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ST*ZMAGAZINE WEEKLY ONLINE MAGAZINE ---------------------------------------------- November 17, 1989 | Volume 1 Number 47 ----------------- ||| -------------------- Publisher/Editor: ||||| Copyright (c)1989 Ron Kovacs ||||||| Rovac Industries,Inc ----------------- ||||| -------------------- The ZNet BBS ||| CompuServe:71777,2140 (201) 968-8148 | GEnie: ZMAGAZINE ---------------------------------------------- EXCLUSIVE COMDEX COVERAGE INCLUDED ---------------------------------------------- Xx CONTENTS <*> Editors Desk.........................by Ron Kovacs <*> Atari Takes Comdex....................by John Nagy (A ZMagazine Special Report LIVE from the show) <*> ZNet Comdex Newswire.............................. <*> ZNet Newswire..................................... <*> Shareware Survey....................by Alice Amore <*> PD Pub...............................by Mark Quinn <*> The Revolution Continues..........by Donald Thomas <*> David Small Conference Highlights.......Ctsy GEnie <*> Mega ST Floppy Drive Sheild..........by Mark Booth <*> Advanced UltraScript Applications................. Xx EDITORS DESK ----------------------------------------------------------------------- by Ron Kovacs Thanks for downloading another edition of the latest Atari news! The ZNet BBS has been up for a week and I want to thank everyone who has taken a few minutes to call. When you call, please leave me a message stating you read about the BBS in ST*ZMAG. The number is (201) 968- 8148. This week Z*Correspondent John Nagy reports direct from the Fall Comdex with a report on happenings and vendors. Next week an update to this article will appear along with VIDI-ST uploads to both online services. Happy Thanksgiving! Xx ATARI TAKES COMDEX - ZMAG SPECIAL REPORT ----------------------------------------------------------------------- by John Nagy "A Computer for Everyone." This is the motto of Atari Computer at the Fall '89 COMDEX, underway through November 17 in Las Vegas, Nevada. They don't just mean that their computer is for everyone, they mean that Atari has a full line of computers that will compliment the needs and uses that any user will have. And from the miniature Portfolio (which I am using to write this even now) through the ST's to the new TT, ABC (PC compatibles), and on up to the ATW (not shown at Comdex), it looks like Atari is more poised for success than ever before. COMDEX is where the manufacturers strut their wares for dealers and distributors to pick and choose their product lines. Here is where the newest technology is offered into the channels that carry the products to you and I in the coming year. And here, in exciting Las Vegas where gambling is a way of life, Atari is looking like a sure bet. It's Thursday night as I begin this article, and I have spent all day at the Atari Computer booth. As we previewed last week, the booth is very large and finally has the look of a major player in a serious business. The sprawling display Atari area features light colors and openness, the exact reverse of the effect at the April COMDEX in Chicago. Dozens of mini-booths are each dedicated to individual third party developers, some of which also had full-fledged booths elsewhere in the 9-building trade show. (The show is really too big to see in a week, with nearly 2000 exhibitors and a crowd that actually fills every hotel and motel for miles around, and in Vegas, that's saying something!) Nearest the rear of the booth, Atari displayed their own newest hardware in front of a smoked glass enclosed meeting room and second-floor conference area. This time, there were LOTS of conferences going on. That means DEALS with dealers and distributors. Word was that over 100 requests for new dealer-ships were entered by Wednesday - halfway through the show. The mood here is optimistic for the first time in quite some time. The new products look REALLY GOOD. The star is the Portfolio, of which there are probably a hundred on display... which is a few hundred less than there are people to wooo over them. On to bigger things. The STE is here... in a very standard 1040ST case. Running is a game that makes very good use of the digital stereo sound and somewhat less dramatic showing of the enhanced color palette. An XE Game System Light Gun (the only vestige of anything even vaguely 8-bit at the Atari booth) is attached via one of the two new controller ports. Can there be anyone who thinks that this is not Atari's "Amiga response"? It looks to me to be clear that the 1040-style machine is now considered the game-end of the ST line... although officials tempt the imagination by mentions that "more new machines at both ends of the lineup are yet to be announced." But not now, not here. And the TT! Yes, there are at least five on display, running, and apparently several more for backup of versatility in setting up the displays. Looking a bit pale in almost-white, the TT 68030 machines literally roar through ST software (see the speed ratings, courtesy of Darek Mihocka's QUICK INDEX, following this article). Several demos were whipped up for the TT's introduction here, and the colors and speed are outstanding. One features what could be a spectrum picture, but even more photographic than any I have seen...even on an Amiga. Floating around in "front" of the picture is a magnifying glass that realistically enlarges the area beneath it...revealing even better detail. The new monitors feature extra resolutions - even monochrome in your choice of colors! ST programs run fine for the most part, but some dialogs are so fast that you can hardly see them! It appears that compatibility is there, but more ways of "de-tuning" the speed will be needed for some software. Most programs really shine in the high speed. REZRENDER literally does in seconds on the TT what the ST takes HOURS to compute! And PageStream gives a new meaning to PAGESCREAM when flying low on the TT. Developers were invited to try their wares on the demo machines, and grins were the order of the day. Remember, this is the machine that critics are saying is "too slow" by comparison to other 68030 machines. Nevertheless, it is rumored that a 24 mHz or faster TT may later be available to replace or supplement the 16 mHz ones on display now. Although not ready for distribution, the TT is expected commercially before March, 1990. Expect it to effectively replace the marketplace held by the MEGA computers now, for the 2-meg TT with internal hard drive and special monochrome monitor will be only about $2,000.00. Many Mega machines were in use at the booth, and the Mega's figure prominently in the Atari sales literature, but not much is being said about them. Time marches on... maybe the prices will drop on the MEGAs? ABC Computers grace several boothettes. These are mostly 286 AT-clones, that offer a very nice mix of features and affordable...if you are into clones. One was running Microsoft EXCEL, and for a moment I thought that it was port to the ST line... wrong. Just showing speed and graphics on the popular MS-DOS platform. Yes, several Megafiles (removable media hard drives). No, no CD-ROMs, although they figure prominently in announced dealer/developer support plans (that's another story...). Nope, no LYNX portable game machine (but after all, this is a COMPUTE show, not an entertainment