Greetings to All! First the bad news. For the first time in at least two years, I am going to have to miss a SPACE meeting. Unfortunately, Winter Quarter Finals Week at the University of Minnesota just happens to begin on the Monday following the SPACE meeting. On that day, I have a Calculus test that will determine 40% of my grade for the quarter. I will be cooped up somewhere on campus studying for the event, and I am afraid I will not be able to get away. I leave the SPACE meeting in Sherm's capable hands and know he will do a fine job until I am able to return in April. Those of you who are in college or have graduated will understand my position. If you haven't gone to college, please TRY to understand my position.
I have received some more phone calls that our "Crash Crew" can handle in regards to questions about ATARI computers. If you signed up, be sure you talk to Sherm at the next meeting. EVERYONE should be on the lookout for hardware and software that we ask a club can recycle and get to people who can use it. I have had three phone calls this month for printers. As you all know, these are SCARCE items. If you have an XDM-121, XMM-801 or even a 1027 sitting around, bring it to the meeting and sell it if you are not using it. It would also be nice to hear from people who have had good luck with printers that are not necessarily "ATARI brand." If you are using an Epson or some other printer and are having good luck with it, why not write a newsletter article about it? Be sure and tell us HOW it is wired to your system (be it 850 or otherwise) and what kind of programs you are using on it. Perhaps bringing a sample document demonstrating its printing quality to the meeting would attract attention as well. We all need to band together to help others who may not know some things that may seem pretty standard to those of us who have been around the ATARI block for a few years.
As you all know, the lackluster attendance still continues to irk me. I am planning a membership drive of gargantuan proportions and am hoping that the club will get behind me on this one. I have brought them up before, but it seemed that we were doing okay. I think the time has come to actively pursue beefing up our ranks. I am thankful for new members that are showing up like Willey Rora and others that I see at the meetings. We need more people. As should go without saying, if you know ANYONE with an ATARI, please tell them about the club. Leave their address with Mike Schmidt and we can send them a sample newsletter. EVERYONE READING THIS is part of the "SPACE recruiting committee." As has been my personal policy, I am willing to reward those of you who bring in new members with software and disks out of my collection. Who will be first to break my stock?
It seems that there is more bad mews than good this month. In reality, that isn't true. There seems to be a resurgence of ATARI software that will begin filtering into our reach fairly soon. And of course the best news of all is that SPACE is getting close to yet another birthday!
I don't want to wear out my "call to arms" technique of writing this column, but every month and every day I reflect on the club, I realize that it needs to be. I wish we could meet twice a month or even more, there is so much we could do. We have an incredible base on which to work, we have a strong software library, both for rental and purchase, a great BBS, an inexpensive meeting place, a solid officer corp and a small but dedicated membership that continues to amaze me with each passing meeting. Lebs not lose it now! I think we still have yet to reach our maximum potential. SPACE needs you now more than ever. Are you on the rocket or off? If we leave you behind, well, Mike's got those postcards ready.
Take care all! I wish you the best and will look forward to seeing you in April.
Your President,
Nathan Block
Well February 7, I and Shortcakes were invited up to Sherm Erickson's house in Ham Lake, Mn. (God's Country). I think we were invited up there to see the groundhog come up from his sleeping hole and see if he could see his shadow. Which would mean Spring was soon approaching if he could see his shadow.
Well anyway besides us, there was Mike and Earline Fitzpatrick and some friends of Sherm, that were at this event. We were treated to lots of delicious food like hot dogs, hamburgers, beans. Sherm was the official BBq'er. He slaved away outside cooking food or the grill. It was very cold outside, but Sherm grilled food outside until everybody was well fed. We watched a good movie, talked, went down to Sherm's computer station and did some computering
It would of been nice to sit outside and watch Sherm manning the grill, but it was too cold, so we stayed in the house and had a good time. Oh, about the groundhog, we never saw him stick his head out of the ground. It was probably to cold outside to do that. Can't wait till next Groundhog Party in 1994.
Mike Weist
Midwinter Madness this year was held at Blaine Sports Center in Blaine, Mn or Saturday February 13,1993. I, Mike Schmidt, Larry Serflatten, and Glen Kirschenman volunteered to mann the Space booth this year, but other Space members showed up to help out. These people were Sherm Erickson, and Mike cable. We also had a young fellow from Scandia named Tom Stellach helping out behind the booth. He plans to become a Space member as soon as he can fill out the membership application and mail it in along with membership dues.
