACE FAIR" if you will. There was lively discussion about it at the meeting and more information about this will be on the agenda in February.

If this sort of thing interests you,
---- PLAN TO MAKE THE NEXT MEETING ----
This is the type of event that every member should give input towards and I would like to hear the opinion of everyone on this matter. That is about all for this month. In reviewing some of the club's records with the rest of the officers, it is apparent that this club is still on the upswing. I really hope that 1992 will hold big things for this club and would like to see everyone aboard for a great ride! Please try and make the next meeting!

Happy Computing
Nathan Block

Minutes of January Meeting

As usual the meeting was called to order at 7:30 by our Prez, Nathan Block.

The first topic of discussion was about the mid-winter madness coming up the day after the February meeting. Mike Shmidt absolutely NEEDs volunteers. So please, if you have the Saturday before the February meeting free come and work a stand, you don't have to do it all day, just maybe a couple of hours.

The next topic was the fact that Dorset did NOT close down, still up and running. There are approximately 7 master cartridges which can be used by kindergarteners as well as adults. The ages range around Kindergarten to Sr. High and even collage level stuff.

There was a unanimous(as usual) vote to have the paper library job split into a paper librarian and a Disk or Software librarian.

Nathan Block read the minutes from the May 10th, 1985 meeting and as far as I could tell the club found it interesting.

There is a chance Robert Puff, maker of Bobterm and a lot of other programs we use on the Atari now, might be coming to talk at a SPACE meeting during the summer! A few people had ideas of bringing other Atari groups in to watch. Someone even suggested we call ALL the Atari groups within a 5 state radius.

And the the big question strikes, and it is on the subject of: The (M)ember info command on the SPACE BBS. A lot of people were frustrated about this, and one even had a private phone line, I won't mention names. But the group decided to take the (M)ember info command out of the system. Then Nathan got frustrated and I don't blame him one bit. There was talk about the subject I just mentioned, but it was behind our backs. I quote Nathan to be very specific, "If you have any problems about the group or the system YOU BRING IT TO ME!!!!!" Please if you are having any trouble at all, please contact Nathan Block, his phone # is on the back of this news letter, thanks soooo much! And of course the meeting was closed by "The Boss", Nathan Block.

FAREWELL TO SPACE
by Jim Johnson

The last SPACE meeting I attended was in March of 1990. It was a good experience, one I wish I could do on a monthly basis. But that month I moved about 350 miles north to Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The move to sell my Atari systems was not taken lightly...

In July of 1986 I really wanted a computer to do word processing. I spotted an advertisement in a magazine for a word processing bundle based on an Atari 130XE. I looked in the Yellow Pages and found User Friendly Computers, an Atari dealer in Fridley. They were willing to match the mail order deal, and I bought some additional hardware and software.

My system started with the 130XE, a 1050 drive, 1027 printer, 410 cassette drive, 1030 modem, and AtariWriter Plus. I bought a B&W TV on sale for $50, which brought my startup costs to around $500.

It really was just the start. I soon upgraded the modem to the then new XM301, and later to a SX212. Atari offered a trade-in on their horrendous 1027 printer for an XMM801 dot-matrix printer. The 410 became a 1010. The 1050 received a US Doubler upgrade and I switched to SpartaDOS; then the 1050 was sold for the XF551. Somewhere in there I acquired a monochrome monitor - wow! what a difference from the TV! I bought a used one meg MIO, and soon grew tired of re-loading the ram after a series of glitches from the power company. That problem was solved by building an uninterruptable power supply. Then one meg wasn't enough and I learned how to build my own hard drive. I was the second or third person in the Twin Cities to buy SpartaDOS X, and soon found an R-Time-8 cart. Then I bought a used 800 and 1050 drive for my kids so I could use my machine in peace. The last addition was a color monitor.

AW+ was only a start too. I never have gotten serious about computer based games. I concentrated on the best applications, languages, and utilities I could find and afford. More than once, I transferred data from the Big Blue hardware at work to my Atari because I could do something easier or faster (and of course I did the opposite too - after all they are just tools).

I bought all the magazines and some very good reference books. My understanding of the Atari 8-bit architecture grew by leaps and bounds.

Early in this building process, I knew I needed input from fellow Atarians. My desire to continue building my system came from the excitement of sharing and learning and commiserating about Atari's lack of support with other Atari owners. I joined the Twin Cities Atari Interest Group (TAIG), and a few months later, also joined SPACE.

And then I moved. As far as I can tell, there is no one around here who has any interest in Atari. No one to share with except through BBS calls at steep long distance rates. The spark died. There was nothing wrong with my Atari. It still was capable of everything I could do with it before. But it was no longer a challenge to move data between my Atari and everyone else's MS-DOS machines, it was instead a barrier.

