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/////// // // /////// ////// // // /// // // / / // / / // // //// // // / // // ////// // //// //// // // / // // /// // / // // // // // // / // /////// // // /////// //// Z*Net Atari Online Magazine July 13, 1990 Volume 5 No. 28 Issue: 528 ======================================================================= (c©) 1990 by Rovac Industries, PO Box 59, Middlesex, New Jersey 08846 ======================================================================= BBS 201-968-8148 * CIS 71777,2140 * Cleveland Free-Net * GEnie Z-NET ======================================================================= Staff: Ron Kovacs, John Nagy, Alice Amore, Jon Clarke, Bruce Hansford, Robert Ford, Mark Quinn, John King Tarpinian, Bruce Kennedy, Eric Gove, Terry Schreiber, and Lisa Kovacs. ======================================================================= C O N T E N T S - THIS WEEK..................................................Ron Kovacs - Z*NET NEWSWIRE....................................................... - BRANCH ALWAYS SOFTWARE UPDATE...........................Darek Mihocka - REVOLUTIONARY CONCEPTS PART 29..........................Donald Thomas - Z*NET DOWN-UNDER EXTRA..................................Press Release - FOREM BBS NEWS............................................Steve Rider - PD/SHAREWARE STOP..........................................Mark Quinn - TRACKER-ST UPDATE.......................................Press Release - Z*NET ECHOS...........................................Terry Schreiber =============================== T H I S W E E K =============================== by RON KOVACS A new column appears this week from Terry Schreiber. Terry is from Canada and will be a regular contributor reporting on Canadian events, Z*Net Echos F-Net, contributing to the Z*Net Newswire and various other topics. German PD programs are now available on the Z*Net BBS. As soon as we sort out the rest of the disks recently donated by Michael Schutz of the Atari PD Journal of Germany, they will be available for downloading. =============================== Z * N E T N E W S W I R E =============================== - ATARI - Atari in New Zealand has told their dealers that the - TT030 - Atari TT030 computer will be a 32Mhz rather than 16Mhz - AT - as originally planned. The entire press release and - 32MHZ? - specifications are elsewhere in this issue of Z*Net. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=- A similar announcement was made by Atari in the Netherlands, but Atari USA and Corporate officially both say that their specification information is unchanged... at least at this writing. Said Bob Brodie in a response to direct questions about the machine, "I spoke to Sam Tramiel about this personally. He has instructed me to state that the specifications for the TT remain unchanged. It is still a 16 Mhz machine." He added, "Clearly, this is just an out of control rumor." However, some insiders say that change to the new CPU speed is real, and that it is being made in reaction to a realistic assessment of the competition in the growing (and speedy) micro workstation market. According to the several souces that admit to the new chip plans, the production schedule for the TT is promised to NOT be set back by the change. This indicates to some that the underlying TT design and clocking will not be changed, and that the faster CPU is not likely to be supported by new, faster processors and busses downstream. The result will indeed be faster computation, but a bottleneck in the support and memory handling that may prevent the realization of the full speed that is available from a completely 32MHZ design. - STE - Atari Canada is aware of a problem with the STe and - AND - hard drives and has issued return numbers to all it's - HARD DRIVES - dealers to replace the defective stock immediately. Although not all units are plagued with this problem, if you have recently bought an STE, return it to the store of purchase for checking. - ATARI - Atari is agressively penetrating the educational - IN - marketplace. In Ontario Canada it was accepted by - EDUCATION - the Ministry of Education and introduced in the schools. Using the 286 as file server it is networked using Lantasic to other systems in the classroom. - MICHTRON - We asked Gordon Monnier of Michtron this week about a - UPDATE - story stating that Michtron was up for sale. Although Monnier would not make an official comment on the matter, he did confirm by saying Michtron was up for sale. - ATARI - The difference between TOS16 and TOS162 is a change - ENGINEERING - that the engineering department places on any type of - AND TOS - update, be it major or minor. They might increment - 1.62 - the number a notch at a time. The part number