electronics show). And yes, the STACY laptop ST is here... in force! Stacy's display is one of cleanest and most stable I have seen on backlit LCD screens to date. I could easily work at it all day. Many of the display units are Stacy 4's, with 4 meg RAM and 40 meg internal hard drive. At the front left corner of the Atari booth is Dave Small and his Spectre GCR...the OTHER star of the Atari area. The anti- emulation stance of corporate Atari seems to have softened dramatically since Dave's better-cleaner-faster-and-mucho-cheaper-instant-laptop- Macintosh-clone is the talk of Mac users and dealers throughout the show. Dave is much in demand, and has interviews lined up for major stories in most MAC magazines. I witnessed the admiration and name recognition that the Atari public has for Dave firsthand when I traded badges with him. My press credentials allows me to use a video camera at the show... Dave's exhibitor one doesn't, so we swapped for about an hour to enable Dave to get some videotape of the show. EVERYBODY wanted to talk to me, seeing Dave's name. Yike. I was nice to me again! Yes, for the cost of the "real" Mac Laptop unit, you can have THREE Stacy's, each paired with a GCR emulator... and each Stacy will out- perform the "real" one. And yes, dealers and distributors took careful notes. Also featured up front was Michtron's PC SPEED, the IBM emulator that beat Avant-Garde to the US market. It was impressively compatible and four times faster than an IBM XT. Other booths with the Atari area: # John Russel Interprizes had several GENLOCK displays going. # IBP of Germany showed their rack mounted "190ST, which reduces the entire Mega into a hard-drive size module. They are specially designed for industrial applications. # ISD showed DYNACADD running on a ABC PC, driving a huge roller plotter. Another booth showed their CALAMUS. # Electronic Arts offered a selection of games. # First Byte had educational software running on another ABC, next to the Microsoft EXCEL I mentioned earlier. # Viewtouch had the point-of-sale touch-screen system, now offering development tools for custom setups. # Seymor-Radix ran their DVT video tape backup unit, complete with a TV to show what raw data looks like. # Abacus had BeckerCad running into another big plotter, plus offered the first Portfolio guidebook. It's bigger than the computer! # Antic Software demoed GFA products as well as Cyber series graphics titles. # Migraph offered the Touch-up and hand scanner duo. # Fast Technology showed Turbo-16, a truely effective accelerator board. # Atari had the "final" version of Deskset II, their entry in DTP. # WordFlair from Blue Chip is also ready for sale, and looked better than ever. It is more than a word processor, but less imposing than a desktop publishing. # Michtron had FleetStreet 3.0 for all to see, and it is clearly head- and-shoulders above the previous versions. # Imagen showed Ultrascript, the Postscript emulation. # Softlogik had PageStream 1.8 running in full color! They indicate a renewed interest in the ST market. # LDW Power, a 1-2-3 spreadsheet clone, was being demoed by the inimitable Bob Brodie, although Bob was often asked to do his Sig Hartmann imitation. We were not treated to a reprise of "Dueling Sigs" since the real Sig is busy at his new position as Executive Vice President of TeleVideo Systems, a San Jose terminal manufacturer. # SOFTAWARE presented the remarkable semi-relational database called INFORMER II. It features some very interesting graphic manipulations as well. # And WORD PERFECT continues to show 4.1 for the ST. MIDI programs and hardware played fabulous music all day. Dr. T's, C-Lab, and Thinkware all had dramatic presentations... enough to draw Michael Jackson himself to the COMDEX MIDI booths to look it all over. Michael's picture adorns the Thursday COMDEX NEWS daily, and he is shown looking at an Atari! Frank Foster of Atari says Jackson will be using Atari equipment from now on. (Who's BAD?) Oh, BAD were NAVARRONE, who failed to show up to use their space and show their flatbed scanner, as well as PRECISION SOFTWARE who similarly snubbed their reserved space for SuperBase Professional. Side notes: Talked about but not shown is a new true multitasking system for the ST and TT! It works under the new TOS, apparently as an AUTO program, and allows several simultaneously running GEM windows, even for major applications. No memory partitioning is said to be needed. The system was to be demoed at the Wednesday evening developer gathering, but never got shown. This development may break through the final "advantage" barrier that the Amiga claims over the Atari line! The Commodore Amiga booth was about 1/4 the size of Atari's... and was positively BORING. The Amiga 3000 was postponed until next year, and the 2500 was being pushed in a new 68030 flavor for a mere $4000 plus. Critics of the "NO UPGRADE PATH" from the ST to TT should observe the upgrade offered by Amiga... you can buy the 68030 card alone and upgrade your 2500 for a mere $2,100. That's the approximate cost for the entire base TT with hard drive and a monitor. And with the TT "upgrade", you get to keep your old ST too! The air of impending resurgence of Atari was not lost on the other major manufacturers. A rep from Star-Micronics asked me who to talk to about the possibility of them doing custom printer hardware, laser support, etc. That would Not have happened last year at this time!! Leonard Tramiel has spent a great deal of time in the Atari booth, talking to everyone. He has quite effectively dispelled the image that some have tried to paint of him as nothing more than a cold and disagreeable autocrat. In all, Atari has shown enough of a new face here at COMDEX to give real reason to believe that they really could pull it off and become a respected and successful domestic computer company... next year. For those who immediately say, "Yah, I heard THAT before", indeed you have. But Atari has been there, year after year. Tenacity itself says something... and marginal companies don't launch this many exciting new products! Most of all, the new people in Atari have more know-how, ambition, and particularly a more open and supportive outlook than ever before... but that's another story. (Hey, a 13K story, typed mostly in a single session on this tiny keyboard! I wonder if this is the first major article done on one? Yep, the Portfolio is going to be just fine for me. The thing that slows me down the most is having to show it to everyone when I use it in public. The bartender here at Las Vegas's ALADDIN called it right: "It's a laptop without the lap!") DEVELOPERS UPDATE At the show Atari announced it's new Developers Assistance Program and premiered their Atari Development Partner Newsletter. Charles Cherry the new "Tos Pusher" will have some involvement in the newsletter which is supposed to be a regular feature of the DAP. Atari is taking the position to support their developers through this program. Developers will be offered Atari products at fifty percent off retail price in an effort to get software available by the time products are on the shelves. Atari is asking all dealers/developers to re-register and sign a new non-disclosure agreement. In an effort to get new owners to register with Atari, four Atari related publications will offer free three month subscriptions. These