If I could have afforded to both build a new MS-DOS system, and keep my Ataris, I would have done so. But my heart also know the Atari would not have been used. I did the best thing, which was give others who still have the spark a chance to use all that I carefully built. I don't view the sale as a sellout so much as passing the baton. I want to thank all those who have shared their spark for the Atari with me, and wish the members of SPACE a long and fun filled future with their machines.

!!!! DOM NEWS !!!!

Disk Library News: February, 1991
by Joe Danko
Librarians:Joe Danko, Glen Kirschenmann

Here is the SPACE Disk of the Month for February, 1992:
DOM-Side 1:

SPACE___DOM 000    AUTORUN SYS 012
FEB_92SIDE1 000    AUTORUN DOC 016
XXXXXXXXXXX 000    INSEARCHBAS 227
DOS     SYS 037    WARGAMESBAS 220
DUP     SYS 042

INSEARCH.BAS
A low-resolution graphic adventure type of game that requires a joystick to navigate a maze looking for valuable objects and avoiding the PURPLE MEANIE.
Written in ATARI BASIC.

WARGAMES.BAS
A global nuclear war simulation. Now sort of out of date, you can pit the U.S. against the former USSR and trade nuclear strikes. Written in ATARI BASIC, requires a joystick.

SIDE 2:

ALL of side 2 is another quirky demo from Holland, probably by the same group of bright young hackers who gave us THE BIG DEMO. This one is called THE EXPO and requires an XL or XE and a 1050 disk drive or other device that can read ATARI Dual-Density (Density-and-a-half) disks. Insert the disk, hold down OPTION and BOOT.

SPACE Disk of th Month NEWS supplement:
by Joe Danko

This article serves to catch up for the articles that missed publication in the SPACE newsletter for the last few months.

SPACE DISK of the MONTH
OCTOBER, 1991 Side 1:

CABLBORD.ARC - BASIC program that gives you a cable TV message board or advertising board for public display. UNARC to a disk and reboot without BASIC/Cartridge loaded. Program will autorun.

EBS - For cable TV, this BASIC prg. Runs a test of the Emergency Broadcast System.

GRASSCAL - Full-featured calculator done in BASIC by the GRASS user group of Grand Rapids, MI.

AROP - Pacman game from Jon Snyder. Must be loaded from DOS menu! Use 'L' to load, then use 'M' to run at memory location 7800. Press START to play.

CYBORG - Demo of Cyborg Warrior from Marcel Programming. Note: May be necessary on some systems to "Run at address" 2000 after loading this game.

SYNTRON2 - Shoot-em-up space arcade game from Jon Snyder.

SIDE 2:
DEGASRD1 - Load and view Atari ST pictures created with DEGAS. Sample picture enclosed. Great graphics utility from J.D. Potter.
***************************************
SPACE DISK OF THE MONTH: November, 1991

SIDE 1:
* SPACE___DOM 000    LOADIT  BAS 054    MENU2   BAS 052
* NOV_91SIDE1 000    BASAUTO BAS 016    MENU3   BAS 025
* MULTI_MENUS 000    AUTORUN DOC 013    MENU4   BAS 017
  DOS     SYS 037    AUTORUN OBJ 002    MENU5   BAS 021
  DUP     SYS 042    AUTOMENUDOC 063    MENU6   BAS 024
  AUTORUN SYS 012    AUTOMENUOBJ 037    MICRODOSDOC 012
  HELP    DOC 016    TITLE   SYS 001    MICR0D0SOBJ 017
  AUTOMATEBAS 019    MLMENUMKBAS 026    MLMENU  DOC 004
  BOOTEDITDOC 015    MENU1   BAS 067    MLMENU  OBJ 017
  BOOTEDITBAS 094

This entire side is devoted to ATARI disk menus, loaders and utilities.
SIDE 2:

* SPACE___DOM 000    FIXEDPT     011    DIVDIFF     018
* NOV_91SIDE2 000    NEWTON      015    ROMBERG     019
* CALC        000    SECANT      015    NATCUBIC    018
  DOS     SYS 037    STEFFEN     014    START       131
  DUP     SYS 042    INTERVAL    014    PREDCORR    018
  AUTORUN SYS 002    HORNER      015    DER         013
  BISEC       013    NEVILLE     013    ZERO        023

MATHEMATICAL METHODS is an integrated package of BASIC calculation programs run from a self-documenting control program. Boot with BASIC and give it a try.

