No report was recieved
by PRESS TIME.
Please remember, all articles must be
on the BBS (base 15) or recieved before
the last Friday of the month.
Hello everyone! Boy what a job this is! On the 26th of MAY, I D/L the PAGEDIT software that was used to make this months NEWSLETTER. The first thing I had to do was LEARN THE PROGRAM so I could use it! It seems it will do the job if I can grasp all of its features.
While I was away to OMAHA, NE during the last part of May, I got to play on my brothers 486/SX IBM machine. It is nice to see we can do a bit of good desktop publishing with our 8 bit machines. This month is my first month as the NEWSLETTER Editor, so please overlook the many mistakes which Im sure you'll find. With that said, may I invite you to read this months club newsletter.
The Editor
LARRY
No report was recieved
by PRESS TIME.
Please remember, all articles must be
on the BBS (base 15) or recieved before
the last Friday of the month.
The BBS still has the problem we talked about at the April meeting. Steps have been and are still being taken to fix the problem.
I have had to take some measures that limit access to certain areas of the board and am trying to keep the very important areas open for general useage. Some of you will notice phantom f-mail notices; please bear with this as the majority of those I polled would rather have the phantom notices than to have f-mail down.
Outside help has been sought and the party has agreed to help. With this persons help, it has been discovered that a major clean up of user slots is necessary. That evolution is currently in progress. Should any of you experiance a problem leave e-mail here or Grey Hawk (I’m Grandpa Mike). > Additional maintenance will be coming soon and notices will be posted here and on the board.
Our down time has diminished but please be patient as we still have a ways to go.
Space meeting opened at 7:45 pm.
All officers present except Joe Danko, DOM Librarian.
Nathan Block, club president opened the meeting by welcoming everyone to the meeting and introducing club officers.
Nathan said there is two areas of special business to deal with at the meeting.
The approval of the new Space bylaws and the voting for Space’s separate club treasurer. Nathan asked the membership at the meeting if they had looked over the New bylaws that were printed in the Febuary newsletter.(copies of new bylaws also available at meeting) Nathan asked the membership if there was any questions or changes. Hearing none, a motion was made to approve them as presented. There was a second, and a unanimous vote.
Nathan said he has been in contact with Greg Leitner, who was nominated at January meeting for the Space Club's treasurer position. Also said he will contact Allen Frink Space/Mast treasurer about transfer of Space’s money still in the Space/Mast treasurer after the new treasurer For our club is elected. The new treasurer for our club will supply the President of our club, the bank location and account number for our club’s funds.
The official name for the person elected as Space’s treasurer will be CLUB TREASURER. The CLUB TREASURER will have a article in the newsletter each month and present a summmary of club’s funds each meeting.
Since Greg Leinter was the only nominatee for this position, the motion was made to make him CLUB TREASURER. The motion was seconded, and approved unanimously.
Nathan Block asked the membership if they had read his article about volunteers helping other members and people outside the club with equipment problems and questions. Nathan suggested forming a committee to help people with their equipment problems and questions.
Four people volunteered, here are their names and phone numbers*******
Sherm Erickson 434-5254 Larry Serflaten 535-1944 Dave Scheppard 788-6520 George Barich 450-0130
These volunteers’ phone numbers will be also given to the Club President from the Club Secretary, for people who contact him by club advertisement such as in Computer User,etc.
Nathan opened the floor to any member need or a comment.
Mike Fitzpatrick said he needs a R-Time Cartage.
A member asked if anyone had a Syn-Calc program for sale.
Al Montgomery asked if any one had a printer that could print graphics,
a printer interface for a printer, and a printshop program for sale. A member
mentioned that some of the computer supply stores such as BizMart have
reasonably priced printers under $150.
Nathan mentioned the needs of members to get modems.
Nathan mentioned it might be a good idea to have a section in the newsletter
for people, who need, want, and have Atari software and equipment for sale.
Nathan took a modem poll to see how many people have modems and use the club’s B.B.S.
A club movie night was brought up at the meeting by our club president. He asked if it sounded like a good idea. Steve Nelson asked when the hall would have to be vacated after the meeting. Nathan mentioned it was his idea of having a movie night at the U of M. He could make the arrangements. Since there was no imput, he suggested letting this idea ride for a while so club members could have time to think about it.