publications include, ST-World, ST-Informer, STart, and Atari Explorer. For the present owners who have not registered there is hope of something, although we are not sure what Atari has planned at this time. Xx ZNET "COMDEX" NEWSWIRE ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Compiled by Z*Staff CMS ENHANCEMENTS CMS Enhancements Inc. introduced a 40-Mbyte, floppy tape subsystem for laptop computers. Designed for ease-of-use, the LiteTape includes easy -to-use menu driven software, which automates and speeds up the backup procedure, and a convenient ''totable'' case. The LiteTape will be available on December 15 and is compatible with laptop computers such as Zenith SuperSoft, Tandy 1400 LT, Toshiba 1200 and Sharp 4501. Suggested retail price of the LiteTape is $649. HITACHI Hitachi Group's, a supplier of monitors for the CAD/CAE market, introduced its model CM2186AF, a 21-inch color monitor supporting resolution of 1280 x 1024 and a dot pitch of 0.28 mm. Its $3,795 list prices puts it at the top of the price/performance scale. It features a flat screen, an anti-reflective panel and dynamic beam focus for sharper clearer display. Shipments will begin in January 1990. PRINCETON GRAPHIC Princeton Graphic Systems introduced the Ultra II, a 14 inch high-res 1024 by 768 color monitor featuring innovative screen capabilities and exceptional performance for graphics applications such as AutoCAD and CAD/CAE/CASE applications, as well as window-based applications, and desktop publishing environments. The Ultra II is compatible with IBM PC, XT, AT and PS/2 Systems, as well as the Apple Macintosh II and compatibles. PROCOM TECHNOLOGY Procom Technology announced a new floppy controller for XT- and AT-type computers that allows OEMs and systems integrators to upgrade current floppy storage capacities to 2.88 Mbytes. The floppy controller is priced at $99. The 2.88 floppy drive is expected to become the new industry standard in much the same way the 1.44 Mbyte, 3.5 inch disks replaced the 5.25 inch, 1.2 Mbyte floppies years ago. SEAGATE Seagate announced the industry's fastest 760 megabyte, 5.25-inch disc drive the WRENRUNNER-2. Designed for PC customers looking to increase system performance by reducing time to data, the WRENRUNNER-2 offers an 11.9 millisecond average access time, 2.5 millisecond track-to-track, an average latency of 6.25 milliseconds and a maximum data transfer rate of 3 megabytes per second. NATIONAL SEMICONDUCTOR National Semiconductor announced that Canon's new four page-per-minute laser beam printer utilizes National's 32CG16 as its main processor. The LBP-4 joins Canon's LBP-8 Mark III Series as Canon's second family of printers based on National's 32CG16. The new LBP-4 measures 13.8 x 15.9 inches and weighs approximately 23 pounds. It features scalable fonts and font special effects, built-in video, parallel and serial interfaces, extensive software support, and 512KB built in memory, which can be increased to 2.5MB with an optional RAM expansion board. The LBP-4 utilizes Canon's printing system language called CaPSL and is the same command set available with the company's advanced LBP-8 Mark III series printers. DATA GENERAL Data General introduced a five-pound, battery-powered portable terminal that allows users to exchange information with home or office computers from any location. The compact (12"w x 10.6"d x 1.9"h) WALKABOUT terminal, fits into a briefcase and features a tiltable, 25-line liquid crystal display (LCD) screen and full-sized keyboard. Volume shipments will begin in the first calendar quarter of 1990. VERBATIM Verbatim introduced a 5 1/4-inch erasable optical disk. The TMO 5 1/4- inch erasable optical disk is available in two versions: the Model 505, which contains 512 bytes per sector, and the Model 510, which contains 1024 bytes per sector. Both versions are double-sided, with a user capacity of 600 megabytes and 650 megabytes, respectively. COMMODORE Commodore announced the Amiga 2500/30 personal computer, the development of several new A2000 Series peripherals, and the appointment of a former Disney producer to head a new multimedia marketing group. The new Amiga 2500/30 comes standard with a Motorola 68030 co-processor card running at 25 Mhz with 2MB of 32-bit RAM, (expandable to 4MB of 32-bit RAM). It features a 25MB 68882 math co-processor, a 68851 memory management unit, 1MB of 16-bit "chip" RAM; a built-in 3.5-inch floppy disk drive; a pre- configured 40MB hard disk drive and autobooting SCSI hard disk controller. The suggested retail price is $4,699. Owners of an A2000 series Amiga can upgrade existing machines by purchasing a 2630 card from an authorized dealer for $2,195 (suggested retail price). OKIDATA Okidata announced a new low-profile laser printer. Compactly packaged and under 6 inches high, the specially designed OKILASER 400 is a light- weight personal laser printer that fits as comfortably on any office desk as it does on a home-office work table. The OKILASER 400 is compatible with a wide array of popular word processing and graphics software to create and crisply print dynamic reports, correspondence, memos, graphs, spreadsheets and a wide variety of illustrative materials. Xx ZNET NEWSWIRE ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NINTENDO WINS The Soviet video game Tetris belongs to Nintendo for all home video systems, a federal judge ruled in San Francisco last Monday, November 13. The U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Judge Fern M. Smith, had earlier awarded Nintendo a preliminary injunction against Atari/Tengen sales of its version of Tetris for home video game systems. A trial on the question of a permanent injunction and damages was meant to commence. The judge cancelled the trial announcing that she intended to award summary judgments to Nintendo because there were no material factual matters which Atari/Tengen could prove. ATARI GAMES RESPONDS The following is a statement by Dennis Wood, senior vice president, Atari Games Corp. ''Today's court decision by Judge Fern Smith of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco granting Nintendo's motion for a summary judgement regarding the rights to 'Tetris' is a disappointment to Tengen. The court's finding is based simply on a contract issue that has no bearing on the larger anti-trust and patent disputes between the parties related to 'Tetris.' The judge's ruling is confined to 'Tetris' and in no way affects Tengen's ability to market any of its 14 independently manufactured Nintendo-compatible video games. We are confident that we will prevail on our anti-trust and patent infringement allegations against Nintendo when the issues come to trial. An appeal of today's decision is being prepared.'' ATARI POSTS LOSS Atari reported the results of operations for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 1989. Net sales for the quarter were $81.4 million compared to $98.8 million for the like quarter last year. The net loss was $5.4 million compared to net income of $.9 million. Net sales for the nine months were $253 million compared to $300 million for the like period last year. There was a net loss of $1.8 million compared to a net income of $12.1 million for the like nine months last year. Sam Tramiel, said "This has been an encouraging yet difficult quarter for Atari. Towards the end of the quarter