of the chip is C301164-002A, the suffix indicates the actual TOS version. The date is noted as 12290. - APPLE - Last week we told you that Apple was going to announce - INTRODUCES - the release of new laser printers. On Monday the - LOW-COST - announcement included a single user laser printer - LASERWRITER - priced at $1.999 and a multiuser laser priced at - PRINTERS - $3,299. Both printers are for the MAC Systems. - TEXAS - Texas Instruments filed suits this week against five - INSTRUMENTS - semiconductor manufacturers who sell, import and - FILES - package integrated circuits using TI patented process - SUIT - without license. The suit was filed against Analog Devices, Cypress Semiconductor, Integrated Device, LSI Logic and VLSI Technology. - MOTOROLA - Motorola and IBM are working on an agreement to enable - IBM - Motorola to produce computer memory chips. IBM has - NEGOTIATING - already licensed the high-tech memory-chip technology to Micron Technology as part of its effort to improve the competetive position of US chip producers. - NEW - After Monday's announcement of new low-cost laser - APPLE - printers, Apple announced on Wednesday the formation - COMPANY - of a new company called General Magic, Inc.. The new - ANNOUNCED - company will design and develop a new class of "Personal Intelligent Communicator" products. - NEC - NEC and Turbo Zone announced the opening of Turbo Zone - WITH TURBO - which carries exclusively the TurboGrafx-16 products. - ZONE OPENS - The opening of this new store will take place this - STORE - Saturday, July 14 at the Serramonte Shopping Center in Daly City California. Look for additional stores scheduled to open in cities across the country. =============================== BRANCH ALWAYS SOFTWARE UPDATE =============================== Branch Always Software has moved! ================================= Branch Always Software, makers of Quick ST II and Quick Tools, has moved its headquarters from Canada to the United States. This will allow us to offer faster, more reliable service to our main market, and offer additional services such as overnight delivery and 1-800 sevice. Operations will resume on Monday July 9, 1990. The new mailing address for all correspondance is: Branch Always Software 14150 N.E. 20th St. Suite 302 Bellevue, WA 98007 A 1-800 telephone number will hopefully be up within a few weeks to offer toll free phone support to U.S. and possibly Canadian customers. Branch Always Software will also be attending next month's World Of Atari show and the WAACE show in October. All of our products, including Quick ST 2.1 and Quick Tools will be on sale, and Quick ST 3.0 might be on display if a TT or 68030 accelerator show up in time. The new 32-page Quick Tools manuals have arrived and starting Monday will be mailed out free of charge to all registered Quick Tools users. Quick ST 2.1 reviews ==================== Last month, two new Quick ST reviews were published. This is in addition to several reviews that appeared in April and May in PSAN, ST World, and the Phoenix newsletter. We invite all ST users to read the new reviews in ST Informer and Current Notes, but here are some small samples... "I think Turbo ST is over priced... If you do not have Turbo ST yet, then Quick ST seems to be a better choice... for all practical purposes both accelerators provide a very similar degree of improvement." - Current Notes, June 1990, review by J. Andrzej Wrotniak "..the speed improvement is very noticable - I don't use my ST without Quick ST installed... There is really no competition - for your money Quick ST is definately the way to go. I highly recommend this package.." - ST Informer, June 1990, review by Ron Schaefer Warning to all Quick ST II Customers! ===================================== It has come to our attention that the makers of Turbo ST have recently announced a very bogus upgrade offer from Quick ST II to their product Turbo ST 1.82. Apparently for only $29.95, plus shipping, plus the original Quick ST II disk, Softrek will send you a copy of Turbo ST 1.82. That's $20 off the list price of Turbo ST, just because they're a bunch of swell guys who don't want Quick ST II users to be "left out in the cold". Well, it isn't surprising that with reviews like the ones above, the Softrek people would try something sneaky like this. However, this crosses the line of fair competition. Softrek does not manufacture or sell Quick ST II. They are not authorized to "update" our disks, and are (thanks to some fancy wording) encouraging the piracy of Quick ST II. Their update offer does not mention that sending in your Quick ST II disk to Softrek is the same as selling it to them (which means that you must also delete all backups of Quick ST II, and are no longer eligable for