**************************************
SPACE Disk Of the Month-December,1991
SIDE 1:

MYJONG.COM, MYJONG.TXT
As far as I know, this is the one and only MAH JONGG simulation for the ATARI 8-bit. Load it without BASIC and use a JOYSTICK.

CARDTRIX.BAS, CARDTRIX.TXT
This DATABASE program is written in BASIC and is configured to Look like 3 x 5 cards for storing information.

MEISTER.BAS, MEISTER.D0C
This clone of the SIMON repeat the pattern game is written in BASIC and requires a JOYSTICK.

FIXJCOM.BAS, FIXJCOM.DOC
Use this program with your HI-TECH EXPRESSIONS Jingle Disk.

RAMBOOT.COM, RAMBOOT.DOC:
Use RAMBOOT with MYDOS and an XL/XE system with at least 192K bytes of expanded memory to create a boot disk that will load any unprotected disk into memory and trick the computer into booting and running out of expanded memory as if it were really D1:. The SPACE Library has MYDOS 4.5 available.

TEXTPRO SANTA MERRY XMAS LETTER, etc
This collection of 14 files is used with TEXTPRO v.4.56 word processor to automatically create Christmas letters.

DIRPRINT.BAS
Use this BASIC program to print side by side directories of both sides of a disk.

DSKTST.BAS
A disk test written by SPACE member and software librarian, Glen Kirschenmann.

SIDE 2:
A group of text files for reading with the menu program. The files contain much of interest to ATARI 8-bit users.

PRICELST.ATA
RELEASE .ATA
XEC13O  .ATA
XLE1600 .ATA
IA112391.TXT

*************************************
SPACE Disk of the Month:January, 1992
SIDE 1:

EMPIRE.COM
Star Wars game based or the film The Empire Strikes Back. Use a joystick to control your flyer to attack the invading Empirial Walkers attacking your base. If your flyers are damaged you will bail out safely to the surface and be able to continue the fight afoot. The game is machine language and runs without a BASIC cartridge or BASIC turned off.

JOY.COM, JOYINI.COM, JOY.LST, JOY.DOC
This machine language driver will allow the use of a joystick to move the cursor with a variety of programs, notably the TEXTPRO word processor. I have not tried it with anything else. Included are two versions for use with SPARTDOS arid other DOS's, the source code and a documentation file.

TAX1991.SC
A federal income tax spreadsheet for use exclusively with

SYNCALC. We hope to have versions for other spreadsheet programs in February.

WILDDEMO.COM
A machine language demo that is just a little wierd.

ATARIBBS.DOC
A text file that is a compilation of all known ATARI electronic Bulliten Board Systems(BBS).

ATARI8S0.DOC:
A text file that is a compilation of all known sources of products supporting the ATARI 8-hit system.

AT1025.CNF, AT1025.DRV, AT1025.MAC
FONTNAME, FONT.MAC, READ.ME, INTERNAT.FNT, NUMBER.MAC, NUMBER.HLP, ATHELP.SCR
This complex of files is intended to be used with the TEXTPRO version 4.56F as a printer driver for users of the ATARI 1025 dot-matrix printer. It could be used as a prototype for a driver for other printers.

SIDE 2:
SPACE__ LIB 0000    RAMDISK     0008    READF   ME  0059
TEXTPROX456 0000    JOY     AR1 0001    ROMAN   FNT 0009
MYDOS_BOOT  0000    TPX456  COM 0145    TEXTPRO FNT 0010
DOS     SYS 0035    TPDOC   TOC 0064    DELETE  CNF 0004
DUP     SYS 0054    TPDOCF  14  0126    TEXTPRO CNF 0004
RB6D    AR0 0011    TPDOCF  15  0126

This side of the DOM for January is a sort of demo of a combination of software in the SPACE library. The two featured are the TEXTPRO version 4.56F word processing system and MYDOS 4.53. Both are final upgrades to definitive versions released in the last year or two and work well together. MYDOS is a good alternative to users who want more power than is available with ATARI DOS 2.0/2.5 and who don't want to or can't use SPARTADOS. A big reason not to use SD is TURBOBASIC. Or, if you have 400 or 800 system, MYDOS can be used where the disk version of SPARTADOS cannot. If you have an AXLON RAMPOWER or the 800+ 288K memory upgrade, MYDOS will run a ramdisk.

DOS.SYS, DUP.SYS
MYDOS 4.53/4 version with 4 digit file size displays. The release disk has another version, MYDOS 4.53/3 with 3 digit file size displays. As an alternate to AUTORUN.SYS, MYDOS 4.53 will auto load files ending in (.ARx) where x=0-9 in order from 0 to 9.