we began shipping many new products which represent our future. For example, we started shipping Portfolio, our new hand held MS DOS command compatible computer, and the Megafile 44, our new removable media hard disk drive. Also, during the quarter, we began shipping the STE computer, an improved version of our core ST product. Additionally, during the fourth quarter, we expect to start shipping Lynx, the new hand held color LCD video game system. However, to reflect the dramatic drop in component prices, especially semiconductors and disk drives, the company has taken a special charge during the quarter of approximately $10 million in respect of such inventory. With the shipment of new products and less volatile DRAM costs in the fourth quarter, we anticipate normalization of margins as and when the inventories of older products are sold. Portfolio production is ramping up now as planned. Initial sales appear consistent with our expectations." Greg Pratt of Atari Corp., 408-745-2349 CHICAGO GETS NEW AREA CODE On Tuesday the 312 area code for Chicago changed to 708. Contact your phone company if you have any questions on the area this new number covers. Xx SHAREWARE SURVEY ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Alice Amore's CARE enough to . . . SHAREWARE SURVEY S U P P O R T S H A R E W A R E Also see Mark Quinn's "PD PUB" below How many shareware programs do YOU use? Remember: Regular use of non- registered shareware is PIRACY. The main difference between shareware and commercial software has to do with marketing methods. That's because shareware IS "commercial software", only you don't have to travel all over the place to find it, you don't have to go broke registering it, and you'll never be fooled by it because you can "try before you buy". Take a good look at your software collection NOW, find the shareware within it, and send in YOUR payments TODAY! """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Filename: DESKMG27.ARC Program Name: DESK MANAGER Program Type: Boot Utility Version: 2.7 Programmer: Charles F. Johnson Registration Fee: $15. DESK MANAGER, which resides in your AUTO folder, performs a variety of useful tasks automatically. Among other things, it will let you: + Load the correct DESKTOP.INF file for your preferred resolution. + Choose which AUTO programs to load. + Choose which desk accessories to load. + Choose any ASSIGN.SYS file. + Use the mouse to select files. + Display a .SPC picture (color) or a D.E.G.A.S. *.PI3 picture (mono) at boot-up. Setting up DESK MANAGER is easy. Create a folder (within the AUTO folder) to hold a DESKTOP.INF file for each resolution, plus all ASSIGN. SYS files. (The important part of the ASSIGN.SYS filename is the ".SYS" part. You can call the rest of the filename whatever you wish, making it easy to select the right .SYS file for whatever program you're planning to use.) Then copy the DESK MANAGER program to your AUTO folder and run the program. You will be asked a variety of questions which will then be used to customize DESK MANAGER to your needs. You can decide on: + How long to hold the boot picture on the screen (between 0-9 seconds). + A "timeout length". Within the number of specified seconds, DESK MANAGER will continue to the next task if you don't hit a key. + Yes/No to ringing a bell when your input is needed. + Yes/No to "run or bypass" the selection screens at boot-up time. + Definition of a "hotkey" to toggle between "run and bypass" when booting. Next, you will be prompted to save your configuration. Although the config is saved to the DESKMG27.PRG file itself, you can change the config at any time by holding down the HELP key before the program runs. Once the program is running, you will be given a very detailed account of what's happening at all times. First you are shown the names of all the AUTO programs you are running. You can use the mouse or the RETURN key to select or deselect files. If a GDOS*.PRG is found, you'll now be able to select the proper ASSIGN.SYS file to match the application you'll be working on. Next, make your selection of .ACC files from the main directory of your boot disk. Although the ST will hold only 6 .ACC in memory at one time, DESK MANAGER will show you a maximum of 128 .ACC files from which to choose. Every file with an .AC? extension will be on the list. If you try to select more than 6, a bell will sound as a gentle reminder. Throughout this entire process, you can usually go backwards through the menus by hitting the BACKSPACE key. You can hit the HELP key to get more information, or hit the UNDO key to exit the program. One bonus of this program is that instead of listing your AUTO programs alphabetically, it lists them in running order. If there's a fight going on in your AUTO folder with no one winning, this will let you know when the fight started, and who was there. It is also possible to run DESK MANAGER directly from the desktop. In this mode, you have the option of reinitializing the programs in the AUTO folder. DESK MANAGER 2.7 is the solution to the boot dilemma. It was written in 68000 assembly language, and takes up less than 10K of disk space. """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Filename: PT08ACC.ARC Program Name: PERFECT TIMING Program Type: Accessory Version: 0.8 Programmer: Chor-Ming Lung Registration Fee: $10. Although this program hasn't yet reached version 1.0, it is still a very useful desk accessory. Able to run on a color or mono system, it contains a calendar, a diary, a memo pad, an appointment book, and an anniversary marker. The calendar goes back to January, 1601, and forward to December, 2999. The memo pad can be used for writing down upcoming events. Although the appointment book and the anniversary marker will eventually link date, time, and upcoming events, this feature is not yet implemented. While accessing PERFECT TIMING, if you close the window, your diary or memo file will be saved automatically. You can save a different memo or diary file for each month, and load the file into memory whenever necessary. In the editing box, the arrow keys, shift-arrow keys, mouse, and vertical slider bar can be used to change position on the screen quickly. When searching for a string (case-insensitive), you are given the date of the entry in which the string can be found. PERFECT TIMING has been written to run alongside PTPRINT (shareware, same author), a program which allows you to print out your entries. