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Text File | 1992-12-31 | 59.0 KB | 1,216 lines

####################################################################### ####################################################################### ##########(((((((((( ##########((( ##(( ##((((((( ##(((((((( ########## #################(( ####(( ####(((( #(( ##(( ##########(( ############# ##############(( #####(((((( ##(( (( (( ##((((( #######(( ############# ###########(( ##########(( ####(( #(((( ##(( ##########(( ############# ##########(((((((((( ##########(( ##((( ##((((((( #####(( ############# ####################################################################### ####################################################################### Z*NET: ATARI ONLINE MAGAZINE  Copyright (c)1993, Syndicate Publishing Volume 7, Number 25 Issue #484 January 1, 1993 File:92-25 -----------------------------------------------------------------------  Publisher/Editor..........................................Ron Kovacs  Assistant Editor...........................................Ed Krimen  Writer............................................Michael R. Burkley  Z*Net News International Gateway..........................Jon Clarke  Z*Net News Service.........................................John Nagy ----------------------------------------------------------------------- GEnie..............Z-NET CompuServe....75300,1642 Delphi.........ZNET Internet...status.gen.nz America Online..ZNET1991 AtariNet..51:1/13.0 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- * SPECIAL 1992 YEAR IN REVIEW EDITION * YEAR IN REVIEW - 1992 This is a special edition of Z*Net. We have merged all of the Year In Review articles, (Parts 1-3) into one. Our regular weekly releases begin January 2, 1992. ###### Z*NET 1992 ATARI YEAR IN REVIEW ###### By Ron Kovacs ###### --------------------------------------------------------------- Once again it is that time of the year where we present the year in review. What I am going to do is focus on the news we covered in Z*Net and AEO (issues that we produced), from the Z*Net Newswire and feature articles. To begin 1992, we must go back to December 1991. **--DECEMBER 1991--** Antic Publishing, Inc. is said to be planning to dissolve the corporation at year's end, 1991, taking its debts with it. PC HOME JOURNAL, Antic's other publication, is expected to be spun off to a legally new and unrelated corporation as of January 1, 1992. The announced and expected CDAR505 will NOT be produced at any time soon. Intended for a fall 1991 release, the unit would be identical to cheaper drives already on the market, making it a loss proposition for Atari. They will now promote the use of the 500+meg devices by releasing METADOS into the community as freeware. User can roll their own players just as they do hard drive now. The STylus pad-based ST that was said to be the future of computing and was at one time expected to be the "WOW" unit at COMDEX is tabled by Atari after market studies show that buyers are curious, but not willing to buy one. Darek Mihocka searches for a buyer of Quick ST as he prepares to leave the ST market and finish development of his Gemulator, to allow ST software users to follow him into the PC marketplace. Now working for Microsoft, Darek has become an advocate of MS-DOS. The Lynx is finally a major hit, with demand outstripping production ability. New dealer penetration will have to wait until after Christmas, as all current production is already pre-sold. FSM GDOS is about ready to go to market, as soon as the packaging is ready for dealer sale. It is expected in early January at about $50. The Portfolio is selling well, at double the rate it was before the double-priced and well promoted competition arrived from Hewlett Packard. The winners of Atari's STe/TT demo contest are announced. Noel Saw and Arvin Castillo win an Atari TT030 for their massive entry. Calamus S is scheduled to be released by ISD on December 15. Atari stock is down to $ 1 3/4 at the close of 1991. CodeHead Software announced the TEC -- the TOS Extension Card! This circuit board, developed by Germany's Artifex, allows you to use the very latest version of Atari TOS (2.06) in your existing 520ST, 1040ST, or Mega ST! Codehead also announced that effective January 1992, they will be taking over development and distribution for Quick ST Version 3.0. Darek Mihocka, the original creator of Quick ST, sold the product to spend more time developing a PC based Atari ST emulator. Gribnif Software announces the release of "XBoot - The Boot Manager" program for the Atari ST, TT and compatible personal computers. John Townsend from Atari Corp. states that with HDX 3.0x and above, "you can create partitions that are a maximum of 256 Megabytes. That means that the whole SyQuest cart could be one partition, but I would recommend at least two." He adds, "Remember, the smaller the partition... the fast[er] the read/write access will be. With big partitions, you will have a slower drive as the drive get[s] full." **--JANUARY 1992--** WordPerfect offered a special First Quarter 1992 Competitive Trade-Up for customers who currently own any version of WordPerfect for Amiga, Apple IIe/c or IIGS, or Atari. Customers could trade-up to WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS, WordPerfect 5.1 for Windows, or WordPerfect 2.1 for Macintosh