updates). This may seem quite obvious, but we can guarantee that there will be people out there who will read their upgrade offer and send in the Quick ST II disk, and then continue to use Quick ST II or download updates. This is piracy, however you disguise it. They also fail to mention that Turbo ST can be purchased from some dealers for about $30 or $35. This can turn out to be less expensive than spending $29.95 plus shipping plus postage plus losing your rights to use Quick ST II. They also do not offer a money back guarantee for when the users discover that they would rather use Quick ST II. We have made a formal request of Softrek to return to us any Quick ST II disks, which they receive so that we can delete the affected users from our registered user list, and so that we have the piece of mind of knowing that Softrek isn't reselling the disks for additional profit. Affected users will then be sent letters to notify them of their new status. We have also requested that Softrek withdraw it's ridiculous "update" offer. We have nothing against people buying Turbo ST. However, they should do so when they feel they need it, not when some sweet sounding offer is made which can actually end up being more expensive than walking to your nearest dealer. And what about people who do not currently own Quick ST II and have to pay the full $49.95 when ordering from Softrek? Why are they being penalized and not offered Turbo ST for $29.95 too? Turbo ST is an overpriced product for what it does, and if the Softrek people want to compete, they should perhaps consider being more competitive. Branch Always Software does not believe in offering bounties or trade- ins on other people's software. We sell a product that can sell itself quite well, thank you, at $19.95 on its own merits. We see no constructive reason for offering bounties, especially when some dealers' Quick ST II prices are as low as $14. We do not need to trick the competition's users into purchasing our product. We hope that the powers that be at Softrek will come to their senses and comply with our requests. ============================================ R E V O L U T I O N A R Y C O N C E P T S ============================================ P A R T 2 9 "T H E S O L U T I O N" by Donald A. Thomas, Jr. (c)1990 ARTISAN SOFTWARE (This is PART 29 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.) The simple solution to Atari's position in the United States is exposure. While understanding that fact, it is much harder to make that happen. It takes much more than running a lot of ads. It takes a commitment from everyone who has a stake in Atari products. TRANSCOAST SYSTEMS, Inc. of San Francisco, California understands the need for exposure and the work required to see it through. This past Tuesday through Sunday (July 3-8), as many of us were enjoying the holiday at home with our families, Mr. Don Kimble of Transcoast operated a booth at the "CONCLAVE '90 RENO". This event attracted scores of PIP Printing shop owners from across the country. There are over 3,200 PIP Printing franchise operations across America and this is their annual gathering to see and hear about the latest in technology for their industry. PIP Printers, for those who may not have heard of them, are a chain of print shops. There are a handful of such franchise operations, but PIP is one of the most successful over the years. They offer complete printing services to businesses in their area at competitive prices and many offer the pre-press services of layout, design and pasteup. Transcoast Systems, Inc. arranged a booth at this event to present the Atari Mega4, SLM804 and Calamus software as the complete desktop publishing solution. For an approximate $6,000, Transcoast not only promises to have a system up and running most anywhere in the country, but the price includes training as well. The complete system also includes a MEGAFILE 30, Outline Art software and Font Editor Software. There are 35 fonts that are packaged in the system. For a nominal added charge, other features can be added such as the full page viewing capabilities of the Viking monitor. Impressed by the dedication and commitment of Transcoast Systems, Atari U.S. arranged to supply the hardware shown at the event. In addition, Bob Brodie, Don Thomas and Atari's V.P. of Sales, Bill Crouch, arrived to help make certain not one inquiry went unanswered. From ISD Marketing (distributors of Calamus), Nathan Potechin made himself and his best graphic artist available to also answer questions and help sell DTP solution packages. PIP owners were astounded. Amazed not only by the versatile capabilities of the software, they were surprised to see the name of Atari (many thought the company had long gone) and the incredible low price. Within a