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" Filename: FB2.ARC Program Name: FIRST BASE Program Type: Database Version: 1.6 Programmer: Dave Henry Registration Fee: Not Specified If you want to keep a database of just about anything, FIRST BASE should suit your needs. Although it's not "full-featured", many of us don't need a lot of bells and whistles to keep track of our birthday lists, videotape collection, address books, or recipes. This database is fast and very easy to learn, and runs on a mono or color system. The entire database is kept in memory at all times, so there's no annoying wait for disk access. Up to 13,000 records can be entered (if you have the memory). Up to 11 fields can be created, and each record can contain up to 1,000 characters. Data is saved as an ASCII file with one record per line. This makes it readable by other programs, if desired. FIRST BASE makes extensive use of editing and function keys. This makes it user-comfortable when editing entries or displaying records. Sorting can be done on any field, either ascending or descending, and double sorts are supported. For Epson and compats, two printing types are supported: normal 80-character lines, and condensed (132 characters per line). Reports may be generated and printed using up to 11 lines per record. """"""""""""""""""""" More new and exciting shareware released this week: MMMUPDAT.ARC by Dave Henry MIDI Music Maker update. Demo of a shareware program. Massages many types of music data files and saves them to MIDI file format. GO_ST_10.ARC by A. F. Ciarochi A beautiful implementation of "Go", the oldest strategy game known to humankind. Requires GFA BASIC 3.0 or GFABASR3.PRG to run. TOPDOWN.ARC by John Eidsvoog "TopDown Loader" forces AUTO programs and accessories to run at the top end of memory, thus allowing greater access to bottom memory. P_OR_SAV.ARC by Chet Walters PRINT OR SAVE enables screen saves and printer dumps from within other programs. Excellent support for HP DeskJet users. PERUSER.ARC by Dan Panke PERUSER is a spiffy file-reader which allows you to include DEGAS pictures (compressed or uncompressed) within your ASCII files. Xx PD PUB ----------------------------------------------------------------------- by Mark Quinn (The following program runs in low resolution ONLY.) File name: KP_DEMO.ARC Program name: Kidpublisher Professional Demo Program type: Demo (for grade school children, ages 5-11) Programmed by: D.A. Brumleve "A desktop publishing program for--umm--kids? This D.A. Brumleve must be KIDding," you say. No, she is not, and Kidpublisher Professional promises to have features that young minds can not only effectively grasp, but learn with. Ms. Brumleve brings to KP experience gained through her CAREWARE programs, and it seems she has not wasted her time. KP has a format only parents, educators, and kids could love (you get the idea). Children can switch between two screens: a thirty-three column typing screen with upper and lowercase, word wrap, underlining, a BLANK feature, a choice of four automatically-loaded fonts ("'...fonts can be created or altered with any Degas-compatible paint program...'" Our 'battery' of one thirty-one-year-old, Diet Coke-swilling tester was pleased to discover this feature.) and a drawing screen with the self same BLANK feature as well as UNDO, ERASE, FILL, CIRCLE, BOX, LINE and DRAW--most of these features are represented graphically, which should prove to be a time saver for any budding Guttenberg. The text fills the upper half of each page of the document; the graphics fill the lower half. Five pages of text and graphics can be held in memory. When the student is done, he/she can print out a booklet, complete with a title page. The working version of Kidpublisher Professional, with the SAVE and PRINT features enabled, can be ordered from your dealer or by sending your name, address and a check for $25.00 dollars to: D.A BRUMLEVE KIDPUBLISHER PROFESSIONAL P.O. BOX 4195 URBANA, IL 61801-8820 Bravo Brumleve! (Kidpublisher Professional was written in GFA BASIC 3.0) (The following program runs in high resolution ONLY.) File name: COLUMNS.ARC Program name: COLUMNS Program type: Game Programmed by: PCM Van Der Arend This is what seems to be a nice game with a horrible clunker of an opening tune. COLUMNS is another in a growing line of Tetris variants. In this version all the blocks are vertical bars, and are divided into three squares, which each may consist of one of six different shades. The orientation of the squares may be flipped ninety degrees. If you get three or more of the same squares in a row in any direction, they disappear and make way for the squares above. This is one of the nicest Tetris clones I've seen on a monochrome monitor, and it really deserves better title music. Where is John Williams when you need him? Probably working on the next STar Wars. "Quinn's Quickies": INTERPHS.ARC Playable demo of Interphase. You're on a rescue mission in a mainframe. UNIPLAY2.ARC An update to UNIPLAY. Faster, and will (as always) play all formats of digitized sounds. COOKEDIT.ARC Allows BBS operators to edit "fortune cookie" files, or allows users to edit them from door. ABBCOS.PRG A small portion of Abbott and Costello's classic "Who's on First" comedy routine. Self-running. Xx "REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPTS" PART 2 - "LET'S START A REVOLUTION" ----------------------------------------------------------------------- by Donald A. Thomas, Jr. =1989 ARTISAN SOFTWARE (This is PART 2 of a series of articles published and distributed by Artisan Software. Please feel free to copy and distribute this article as you please provided you include all unedited text. Also feel free to upload to boards and communication services. These articles are designed to entice you to take constructive action. Write to involved parties and tell them how YOU feel about the subject.) As a software publisher and long time zealot of Atari computers, I grow increasingly concerned with the concept of "Power Without The Price"; Atari's owned service mark. I often feel the phrase might be more accurate as "Power Without The Name", but of course, that wouldn't sell computers. As we approach the dusk of the 80's, we are encouraged by the promise of a new decade and discouraged by the lack of momentum propelling us into it. Backed by the finest computer value in the world, we have made small valiant efforts. Such efforts sustained dedicated Atari dealers and distributors. Such efforts booked well-attended Atari shows. Such efforts nourished the pride we all have owning a computer easily tailored for education, music, business or fun. Such efforts reminded all of us that our investments were sound and without remorse. Even amidst our triumphs, we find ourselves losing miles for the yards we gain. Unintentional games of politics poise organizers of different Atari exhibitions against each other without either one raising a victory flag. Instead of combining the artillery, we find all the bombs dismantled and sometimes blowing up at the wrong times. Lack of coordination and wise marketing ploys by the nation's family of Atari users and colleagues are causing diminishing rewards for all who have a scheduled turn at bat. Whil Atari users seem to breed loyalty between themselves, we fail to spin the marketing web to attract new buyers... new users... a growing family. And we clench our hands into angered fists; extending one finger to point to Atari. Nobody is prepared to etch a faceplate on an award to Atari for their superior efforts toward sales growth in the United States. Even their popularity in the music industry is thanks to a fluke that Atari decided to build the MIDI port right in. Yet Atari has supported our trade shows, Atari has attempted to expand visibility with an acquired chain of electronics stores, Atari has responded to our most animate demands to show support only to persistently discover that we do not really know what we want. And still we raise our pointed hands to the mirror and pretend to see Atari. The irony of all the aging arguments pertaining to Atari's power struggle in the U.S. is that the power built into every computer isn't in the computer at all... it's within ourselves. Without the genius we