for $150.US/$179.CN, or they can trade up to LetterPerfect for $89.US/$110.CN. Lexicor Software offered it's Virtual Cinematography and Graphics Arts Class. The classes covered; Tweening, 3D Objects and Motion, Finishing Animations and many others. These were online classes, being held on CompuServe and GEnie. The editorial staff of ST-INFORMER, a popular monthly Atari tabloid- format publication, walked off the job on January 6, and plan to create their own rival Atari magazine. According to Mike Lindsay, Oregon-based editor for ST-INFORMER since its inception nearly four years ago, the breakup is the result of a long-standing disagreement over ownership of the magazine. Brian Gockley is the new editor-in-chief. Greg Pratt leaves Atari as President for a new position with Creative Labs, Inc., makers of the "Sound Blaster" series of sound cards for MS-DOS computers. Atari Canada released details on new package purchase plans. The packages which include an educational institute, registered company employee purchase programs and non-profit agencies. The pricing structure, options and flexible payment plan ensures that a computer is within the budget of anyone even in these economically troubled times. The backstreets of the Atari community were abuzz with the word that Atari Corp was being, in fact had already been sold by the Tramiel family. However, official comment from Sunnyvale (after the Pratt announcement) was "Absolutely not." Taylor Ridge Books announces the release of The ST Assembly Language Workshop, Volume 1, a novice's guide to assembly language programming on the Atari ST. Atari announces that the one millionth game cartridge was sold for the Lynx video game system. Shadowsoft which brought out the classic Robotron with Williams/Bally, will put Joust on store shelves in April or May and will introduce two original titles; a puzzle game and a superhero title for the Lynx. The new Atari SM147 premiered at the National Association of Music Merchandisers show. The SM147 is a 14" paperwhite monitor with a flat screen. Atari announces the inception of a new business division named Atari Music. James Grunke will lead this new division and commented, "Atari has always done a good job making computers with a lot of power and benefits for the money." Computer Chronicles, the PBS program with over 700,000 viewers was on hand filming at the NAMM show. They focused on Atari in the MIDI field and Atari Music. Atari announces at NAMM that it's products will be serviced by the 250 strong General Electric Service Center network though the United States and Canada. Dr. T's announced a new Audio/Video production kit for the Atari ST. The package includes the Omega music sequencing and editing environment, Hitman cue sheet production tools, and Phantom SMPTE syncronizer. Gribnif Software has announced the release of the "Crazy Dots" video display adapter. The adapter allows the Atari computer to drive a variety of VGA, Multi-Sync, and other high end color and gray scale displays. Bill Rehbock announces that Atari will make all of the released TOS development information available to the general public. An order form is included in the annoucement for purchasing the Atari TOS Developer's Kit. Atari was virtually the only computer being seriously shown at the National Association of Music Merchants show. The Atari area was the largest yet at any NAMM, apropos of Atari's new commitment to its official new Music Division headed up by James Grunke. An open area accommodated as many as 25 work stations manned in COMDEX fashion with a host of third party developers. They included music specialty developers Hybrid Arts, Thinkware, Roland, Steinberg-Jones, Dr.T's, C-LAB, Fostex, JLCooper, Interval, Pixel, Korg, Hotz, and many more, each showing off their latest products for the Atari platform. Atari Advantage Magazine, from the creators of ST Informer Magazine is announced. ISD announces Calamus SL. SL marks the transformation of Calamus from a desktop publishing program to an expansive DTP environment. The Boston Computer Society announces that a meeting in April will feature a special presentation and announcement of new hardware from Atari Corporation. (The Falcon) ST-Informer returns in a newsprint-with-color book format similar to AtariUser magazine, publisher and now editor Rod Macdonald has enlisted the aid of Brian Gockley on the East coast, Donovan Vicha covering the central USA, and Robert Goff in the West, as principal contributors. Atari Explorer Magazine releases copies of their February 1992 issues BEFORE the January 1992 issue. The February issue was a special MIDI issue, including a mini-magazine inside called ATARI ARTIST. Ericsson GE released the Mobidem, the first mass market portable wireless modem. **--FEBRUARY 1992--** John King Tarpinian reschedules the annual Glendale Atari Faire one week earlier than originally announced. The reason for the change was to distance the WAACE Atarifest for vendors and developers. General Videotex (Owners of Delphi) announce that they have purchased BIX, the online service developed by BYTE magazine. Bill Rehbock states, "The packaging is finally all done, the last revison of the disks is going to the duplicator and product should be showing up on shelves shortly. (Finally! :-)" What he was talking about was the new GDOS - FSM. Atari places a full two-page ad