couple of days handfuls of business cards were collected from those PIP owners who wanted either a formal presentation or more information as toset-up time. A son of one PIP franchise proprietor was quoted to say, "Atari sure has come a long way, haven't they?". Another had just taken delivery on an IBM/Pagemaker combination and was heard to say she was going to see if she could sell it. Since this article is distributed in Atari forums, we already know the value of our Atari systems. The success that Transcoast enjoyed is something all Atari dealers can enjoy. Long term success will not come until we begin to work a little harder, a little longer and a little smarter. If the business does not come in our front door, then we must go to the business. The PIP show in Bally's Reno, forced PIP owners to see something they never knew, the power and capability of the Atari desktop publishing solution. Transcoast Systems, Inc. is located at 388 Market Street, Suite 400, San Francisco, California 94111. They can be reached at (415) 296-2572. Don Kimble is the owner. Ike Eisenschmidt is one of his trainers and an expert in Calamus on the Atari system. If your school, church, hospital, club or group can use the technology of desktop publishing for newsletters, advertising, menus and other printable materials, offer them a copy of this article. Tell them the REVOLUTIONARY new system in Desktop Publishing is Atari, Calamus and Transcoast Systems, Inc. For information on how you can "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, CURRENT NOTES, MEGABYTE COMPUTERS (Hurst, Texas), COMPUTER STUDIO (Asheville, North Carolina) and as a download from COMPUSERVE, GENIE and DELPHI. ========@@@@@@=======@@@===@@==@@@@@@==@@@@@@======== ===========@@===@@===@@@@==@@==@@========@@========== ==========@@===@@@@==@@=@@=@@==@@@@@@====@@========== ========@@======@@===@@==@@@@==@@========@@========== =======@@@@@@@=======@@===@@@==@@@@@@====@@========== ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Z*Net Down-Under by Jon Clarke ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ***** Z*NET DOWN-UNDER EXTRA ***** This document is Press Information provided by SOFTWARE SUPPLIES, AKA ATARI NEW ZEALAND, on ATARI Logo paper. Transcribed using optical character reader for precise conversion by Z*NET NEWS SERVICE, 7/9/90. Z*Net assumes no responsibility for the accuracy of the information itself. Press Release ATARI TT030 Compatible - Expandible - Flexible - Affordable The Atari TT030 - Compatible with the Atari ST, 1000"s of software titles already available - 3 New Graphics modes: 320 x 480 with 256 colours from a palette of 4096 640 x 480 with 16 colours from a palette of 4096 1280 x 960 high resolution monochrome - Stereo 8-bit PCM sound - 68030 running at 32 Mhz - 68881 Floating Point co-processor - 2 Megabytes of RAM, expandable to 26 Mb - SCSI and ASCI with DMA built in - Internal Hard disk - SCC LAN port with DMA - Four serial ports - Parallel port - MIDI ports - Detachable keyboard - Internal A24/D16 VME card slot - Real time clock with non-volatile RAM - ROM cartridge slot - External floppy connector Comparison of standard features Amiga 3000 Mac IIcx Atari TT030 CPU 68030 68030 68030 FPU Yes Yes Yes Clock speed 16 Mhz - 32 Mhz RAM 2 to 17 1 to 32 2 to 26 Burst Mode Yes No Yes ROM 512K 256K 512K Graphics Max resolution 1280 x 480 Optional 1280 x 960 Interlaced Non-interlaced Max colours 32 Colours 256 Colours from 4096 from 4096 Max video RAM 1 Mb 8 Mb Sound Stereo Stereo Stereo Expansion Proprietary NuBus VME Hard disk DMA Non-DMA DMA Floppy disk Proprietary Proprietary PC compatible Network No Yes Yes, DMA Serial 1 x RS232 2 x RS232 4 x RS232 Parallel Yes No Yes MIDI No No Yes ROM Cartridge No No Yes The Atari TT030 Hardware The TT030 (Thirty-two/Thirty-two bit) is the first member of a new series of Atari computers designed as enhanced versions of the existing ST and MEGA family. The TT series maintains compatibility with the ST/MEGA architecture, but uses the Motorola 68030 microprocessor and provides enhanced graphics and sound. The TT030 is also designed to run Unix (Unix is a trademark of AT&T). The TT030 is based on the high performance 32-bit Motorola MC68030 processor running at a 32 Mhz clock frequency. The 68030 includes on- chip data and instruction caches which can be filled from some regions of memory in bursts of double word fetches. The architecture also includes the industry standard VME bus to facilitate expansion. The system supports the latest revision (C.1) of the VME bus specification. The TT030 can accommodate one single- Eurocard (3U) A24/D 16 or A 16/D 16 slave-only VME board. The TT series is expected to function in an environment with other TTs and even machines from different manufacturers. To