It seems every year this event gets more bigger and funnier. It is fun to roam around the flea market part looking for bargains. Sherm Erickson got a hard drive, mouse, computer board, and some software. Mike Schmidt got a hard drive and a computer board. Al Montgomery got a 800 Atari computer with a printer interface for a good price. Tom Stellach our young helper at the booth got some Ham Radio equipment and a modem for his Atari computer. Mike Cable got some things for his Atari system. I got a 1200 Baud modem.
Lots of people stopped by the Space Booth with questions and some came by asking if we were interested in buying Atari equipment they have for sale and some asked where Atari equipment could be purchased. One person was asking about where he could find a 850 interface for his Atari system. We gave them the club's president's no. So our president might be busy with lots of phone calls.
Saw lots of club members at the show. They stopped by the booth to say hi. I am sure they found some bargains. If club members have never experienced a event like this, they will have to. Had a fun time talking with everybody behind the booth, can't wait till next show. See you at the next Space meeting in March.
Mike Weist
SPACE Disk Librarians:
Joe Danko * Glen Kirschenmann
This article is a compendium of all the
HELP.DOC files from the DOM's of all of
1992, and Jan through Mar 1993.
***************************************
JANUARY, 1992 Disk of the Month
SIDE 1:
EMPIRE.COM -- Star Wars game based on 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 and 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 weird.
ATARIBBS.DOC -- A text file that is a
compilation of all known ATARI electronic
Bulliten Board Systems(BBS).
ATARI8SO.DOC -- A text file that is a
compilation of all known sources of
products supporting the ATARI 8-bit
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:
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 automatically 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
appears 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 DOCUMENTATION 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.
***************************************
SPACE Disk Library News: February, 1992
DOM Side 1:
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
car pit the U.S. against the former USSR
and trade nuclear strikes. Written in
ATARI BASIC, requires a joystick.
DOM 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 the Month - March 1992
DOM Side 1:
INLINE.DOC -- Read this text file for
information concerning a valuable machine
language programming technique that is not
for the casual or rookie ML programmer.
BULLET.BAS, FAIREST.BAS -- These are two
BASIC music programs.
QUEST.BAS -- Play this joystick driven
BASIC semi-graphic adventure game.
ELECTRIC.BAS -- Use a joystick with this
BASIC game to steer through a maze and not
touch the walls.
RLINK.BAS -- This little text file
contains information about a little know
but cheap ATARI modem interface.
DOM Side 2:
MYMENU files, MMCUSTOM.BAS -- This batch
of files is a menu system exclusively for
loading Binary Load files Included is a
BASIC program for customizing the
appearance and operation of the menus The
source code for the program is even
provided The main program is MYMENU.COM
which may be loaded with or without BASIC
enabled and MYMENUROM.COM which is a bit
smaller with a fixed font.
KINETIC and ENGINE files: -- This C
derived program is a simulation, of the
action of gas particles when heated.
EZREAD2.COM: -- A file reader included for
your convenience in reading the disk
documentation.
***************************************
SPACE Disk of the Month - April, 1992
DOM SIDE 1:
CURSOR.BAS -- BASIC program for designing
custom cursors that are joystick
controlled.
DECTOHEX.BAS-BITSTR.* -- BASIC routines
for bit-oriented logic manipulations.
BGMV05.* -- Backgammon in C by SPACE
member Mark Vallevand. This is his third
or so version The program requires no
BASIC and a joystick.
AIMCLUBS, AIMPAESS -- Two text files
concerning Atari Interface Magazine.
ELEMCHEM.* -- Elementary Chemistry
tutorial and quiz written in BASIC.
DOM SIDE 2:
PANTHEON -- Universal graphics display
program written in BASIC.
***************************************
SPACE DISK LIBRARY HELP.....MAY, 1992
DISK OF THE MONTH.......MAY, 1992
The entire disk is devoted to an excellent
miniature golf game with such a large
number of hole combinations that all games
are different.