put into our computer, it just sits there collecting dust as a meaningless box of microscopic switches with a few custom chips. We also have within ourselves the ability to overcome the intimidation of ridicule by those who insist IBM, Macintosh, or the Amiga are better computers. We are professionals and make up a valuable component in the matrix of consumer computer sales. We ought to be masterminding a revolution. I suggest that we pool our expertise and our resources into a common cause. A cause designed to expand the visibility and use of Atari computers in the United States. We can build a revolution and have fun doing it. By assembling the talents and convictions between us, we can become the marketing machine to enhance Atari's image and we will find Atari oiling our gears as we prove we can make something happen. What are the benefits to each of us? Atari-based entrepreneurs will make more money and why shouldn't they? If they provide valuable products and services, they are entitled to some financial glory. Users will find more and better quality software and applications for their computer investment. Teachers will discover creative ways to educate and students will find learning simplified. Parents, attorneys, doctors, scientists, retailers, and business executives will all benefit from an expanding base of Atari computer users and suppliers. The point is that word-of-mouth is a powerful tool in any sales environment and we need to start using it with the outside world, not just our little cloister of single minded hobbyists. If you are inclined to ask "Why should I?", then you should not. But if you are inclined to ask, "How do I get started", this is what you do: Join "THE REVOLUTION" and actively support the exposure of Atari computers, send $6.00 to ARTISAN SOFTWARE, P.O. Box 849, Manteca, California 95336. An ST/MEGA compatible disk-based HANDBOOK will be rushed to you by return mail. The HANDBOOK is also available from ST INFORMER, MEGABYTE COMPUTERS (Hurst, Texas) and as a download from COMPUSERVE, GENIE and DELPHI. Xx DAVID SMALL IN CONFERENCE - HIGHLIGHTS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Edited by Ron Kovacs (C) 1989 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie are *official* information services of Atari Corporation. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt. Type XJM11877,GEnie and hit RETURN. The system will prompt you for your information. <JEFF.W> Thank you for attending this special RTC. Our guest is Dave Small, of Gadgets by Small, makers of the Specter 128 and Spectre GCR Mac emulators. <DAVESMALL> Gadgets' 68030 Project Last year in May, after leaving Data Pacific, there was a GEnie conference on whether or not I should develop a 128K ROM Mac emulator. Many people attended, said I should, and it was a key reason we decided to do the Spectre 128 (and Spectre GCR) products. Tonight I'd like to try the same thing again: propose a new Gadgets project to you, and see if you're interested. We're already working on this product for our own internal use; we want a hot, fast ST that's competitive with the latest from NeXT and Apple. What we need to decide is if we market it to the world. Present ST Speed / Processor Right now, your ST is designed around an 8 Mhz 68000. This is a fine design, but, unfortunately, is starting to become dated. Newer processors, which give you far more power, are out, and at higher speeds; Apple's got the Mac II, a 68020 at 16 Mhz, and the Mac IIci, a 68030 at 25 Mhz. The NeXT is at 25 Mhz. Ultimately all that horsepower lets people write programs they couldn't write before. 68030 What we want to do is give present ST owners an *upgrade path* to a very powerful new processor: the 68030. For many rather technical reasons, a 68030 is much faster than the ST's present 68000, and could give many new capabilities to the ST -- memory mapping, memory protection for multi-tasking, better Spectre capabilities (our best thing!), and so forth. If we could get a 68030 board out for the ST, I'd bet the people at Codehead wouldn't sleep for weeks, just thinking of new things to do. The 68030 is very far ahead of the 68000 and opens up all kinds of possibilities. But software compatibility ought to be very high, since the 68030 is very compatible with 68000 software. We will also "clock" the 68030 processor at a much higher speed than the ST's 68000. The ST runs at 8 mhz (millions instructions / second); we'll go for at least 16 Mhz and possibly more. The primary intent of the 68030 board will be *speed*. While it is difficult to estimate the speed improvement, we're confident of at least 4 - 8 times speed increase. Why not an exact figure? Well, it's the old drag-racing adage: Speed costs money; how fast do you want to go? For instance, we can use a 25 mhz 68030, the same processor as in the new NeXT and Mac IIci, but it will cost a lot; a 16 mhz 68030 would be much less expensive. We don't want to make a product so expensive that ST owners can't afford it; we want this to be a *practical*, *affordable* upgrade for ST owners. We want to keep the pricing as far under $1000 as we can, probably with options to let a user expand later as their budget can afford. [Of course, I'll probably put a 25 Mhz 68030 in mine...] Memory Limit We also want to "break" the 4 megabyte memory limit. We see no reason why the ST shouldn't be able to go to 12 megabytes with a bit of work, and with a faster processor, there will be plenty of uses for that memory. (If nothing else, the digitized music industry could really use extra RAM to hold digital samples. But imagine a 10 megabyte Ramdisk..) This will also solve the primary problem of why it's hard to accelerate the ST: video contention. Compete with TT? Nope. We aren't trying to compete with the Atari TT here, either. The TT is a completely new machine, with multiple serial ports, VME slots, new high res color modes, and so forth. For instance, the UNIX option is definitely not intended for home users! What we are trying to do is give your ST enough horsepower to extend its useful life some years. That's a brief, 83-line intro to the Gadgets 68030 project. Again, we're certainly going to do one of these for us, to make code development for Spectre/GCR much, much faster; we're interested if anyone else out there wants a very fast, large memory ST. <K.FORD1> Any ideas what effects the 68030 would have on PC-Ditto II or GCR? <DAVESMALL> I don't know on PCD-II, since I haven't seen one. The GCR, it would make scream -- very very fast Mac emulation. Excuse me, I'm slobbering on the keyboard. <M.SAVU1> dave would this 030 board be linked to spectre so you could run programs that would require the 030 like soft PC and some versions of excel and I vote positively YES!! to sell it! <DAVESMALL> Yes, it would, and thank you! The 128K ROMs support the 030 directly, with a little hacking ...softPC should run without any trouble, but you never know until you try it. Besides, pc-ditto-II should be pretty cool. <J.ALLEN27> And you could use things like Virtual memory programs!! <DAVESMALL> You bet. Jim brings up an interesting point: The 68030 is so powerful it can support many different machines *at once* in the same memory architecture (if you have enough memory). So, with 68030 helping us in hardware, it would be easy to bring up an ibm/ Mac/ST that would be a key flip away between the machines ..or, multiple STs, where if one ST crashes, the others keep right on going. The 68030 is really an amazing chip. <[Dave Troy] TOAD-SERV.