facilitate connectivity, each system has an on-board port for a moderate speed LAN. If the LAN is not being used, the port can be programmed to be a standard RS232C port. Through an optional VME bus-based or SCSI-based Ethernet controller, the TT also has the capability of connecting to heterogeneous Ethernet networks. The TT030 has three additional standard RS-232C serial ports for connection to modems, display terminals, or digitizing tablets. The hardware features of the TT030 include: - Motorola MC68030 at 32MHz - Motorola MC68881 Floating Point Coprocessor (the coprocessor is socketed, so that it can be optionally upgraded to a MC68882) - ST RAM: 2 Mbyte of ST-compatible dual-purpose (video/system) RAM, expandable by an add-on daughterboard containing a further 2 or 8 Mbyte of dual-purpose memory. This 64-bit wide memory appears 32 bits wide to the processor and SCSI/SCC DMA engines TT video logic has access to this memory on a time critical basis. The remaining system logic, including the processor, can access this memory in the alternate 250 nS TIME SLICES. - TT BURST MODE RAM: provision for a daughter-board that will accept either 4 x 1 Mbyte or 4 x 4 Mbyte SIMMS, allowing another 4 Mb or 16 Mb expansion. This RAM can only be accessed by the processor, the SCSI DMA Engine, and the SCC Network DMA Engine. The 68030 can take advantage of burst-mode for filling its internal cache from this RAM. - 4 socketed 1 Mbit ROMS, providing 512 Kbyte of ROM space. - Internal video modes that are a superset of those in the Atari ST/ STe series using an analog RGB (VGA-like) colour monitor: pixels rows colors palette 320 200 16 4096 (STe compatible) 640 200 4 4096 (STe compatible) 640 400 2 4096 (STe superset) 320 480 256 4096 640 480 16 4096 using a high resolution ECL monochrome monitor 1280 960 black on white - parallel I/O port, generally used for Parallel printer output - internal speaker, which can be disabled under software control - 2 low-speed asynchronous serial I/O ports (one from each of two 68901 MFPS) at programmable baud rates up to 19.2 baud - 2 high-speed asynchronous/SDLC Serial I/O ports (from a Zilog 8530 SCC). One part can be programmed to be a Local Talk compatible LAN interface with a proprietary single channel DMA controller. The other port is intended for use as an asynchronous AS-232 port with programmable split baud rates. - battery backed-up real time clock (RTC) with 50 bytes of non- volatile RAM - ST/MEGA compatible intelligent keyboard, with mouse and joystick ports including support for a 3 button mouse - Atari ACSI DMA channel (for Atari Hard Disk, Laser Printer, CD-ROM, etc) - Floppy disk controller and interface sharing the ACSI DMA channel - Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) STe compatible DMA sound engine with programmable volume and tone control which can play back stereo 8-bit samples at rates up to 50 Khz - Atari ST compatible cartridge port (128 Kbyte Storage) - SCSI interface using 23-pin connector implemented with the NCR 5380 SCSI controller chip and a proprietary DMA controller - Industry standard VME bus for expansion When comparing the TT030 with the competition, four important features stand out: - flicker-free, high resolution colour graphics built-in as standard - high bus bandwidth, independent of video resolution - excellent connectivity including four RS232 ports, MIDI, LAN, ASCI & SCSI. - high speed burst-mode RAM, 32 Mhz CPU clock speed. =============================== F O R E M B B S N E W S =============================== Effective immediately Full Moon BBS is now your source for the FoReM BBS program by Matthew R. Singer. FoReM is not new, it has been in use all over the free world since 1985. Available in single line versions for the Atari ST (one meg RAM recommended) and the IBM PC (512 K required). FoReM may be purchased directly from Full Moon for $74.95 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling. All orders are shipped with a manual that includes detailed instructions on installing and configuring FoReM. When used in conjunction with the FNET mailer program by David Chiquelin (a shareware program supported at Atari-Oh! BBS 713-480-9310) either version of FoReM can be used to exchange messages with other BBS Systems worldwide. You can order FoReM ST or PC by sending a check for $79.95 ($74.95 for the program plus $5.00 S&H) made payable to: Stephen Rider 20 Cargill Ave Worcester MA 01610 Orders are shipped UPS only, specify a street address as UPS cannot deliver to a Post Office box number. For ST orders specify single sided or double sided diskette. PC owners please specify 360K or 1.2 meg 5.25" or 720K 3.5" disks. Depending on the media you order we will also include some useful PD or shareware utility programs that