***************************************
SPACE___DOM 000 MAY_92SIDE1 000 MINITURGOLF 000 DOS SYS 037 DUP SYS 042 AUTORUN BXL 001 AUTORUN SYS 109 MENU 030 INIT 001 MINIGOLF 118 SETUP 023 CSET 162 H34 002 086 FREE SECTORS***************************************
SPACE___DOM 000 JUL_92SIDE1 000 XXXXXXXXXXX 000 * DOS SYS 037 * DUP SYS 042 * AUTORUN SYS 001 * MENU 026 FINANCE BAS 067 QUIZZER BAS 111 REACTOR BAS 069 CHECKERSCOM 131 INVASIONCOM 025 GAME1 002 DOM Side 2: SPACE___DOM 000 JUL_92SIDE2 000 * XXXXXXXXXXX 000 DOS SYS 037 * DUP SYS 042 * AUTORUN SYS 001 * MENU 026 GOLDMINE 256 GOLDMINED02 049 GOLDMINEDOC 083 TITLE GM 010 GOLDMINETXT 033***************************************
ANARCHY PIC 061 AUTORUN BAS 018 AUTORUN SYS 142 BOLD FNT 008 PRESENTSPIC 061 TITLE BAS 109 TITLE PIC 061 DOS SYS 039 DOM SIDE 2: BACKGRND 030 DEAD 061 DEAD BAS 029 GAME BAS 026 HOUSE 061 INTRO BAS 026***************************************
* SPACE___DOM 000 FEB_93SIDE1 000 COMPUTE2_86 000 * DOS SYS 037 * DUP SYS 042 * AUTORUN SYS 001 MENU 012 CONTENTS 008 DMAKER 019 MN 047 PICTURE 062 TEXTDUMP 008 PASSWORD1 044 PASSWORD2 008 TUGAWAR APR 020 UNIFY APR 014 MIAMI ICE 072 INSIGHT JUN 009 SIDEWAYSJUN 009 CUSTOM MAY 019 DEBUT MAY 044 HICKORY MAY 032 COLOR OBJ 001 FONTLOAD 006 MLX 056 PROOFREADER 008 FONT OBJ 021 MLSTRINGSEP 016 RAMDISK SEP 023 069 FREE SECTORS DOM SIDE 2: * SPACE___DOM 000 * FEB_93DIDE2 000 * COMPUTE3_86 000 * DOS SYS 037 * DUP SYS 042 * AUTORUN SYS 001 MENU 001 CONTENTS 008 MN 047 INSIGHT1AUG 007 INSIGHT2AUG 008 INSIGHT3AUG 007 LOGICAL AUG 006 TIGHTROPAUG 074 PROOFREADER 008 SPDCALC ENH 011 HEXWAR JUL 121 INSIGHT1JUL 005 INSIGHT2JUL 007 PEEKPOKEJUL 026 SOUND1 JUL 129 SOUND2 JUL 019 SOUND3 JUL 046 INSIGHTBOOT 004 BEEHIVE SEP 052 JLISTER SEP 033***************************************
Here's the answer to the Feb. Word Search. Title: GONE FISHING - - - - - - - - D G N I N N I P S - T - - - - - - R - - - - - - - - - - - R - - - - A R O D A N D R E E L - - - O - - I - S E I N E - - - - - - - - - L L - G - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - L - - N - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I - - I - - - - - - - - - - - - G - - N - - P - - - - - - - - - - - - N - - G - - P - - - C W - - - - - - - I - - - - - A - - R O - - - - - - - - H G - - - - D - A R - - - - - - - - - S A - - - - - W M - S - - - C - - - - I F - - - - L S - P - - E O - - - - - F F - - - E - - O - - R o - - - - - - Y - - - R - - O - - U P - - - - - - - L - - S - - N - - L - - - L W A R T - F - - - - - - - R E L G N A - - - - - - - - - - Words in puzzle: ROD AND REEL TROLLING CRAWLERS ANGLER FLY FISHING SPINNING DAPPING SPOON W0RMS TRAWL SEINE GAFF LURE DRAIL COOP Here's this months installment of Word Search. This month it is OFF SIDE. S O J X M O M W X F S W A H E T A Q S A W R Y Q A O X E L A S K E W U Q G U T D E T L I T A Z E D J Y I O C A P A K A D S I D E W A Y S Y S I V Z Z N A P D R R R E C T I Y L T Q U G C O M S K Y I R Z B W A Z W E M X I O R J X L P C W J W Y R E Z D P K Z N B O B U A B M H A X X T X E A U D U I G O E L N D E V Z X F W W U R E U H H G K Y W T E F W D V U B A S V I V W B K E B M I T E G M N C J G R R E T U Y O D D F L R H Z E D Q Y U T E N T W C C U L P R O P V W S M C U S L E L A N O G A I D T E M F A W B Y D V W F J T N E B K Y N T F A A W B V N R E T N E C F F O N O D Z U P R H K W E N J C K A Z P O X C A U B Y B P A U D I G Z T U F Q T Q V CONTORTED DIAGONAL SIDEWAYS BENT OFF CENTER TWISTED CROOKED BOWED CURVED TILTED UNEVEN AWRY ASLANT ASKEW ZIGZAG
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.