Nathan asked for a B.B.S. report from Mike Fitzpatrick. Mike said that there is alots of illegal B.B.S. LOgoff(not properly logging off) on a regular basis. Nathan urged members to use the G command when logging off.
Mike Fitzpatrick said money spent for U.P.S.(uninterrupted Power Supply) well spent.
Mike Weist asked about a future field trip for the club members to a place such as a computer manufacture such as Unisys. A club member who works at Unisys said something like that would probably not be possible because of security reasons.
On a parting word from Nathan Block, he urged club member to get out to the U of M and see the Presentations of the movies Mind’s Eye and Behind Mind’s Eyes. These Computer Graphic 1.5 hr. shows to be held on Febuary 16, 1993 at 5:30 and 7:30p.m. Held at Coffman Memorial Union.
Meeting closed at 8:30p.m.
Michael Weist
It seems our timing for our last two monthly meetings could not have been worse. From Good Friday in April to the Friday before opening fishing in May our turnout has been drastically affected. Thanks to all the members who did show up during April & May because just about every one of you bought doms. The demo for the May dom was great and anyone who missed out on it should definitely purchase it at the June meeting.
Here’s my treasury report for May 1993. We ended up with a negative blance for the May meeting due to the fact that we got billed for the 2nd quarter rental fee of $90.00. We collected $72.00 in disk sales (doms & blanks) and $22.00 from our ice cream social (thanks Fitzpatrick’s). We did not have any income from memberships at the May meeting.
After expenses for the BBS phone bill, rent & ice cream social supplies we ended up with a bank balance of $737.00 in our account which is down about $40.00 from our April balance.
Now that we have caught up on our rent and BBS phone bills we should be able to start adding to our bank balance beginning with the June meeting.
Please support your club by showing up at the meetings, buying doms and sharing your ideas and opinions. See you in June.
Meeting started at 6 p.m. All offficers present.
Nathan Block, club president, introduces all the club’s officers.
The first item of business was talking about meeting attendence, DOM sales, and calls from prospective new members.
Mike Fitzpatrick said the B.B.S. has a major problem. He said that Amos Jackson, Sherm Erickson, and Larry Serflaten have been working with him to solve the problem. The problem is someone has unauthorized sysop access to the B.B.S. and is causing havoc to it. Mike Fitzpatrick said this sisuation is not unique to our Space B.B.S. and others have had this problem. It was asked what should be done to the person or persons if they are identified as the cause of the problems. What action should the club taken. Amos Jackson has a program to help track down this problem. His assistance will be used.
Good things to report Mike Fitzpatrick has a B.B.S. set-up at the meeting for members to see what a B.B.S. to see and demostrated B.B.S. usage.
Larry Serflaten gave one of his game demostrations. He asked the membership if they knew of anybody who was involved in a shrink wrapping process, so he could market his software products.
Greg Leinter mentioned he brought in samples of the Atari Classic Magazine into the meeting and also brought in applications for people interested in subscribing to it. He did this because of the unavailablity of the A.I.M. magazine.
Steve Nelson of Greyhawk B.B.S. said he brought in 3 copies of the Bob Puff visit for sale to the membership.
There will be a ice cream social at next month’s meeting as a fund raiser put on by the Fitzpatricks and the Space Club.
Willie Rora asked the membership if he could get some assistance with problems with his Indus Disk Drive. Larry Serflaten will help him.
Mike Weist asked about the Spring Club Picnic that has been talked about. Nathan said to direct all questions to Sherm Erickson. He is handling the picnic.
Nathan introduced the club’s newest member. His name is Tim Feller. Everyone welcomed him.
Nathan thanked everyone for coming and the meeting adjourned at 9:30 P.m.
Mike Weist
REMEMBER:
NEXT MEETING FRI, 11 JUNE 1993
Meeting opened at 7:40p.m.
All officers present except for Sherm Erickson. He has been excused.
Our club president, Nathan block, welcomed everybody to the meeting and introduced the club’s officers.
Nathan stated that there is no new news to report from the Atari world.
Nathan talked about Space’s 11th birthday party that will be coming up in July '93. Asked the membership what they wanted for a birthday party. Said a potluck sign-up will be circulated at the June club meeting.
Joe Danko talked about a desktop publishing program, Glenn Kirschenman downloaded from Genie B.B.S.