are widely used by FoReM boards. Steve Rider Full Moon BBS 508-752-1348 This offer is made in conjunction with Matthew R. Singer, creator and copyright holder of FoReM ST. Offer not valid in Massachusetts. (c) 1985-1990 Matthew R. Singer =============================== PD/SHAREWARE STop =============================== by Mark Quinn Authors: Matthew Carmody, Ben Cosh *SHAREWARE* File name: DEFSEL.ARC File type: Utility Program name: Definitive File Selector ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ DEFSEL (along with The Little Green Selector and UIS) is another alternative to the standard file selector. Whether this one's right for you is a matter of personal preference, and deciding which features are important. Features: - 150-letter pathnames possible - Abort loading by holding both shift keys down - Nine different ways of sorting files - Delete mode - Ten 'extender buttons' - Diskinfo button - Create folders - Dynamic memory requirement feature - Mouse speed doubling feature - Security delete mode: deleted files are overwritten with garbage - Save DEFSEL configurations - Deinstall feature - Almost every feature has ALT key equivalents DEFSEL should be run before any mouse accelerators. This program is not as intuitive as some others I've seen. The programmers state that the program "shouldn't really conflict with anything". If it does, let them know. (You may wait quite a while for the response, seeing that they are in England.) We experienced some problems on a Mega 2 with TOS 1.2. The programmers also state that version 3.00 (the above is version 2.01) is under development. Author: Damien Jones File name: PURGER.LZH File type: Utility Program name: Disk Purger ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A couple of weeks ago, I said to myself "There ought to be a no-nonsense program that wipes the directory and FAT tables of a formatted disk". Enter Purger, which fills the bill nicely, and also gives you the option of getting a directory of the soon-to-be purged disk. Once the files are purged, they will still be shown by the directory option until a disk change occurs. If you have any reservations about the urge to purge, I wouldn't suggest using this utility. Files are not recoverable once they are purged. Author: S. K. Webb File name: STREADER.LZH File type: Utility Program name: ST READER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It seems that every few weeks someone uploads another text reader. This one is hefty, and thus has some nice features, including a second text window, reverse video, the ability to toggle text size (useful for children and those of us with low vision) and load alternate fonts, a search feature, switching to medium resolution when you're reading text files in low resolution, then switching back to low when you exit, converting 1st Word files to ASCII, saving converted files to disk, printing files, block save, block print, repeating the last screen command times, etc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Quinn's Quickies" SIREN2.LZH Monochrome accessory. Police car zooms across the bottom of your screen at chosen intervals. With sound effects. 101.ARC Playable game demo. Drive drug runners out of town. Futuristic setting. Fast action. FRED.LZH Playable game demo. Nice sound effects in this hack-'n'-slash epic. Pleasing graphics, too. CRICIT.ARC Demo. "Integrated cash register and inventory control program". If you want to use an ST for the former in your business, take a gander at CRICIT.ARC The program looks very extensive, though I didn't know what the hades I was doing. Also check out CRICITAD.ARC for more of a description of what this program does. DANDARE.LZH Playable game demo. In this one, you're in a space suit with a "plasma rifle". It takes more than a few shots to kill the mutated green child. Buy weapons, lives, etc. GGPDEMO.LZH Knowing absolutely nothing about genealogy programs, I couldn't give this one a decent review above. But if you do, then check it out. It seems easy to use. PAPACNT.ARC Update. Newest (and last) version of The Paperless Accountant. Now supports monochrome. MONOEMU.LZH Update. A monochrome emulator for color monitors, now modified for use with TOS 1.4. ICBD.LZH Playable game demo called "It Can't Be Done". Destroying the ship CAN be done. =============================== T R A C K E R S T U P D A T E =============================== PRESS RELEASE Version 2.03 of Tracker/ST is now available..! This free upgrade makes all of Tracker/ST's click-on buttons single click buttons, for greater ease of use. Also, all the buttons are now FULLY FUNCTIONAL with TOS 1.4 and TOS 1.6. A few other minor changes have been made. This update will be sent to all registered owners of Tracker/ST free of charge (you don't