> Dave: three things: 1) YES I want one - can we trade for Toadfile 44 carts? ;-) 2) I got all my GCRs today! ;-) (again) and... 3) This isn't my area, but how are you going to implement memory, in terms of installation & management, how will it fit (physically) and what will be the fate of the old MMU in light of the built in MMU in the 030? <DAVESMALL> The new RAM will be on the 68030 board. There will be an interface, some way, into the ST's old memory, provided we don't decide to shut down the shifter and use it directly at 16 mhz. The 68030 handles most of its own memory management. For right off, I'd give it a straight memory map, but that's all programmable, for all the hackers out there, to do all sorts of fun stuff! Does that answer the question? <[Dave Troy] TOAD-SERV.> Yes - Dave it sounds funky! I am sure you can do it. Count me in for a few dozen. <P.ATKOCIUS> Will mac 030 software compatibility be a problem since apple at 512K ROMS? <DAVESMALL> No. The 128K ROMs are 030 compatible. I'm sure a few dumb PD programs will break, but big deal ... all the major stuff, and most of the minor stuff, will work. <B.MITTELMAN> Dave, can you do anything to get output to a projection TV so I can demo the GCR at Mac meetings ? <DAVESMALL> Hmmmmm. That's beyond my knowledge. I know at Comdex last year they had a big screen hooked to monochrome; you could ask Frank Foster at Atari how they did it. That's all I know, though. <B.HILL2> I've heard that the Spectre won't work with programs that use Midi/SCSI to talk to musical instruments (i'm thinking of Alchemy for ex.). Will the new board allow this? <DAVESMALL> It is true that Spectre won't work with only the MIDI Input-Output portions of various Mac MIDI programs (like Opcode Systems, etc, et all). It is possible that the mapper function of the 68030 could fix that. Interesting, interesting idea! HmmMMMMmmmm. Thank you. <B.HILL2> Follow up - Consider using a Stacy with an 030 running this s/w. Portable MAC for music purposed s but much more reasonable. <DAVESMALL> Sure be nice. I dunno, though; many musicians tell me the ST is far superior in music software (but those discussions are always sort of like religious discussions). Still, a darn-fast-Stacy wouldn't hurt, either -- particularly if the faster MIDI implementations get standardized. Speaking of Spectre, we had a mild event this week -- Microsoft Word 3.02, my old old enemy, came up this week and worked.. I fought that $%^#@$%^ thing for 1 1/2 years, beat it this week. <[Norm] N.RECHTMAN1> Are there other manufacturers drives having problems? I know John Wyncott is having a strange problem with a diverse data drive, MFD 720. I was wondering if the TEAC mechanism was stable? <DAVESMALL> Not consistently. There are always onesy-twosy problems -- bad drive, alignment problems -- but the two consistent ones we see are RFI problems inside the Mega case, curable by shielding, and the GTS-100 drive (an NEC drive), which we haven't solved -- but we've only had the drive a few days, give us a little time. I've been repeatedly assured that these drives absolutely *can* read/write Mac data if something is not interfering with them. <[Eric] MAJOR-HAVOC> How long before Gadget Labs have a working 68030 board? <DAVESMALL> Remember, all, this is NOT a promise to do this project and market it; this is market research. We don't know yet. (I shudder when I hear the word "working". Getting boards -- the process has started. Getting them WORKING -- that's a whole 'nuther kettle of wax.) <[John] JJKENNEDY> How compatible will the 030 board be with the TT (if at all)? Will some /many/most prg written for the TT work on the 030 upgrade? <DAVESMALL> Very compatible. Very. However, the TT has features the ST does not in the screen, etc, and in sound, that it couldn't be backwards compatible with. (Editor Note: This is just a FEW of the highlights of the conference. The text is available on GEnie in the the ST RT download area.) Xx ATARI MEGA ST FLOPPY DRIVE SHEILD ----------------------------------------------------------------------- by Mark E. Booth This file extracted from an archived file available on GEnie. Two files will be found in the ARC file: D_SHIELD.TXT - This text file. D_SHIELD.PI3 - A monochrome DEGAS drawing of the shield. This text will be short. It will only briefly cover the purpose, construction and installation of the drive shield. For more info about the purpose and/or use of this drive shield please refer to the GEnie online information service. Instructions for becoming a GEnie member will be found at the end of this text file. Once you are online on GEnie type "M690" to get to the Gadgets by Small Product Support RoundTable. Further information about the use/purpose of this drive shield can be found in the Gadgets Bulletin Board, Category 8, Topic 4. DISCLAIMER: Simple...CONSTRUCT AND USE AT YOUR OWN RISK! Neither I nor Gadgets by Small can be responsible for any problems that may arise from the use or installation of this "modification". (If it makes you feel any better, I have had one installed on my Mega's internal drive for several months without any problems what-so-ever. Purpose: Some (NOT ALL) Mega internal drives seem prone to picking up radio frequency interference (RFI) normally found within the CPU's housing. In some cases, this RFI "noise" causes problems with the drive's ability to read and write to Mac disks using Spectre GCR. By "shielding" the drive from the rest of the computer its ability to read and write Mac disks is GREATLY improved. (Some users have reported improvements in the performance of their internal floppy drives in *ST* mode as well!) Construction: It would probably be a good idea if you printed the drawing of the shield so that you can refer to it during the construction and installation process. Go to your grocery store and purchase a large disposable aluminum cookie baking sheet. It needs to have at least 12" by 7" of FLAT surface. (Some users have reported good luck using two layers of heavy duty aluminum foil!). Whatever you use it needs to be fairly bendable. The non-disposable type of cookie sheet is TOO thick. Using the demensions provided, cut out your aluminum "shield". Cut out the four 1/2 square holes with a sharp exacto knife. These four holes are for the floppy drive posts to go thru. Using a small hole punch, punch a small hole in the approx. positition shown in the drawing. Attach a short piece of stranded insulated wire to this hole. Spread out the strands of the wire so they are touching the aluminum sheeting in several places and secure it with masking tape. The other end of this wire will eventually be connected to the power supply's grounding post screw on the right side. Cover both sides of the shield with some insulating material. I found that adhesive contact paper (the type used to line shelves) worked quite well. You can also use some wide strips of masking tape..etc. Cut away excess contact paper so that it is the exact same demensions as the shield. Also, using the exacto knife cut the contact paper out of the four square holes for the drive posts. Finally, using 1/2" wide masking tape, wrap around all edges of the shield. The final product will