Larry Serflaten will be the club’s new newsletter editor, but needs a dot-matrix printer to do newsletter. Al Noble, a club member, will assist Larry in getting a printer.
Joe Danko would like to have a group of people volunteer to work with him on a project. The project is to work with the text-pro program. Joe has its source code and would like to enhance them.
Tim Gearin will be assisting Joe Danko in the making of new DOMS for the club.
Nathan Block, club president, reminded people, if they have any problems with their equipment or software to contact him or contact people (in the club) that volunteered to help out.
Mike Fitzpatrick gave his B.B.S. report and asked club members to trash F-mail, once they were done with it.
Greg Leinter gave his treasurer report. Problems exist with the transfer of report to the B.B.S. This will be addressed.
Larry Serflaten talked to the membership about testing his software programs after the meeting. To get free software the membership will supply their own blank disk, test his software, and fill out a survey form.
Nathan reminded the membership to think about the plans for the 11th birthday party before June meeting. Bring back ideas to next meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m.
Mike
Weist
RAMPAGE
Graphics: ***
sound/music: **
game: ***
This is a fairly decent version of Rampage but it lacks in a couple areas.
For those of you who hav’nt heard of Rampage, Its a game where you control 1 of 3 different monsters. The object is to destroy buildings, helicopters, tanks other things, and eat people at the same time. You must search for food to stay in your monster form.
to The atari version plays like the original to a exeptable degree. The monster’s basic apearance is much like the arcade version but only one color.
It also has some music in it as well. The game unfortunetely gets boring rather quickly. I guess it was mainly the graphics that made the arcade version so fun.
SPRONG
Graphics: **
sound/music: **
game: *
This has got to be one of the most stupid games i‘ve seen. The plot of the game sucks. What you do is bounce through screens on a pogo stick. I guess your goal is to find the golden pogo stick. Some of the obsticles are rediculously unfair and theres a 50/50 chance you’ll pass them. The game itself I cant say completely sucks. it can be fun but it can drive you nuts trying to get somewhere in the game. There should have been an option to continue from the board you lost the game on (that goes for alot of other atari games as well). the version I got is a ‘review copy’ by the way.
NINJA COMMANDO
Graphics: ****
sound/music: ***
game: **
go
Another game from Zeppelin software,
the makers of Zybex and Draconus.
This
game appearently uses bit-mapped
graphics like the previous two exept
this time in ANTIC mode $E(14) so the
vertical resolution is better. The
graphics are very nice and also has
horizontal scrolling like in Zybex.
The object in this game is to get
through the board and/or kill other
ninjas and obtain better weopons. I
find weopons dont really make it
easier
to pass the level. You can either go
after the ninjas and put yourself at
jeoperdy or move on. Level two is
nearly impossible. Even with the best
weopon, you can still easily get
killed. Whats worse is that if you
complete a
level with a weopon you earned, you
wont have it on the next level. The
four
opposing ninjas are appearently done
using four ‘Players’ while your own
ninja is animated on the
‘playfield’. The ninjas are poorly
detailed and lack
color. Unlike Zybex, not much
playfield animation in this game; at
least from
what I seen.
L.A. SWAT AND PANTHER
(these are both on the same disk)
L.A. swat
Graphics: ***
sound/music: *
game: ***
Exellent game! The object is to save the hostage from the group of people out to prevent you from doing so. You will encounter them as you walk up the street. Snipers are another obsticle as well. You are equiped with a machine gun and have two extra men. Dont get too close to the bad guys or they’ll clobber you to death with a 2x4 or whatever it is. The game style is more mormodern in comparison to other 8-bit games. Apearently some scheme for getting more P/Ms on the screen utilizes in this came. once you save the hostage, you only go up the same street again doing basicly the same thing only it gets a little harder each time. you find there is’nt much to it at this point. The playfield resolution is’nt the greatest but the game dos’nt seem to be that big either.
Panther
Graphics: **
sound/music: ***
game: ***
the In this came you control a white air vehicle. You have to shoot down flying saucers and rescue men. The screen scrolls in a diagonal direction and you fly over desert, ravaged cities, and large bodies of water. There is also some backround music too. The graphics are ok in this game but the P/M graphics are’nt much to look at. still its kindof a fun game but when you get to the ‘plasma attack’, good luck! I hav’nt even passed it.
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.