even have to send in your original disk). If you have not registered please do so immediately. If you have a GEnie account and have not received the upgrade in e-mail, just let us know your GEnie address and we will forward the file to you. You MUST be a registered owner to receive this upgrade through e-mail. To those of you unfamiliar with our program, Tracker/ST is a mailing list/mail merge/person tracking application which features great ease of use (fully GEM), and tons of power. For an informational brochure contact Step Ahead Software at 212-627-5830 or write us at 496-A Hudson Street #F39, New York City, NY 10014 Tracker/ST retails for $79.95, and is available direct or through your local dealer. Tracker/ST is now available in Australia as well (so tell all your friends Down Under). Our users LOVE Tracker/ST: "This is a GREAT program and it has cut my mail list time by over half.. Just wish I had this program a couple of years back." --B.G., Texas "I am really impressed with the excellent service your company is offering." --J.M., Texas "Great product..! The manual itself is a work of art..." ========@@@@@@=======@@@===@@==@@@@@@==@@@@@@======== ===========@@===@@===@@@@==@@==@@========@@========== ==========@@===@@@@==@@=@@=@@==@@@@@@====@@========== ========@@======@@===@@==@@@@==@@========@@========== =======@@@@@@@=======@@===@@@==@@@@@@====@@========== ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Z * N E T E C H O S By TERRY SCHREIBER ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NODE 505 ATARI WEST BBS VANCOUVER B.C. (604) 272-5888 ONLINE MAGAZINES AND COMMENT ST-Report announced last week that they have abandoned the Atari bashing series, although I am pleased to read the news, I hope it will be a new beginning for the magazine. However, on the defense of Atari I offer the following: o 1040Ste (enhanced 1040 st upgradeable to 4 megs using Simm packs) o Stacy (in a variety of configurations) o Megafile 44 (44 meg removable Syquest drive) o CDAR 504 (CD rom player) o PC3 (640k 8088 MS-Dos compatable 2 floppy system, EGA,CGA and Herc) o ABC 286 (640k 30meg HD,3.5 floppy,VGA,MDA,CGA,EGA and Hercules) o PC4h (1 meg ram,3.5 floppy,63 meg HD,16 Mhz,VGA,MDA,CGA,EGA and Herc) o PC4r (as above but with 44 meg removable instead of 63 meg harddrive) o PC5-20H (2meg ram,3.5 flop, 63M HD,VGA,MDA,CGA,EGA and Herc, 20 Mhz) o Portfolio (handheld computer system) o Atari calculators and adding machines o Lynx game system Please let me know if the other guys have released that much hardware in the past two years. Atari is listening to it's user's. Salespeople stated that people wanted MS-Dos machines, Atari responded by releasing a variety of boxes with different configurations. Branching into the calculator market was another extra for Atari, the portfolio was not long to come. Complaints of the St's limited sound and color capabilities in comparison with the Amiga resulted in the STe being born. Musicians and business people alike said "You have a great product here with the ST but you needed a portable" - thus Stacy. With this much product and the TT just around the corner I feel that Atari is agressively attacking the business, home and entertainment marketplaces. If they don't succeed with this much ammunition then you can bet that part of the blame will be the negative attitude of the users, bashing and bad press reports. I don't however hold Atari blameless all of the problems. Unfortunately we are all human and make mistakes. You would probably forgive your local barber for a bad haircut so why not your computer manufacturer? It's time people to rally around the flagpole once more and give Atari the support and consideration it rightly should have. The more computers sold, the bigger the userbase, the more software that becomes available and written for the ST. We all benefit from this, there are no benefits from bashing. ======================================================================= ======================================================================= Z*Net Atari Online Magazine is a weekly released publication covering the Atari community. Opinions and commentary presented are those of the individual authors and do not reflect those of Rovac Industries. Z*NET and Z*NET ATARI ONLINE are copyright 1990 by Rovac Industries. Reprint permission is granted as long as Z*NET ONLINE, Issue Number and author is included at the top of the article. Reprinted articles are not to be edited without permission. ======================================================================= ==================================================^^^================== ZNET ONLINE HOT Atari News FIRST! Copyright (c)1990 Rovac Industries, Inc.. =======================================================================