be a aluminum shield with a wire attached that is COMPLETELY insulated on all sides and edges. Installation: (It is assumed that you are already knowledgeable in the process of opening your Mega CPU housing. If you are not familiar with this process and/or feel uncomfortable about it then DON'T DO IT! Maybe a friend or Atari service tech can do the installation for you.) WARNING! OPENING THE CASE ON YOUR MEGA *WILL* VOID YOUR WARRANTY! Remove the top case and top shielding of the Mega. Unplug and remove the floppy disk drive. Place your newly constructed drive shield over the drive support posts with the 6 3/4" side to the left, the 5 3/4" side to the right and the 12" long side along the front. The part on the shield marked Extension "B" should fit UNDER the floppy disk drive I/O cable and almost up against where the floppy I/O cable connects to the Mega's motherboard. Reconnect the floppy power cable and I/O cable to the drive and fold the excess cable lengths toward the FRONT of the motherboard so that, when the drive is set in place on the posts, the excess cable length is folded back on itself BETWEEN the bottom of the drive and the drive shield. This will help insulate the I/O and power cables from picking up any RFI noise as well. With the drive held in place on its support posts, fold the right side of the shield up and around the drive. Properly folded you will end up with about a 1/2" strip sitting on top of the drive. Again, holding the drive firmly in place, fold the left side of the drive shield up and over the top of the drive. The shield should fit snuggly against the drive. When properly installed the left edge you just folded up and over will line up exactly with the right edge of the disk drive (overlapping the 1/2" strip that was folded up from the right side). Secure the drive shield in place with a 3" piece of masking tape. Fold the part marked Flap "A" down behind the drive. This little "flap" helps to shield the back of the drive from RFI. Connect the other end of the shield wire to the power supply grounding post on the right side. Use the screw that holds the power supply leg to the motherboard. Make sure that the shield is still completely insulated from all components. Check for any accidental tears or rips in the contact paper that might allow the aluminum sheet to come in contact with any metal pins or leads. That's it!! All that is left is for you to carefully re-install your Mega's top shielding and top cover and give her a whirl! If your's works as well as mine did then you will be able to read, write and format Mac disks all day long! Again, please leave any questions of comments in Category 8, Topic 4 of the Gadgets by Small RoundTable on GEnie. To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 1-800-638-8369. Upon connection type "HHH" (no quotes) [RETURN]. Wait for the U#= prompt. Type "XJM11877,GEnie" (again, no quotes) [RETURN]. The system will prompt you for further information. (C) 1989 by GEnie and the Gadgets by Small RoundTable. May only be reprinted with this notice intact. Xx ADVANCED ULTRASCRIPT APPLICATIONS ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you have mastered the use of UltraScript with your ST and printer, here are some tips and tricks that will increase the functionality of this remarkable PostScript emulator. These examples were tested using an ST with 2.5 megs RAM running the Mac emulator Spectre 128 by Gadgets by Small and the file called Laser Prep 5.0 (c) Apple Computer, Inc. and the equivalent file for PageMaker, called Aldus Prep (c) by Aldus Corp. The UltraScript program looks for a file called STARTUP.PS during its initialization process. Using the Control-K command documented in the first part of this tutorial will create a PostScript file with the Laser Prep header attached. TransVert this PS file to ST mode and use a text editor to save from the beginning of the file to the command %EOF. The resulting file should be about 26k. Name it STARTUP.PS and save it into your UScript directory. Transverting the Aldus Prep file is even easier, as it can simply be TransVerted over to ST mode and needs no editing at all. You will use the Laser Prep version of STARTUP.PS when you are printing from any Mac program EXCEPT PageMaker, or if you choose the Apple dictionary option in PageMakers PRINT dialog. I keep both STARTUP files in my UScript folder and rename them as my needs dictate. Now, whenever you output a PostScript file to disk, you do not need to press COMMAND-K, which includes the Laser Prep header. You will find that files saved using the COMMAND-F key combination (Control-F on the ST) will be much smaller files, Transvert more quickly and print at normal speeds. In the case of PageMaker, select PRINT from the file menu and then click OK while pressing "Option" (the Alternate key on the ST keyboard). When the dialog box comes up, make sure "Include Aldus Prep" is NOT selected. In addition, if you wish to download Mac PostScript fonts to the disk, ensure that the "Download PostScript Fonts" box is selected. Be aware that PostScript output files with several downloaded fonts can be HUGE. Another great trick is how to get UltraScript to recognize and print out downloadable PostScript fonts. These fonts are known as TYPE 3 fonts and are typically third-party PostScript fonts from vendors other than Adobe. It seems that most of these Mac fonts have been created with the program Fontographer. Use a disk editor such as FEdit to edit the following line found near the beginning of the data fork of the downloadable font: /cache{NL 0 eq{setcachedevice}{6{pop}repeat}ifelse 0 0 moveto} Change this line to read: /cache{0 0 moveto NL 0 eq{setcachedevice}{6{pop}repeat}ifelse} Older fonts (created with Fontographer version 1.0) have different code, but the principle is the same. Use FEdit to search for SETCACHEDEVICE and move the "0 0 moveto" so that it is before SETCACHEDEVICE, not after. This needs to be done only once to each PostScript font. UltraScript will then correctly interpret the "downloaded" font information and print it! The last tip involves using a LaserWriter driver known as ASYNC LASER. This file is found on CompuServe and will allow Spectre versions 1.9 or earlier to switch between dot-matrix and LaserWriter drivers at will. It has been noted that LaserWriter drivers 3.1, 5.0, 5.1 and 6.0 work properly with UltraScript. LaserWriter version 5.2 definitely does not. 1040 owners take note, UltraScript can now be used on 1 meg STs! Imagen has released a version that will print on Epson FX/LX/LQ/LQ950, NEC 5x00, HP DeskJet and HP Laser Printers! (The Atari SLM-804 requires 2 mb RAM.) Finally, Lucida screen fonts for the Macintosh are available for down- loading from the Adobe forum on CompuServe. Thanks to Imagen, Hedley Rainnie, Doug Wheeler, Dave and Sandy Small. This tutorial document may be freely distributed. (c) 1989 Graeme Bennett. Products mentioned are registered trademarks of their respective companies. = 1989 by Rovac Industries, Inc. ====================================================== ///// ////// ///// /// /// //// ////// // // // /////// // // /// //// // // // /// /// ////// /// /// // // // // // // // /// // ///// // ///// / / // // /////// ======================================================= Issue #47 November 17, 1989 BBS: (201) 968-8148 3/12 w/2400 coming soon!