RB6D.AR0
MYDOS requires no ramdisk driver but this program will automatically intialize and load the ramdisk. The ramdisk MUST be D4:. DUP.SYS will be loaded with MEM.SAV and an attempt will be made to copy any files from a subdirectory called D:RAMDISK if it exists.

JOY.AR1
This is the joystick driver from SIDE 1 that will load second.

How to use SIDE 2 of the DOM:
If you can run a ram disk (XL/XE or AXLON), the ram disk will load, joystick handler will load and the MYDOS DUP menu appear OPTION is pressed on an XL/XE or your 400/800 has no BASIC inserted. If BASIC is available READY will appear and you must keyin "DOS" to get the DUP menu. Keyin "L". At the prompt, keyin TPX456.COM to load TEXTPRO.

If expanded memory is available, TEXPRO 4.56 may be configured to use some of the extra memory as 2 additional text buffers with the "control-select-B" keyin. Switch alternate banks with "control-B".

The software library will be moving towards exclusive use of MYDOS and I am calling on the PROGRAMMING SIG to assist in modifications to existing software and/or MYDOS to assist in this effort. The source code is available for MYDOS version 4.50 and we can attempt to acquire the updates that appear in the version 4.53/4 that is used on this disk. Associated with these fine programs, the library has supporting disks:

TEXTPRO 4.xx DOCUMENTATI0N DISK
TEXTPRO 4.56F RELEASE DISK

MYDOS 4.53 RELEASE DISK
MYDOS 4.50 SOURCE FILES (MAC-65)

Soon to be released will be a disks with collections of support files and applications for TEXTPRO and MYDOS.

The following artice for the Newsletter was submitted by Glen Kirschenmann.

Have you ever down-loaded a bad binary file? If so read on, but keep in mind the solution to this problem is to ALWAYS use ARC/UNARC to transfer files. A binary file begins with a 6-byte header:

Byte #     Decimal    Hex    Description
1 & 2        255       FF     ID code for binary load
  3           0        00     LSB Starting address
  4          60        3C     MSB Starting address
  5          255       FF     LSB Ending address
  6          91        5B     MSB Ending address
7 thru 8198                   The 8192 Data bytes from 3C00
                              thru 5BFF

The INIT/RUN bytes usually follow if the file is a BOOT file, or as is more likely, numerous 124 byte data blocks preceded by their 4 or 6 byte header (the double FF is only necessary on the 1st part of the file, although if included will he ignored by the LOADER). DOS will continue checking for additional HEADERS until the TOTAL BYTE COUNT of the file is accounted for.

If the Byte Court determined by the Header exceededs the file SIZE an error 144 will occur. If the file SIZE is greater than the LAST Header Bytes describe then the next 4 bytes are treated as the next header. This usually causes UNEXPECTED results, machine lock-ups, garbage charcters on the screen, etc. This is what ALWAYS accurrs if you use X-MODEM or (Y-MODEM) to Transfer a Binary file. The extra bytes are palced at the END of the original file to make the Last BLOCK an even 128 bytes long. These EXTRA bytes are the CHECKSUM character repeated over & over till the block size is 128. The garabge Header will look like a one byte transfer ie. 2A2A 2A2A 2A would store 2A in the middle of DOS bit map area, the next WRITE to that Disk will probably corrupt your files. The reason no error occurrs is that the byte combination always describes a one byte segment till the file SIZE is used up.

The following is the last paragraph in the 1030 EXPRESS DOC, the procedures given here are most likely beyond the abilities of most users. The only sure way to prevent this problem is to NEVER UP or DOWN load a Binary file, bootable or not. Unless it's been ARC'd first.

One Last Word About XModem
==========================
If you ever download a file that does not boot up, DON'T ASSUME THAT IT IS A BAD FILE. Because XModem always sends 128 byte blocks, this means that there is a 127:1 chance that there are more bytes in your file than in the original. Sometimes, these extra bytes can cause DOS to think it is a bad file (most often you will get a "Premature EOF" message). So, what to do? Well, if you are proficient with DOS layouts of binary files, you can boot up a sector editor, go to the last sector of the file, and try to determine what the last byte in the sector (the byte-count) should be set to. This is normally done by looking for the RUN ADDRESS bytes ("E0 02 E1 02 address "). The other way is the easiest. Try loading the file with one of the "boot" menus available (either Quick Booter or my own Ultimate Atari Quickboot Menu).These menus do their own load routines, and will simply ignore the EOF problem.

If you don't have one of these menus then you can try loading the file with OS/A+ DOS, then type "RUN" when you get back to the "D1:" prompt.

Enjoy!!

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.