in Discover magazine. The first page shows a souped up ST midi machine and the second page reveals the Atari Portfolio PC. SST, the new accelerator board from Gadgets-By-Small begins shipping in quantity in four configurations. Dave Small states, "If you see a box with an SR-71A Blackbird on the cover at the dealer, that's the SST." The MegaTalk board is said to be shipping shortly. Atari releases their new version of Hard Drive Utilities Ver 5. Right on the heels of ICD's release of 5.4.5. Atari MGR, a network transparent window system originally written for Unix is released. MGR requires 1 meg of memory and the MiNT multitasking system version 0.6 or better. Atari Advantage Magazine offers free advertising. Apple Computer asks for $4.37 billion as damages from Microsoft for the alleged infringement of Apple copyrights on parts of the screen display for its Macintosh computer. Radio Shack celebrates its 15th year in the computer business. San Francisco's law mandating the safe use of video display terminals in the work place was struck down by a judge. Lexicor announces the first full step of Phase-4 Software development is completed, paving the way for Rosetta, Chronos, Prism-Render and Prism Paint and also the 24bit Leonardo board is said to be nearly ready. Atari provided several advanced Atari computers for two new programmer -Authors working on some very high speed graphics. Atari announces their support of the CD-I standard. Scott Gershin, owner of Hollywood's SOUNDELUX post-production sound studio, was nominated for an Oscar for his work in sound on the "JFK" movie. Scott did his work using Atari equipment for control of digital audio, using Hybrid Arts ADAP and other sound tools. The Toronto Atari Fair takes place. Also on hand is the ST-Book. (This paragraph was correct from the original release) The Eastside Atari Users Group, under special agreement with Atari Corp., began selling Atari Lapel Pins during the year. The shareware PD scene gets three start-up/boot programs in one week, SuperBoot with Version 7.4, MouseBoot from Germany and STinit with version 3.4 from the UK. Software Development Systems (SDS) introduces the Newdesk Icon Editor CPX. GEnie's ST RT Bulletin Board consolidates all of the online magazines into one category. The Atari Base USA BBS returns with new BBS software and joins the FNET network. Operating and receiving calls at (408) 745-2196. Atari contacts the Boston Computer Society and askes for a later date to appear to debut the latest new products. Atari's intention was to have product available for sale shortly after the event. Sources at Atari stated ,"In the past we have been guilty of showing vaporware. The rescheduling of this event reflects our new committment to only show new products when they are close to production." Atari hires seven new executives; Tony Serra, General Manger of Atari Australia, Scott MacDonald, Atari Australia controller, Gary Weiner, Corporate Vice-President of marketing and sales, new Atari Vice- President of quality assurance, Maxie R Smith, Lutz Lange, Sales Manager for Atari Germany, Dieter Pruess, Finance Manager for Atari Germany, and Richard Maunday, Controller for Atari UK. Atari signs seven million dollar advertising contract for the Lynx with Hal Rinney & Partners. Plans called for a new nationwide campaign to begin in April 1992. Atari France, UK and Italy begin publishing periodicals aimed at distributors and customers. These are slick, glossy full color issues running up to 100 pages. Contents include news about Atari developments in software and hardware, music applications and video games. Apple unveils The Apple Exchange Program, a trade-in program designed to help customers upgrade their computer equipment. The program was targeted to business and institutional customers. IBM introduces the industry's fastest 386SX, powered by IBM's 386SLC microprocessor. Codehead announces in a message on GEnie that Atari has no plans for releasing TOS 2.07. And in another message, Charles Johnson states, "Sorry to hear that Turbo ST seems to have a problem with TOS 2.06, guys. The spanking new, heavily modified and debugged version of Quick ST won't have any problems with 2.06, of course, and the release date is probably not too far off now." Michtron resurrects in Delaware with new President Jim Dorsman. FSMGDOS rumors still circulate. Bug fixes with printer drivers are repaired and problems with packaging persist, while interested Atari users wait for the latest word. An article in Electronic Engineering Times states that a Motorola executive said that they have dropped plans for a 68050, but are planning on a major change in a new chip and will call it the 68060. Computer Chronicles NAMM coverage is aired in late February with disappointing coverage of Atari at the event. Less than 3 minutes of air time are given to Atari. There was a very breif mention of the new Atari Music Division and peaks at some third-party products. The focus of this episode was MIDI and covered a number of platforms. DragonWare Software announces the Stacy Internal battery kit. Compuserve hosts a special 24-hour conference in the Atari Portfolio Forum. This was a non-stop conference in which prizes were given away like subscriptions to Atari Explorer, programs, and gift certificates. **--MARCH 1992--** The Huntsville Atari Users Group participates with Ralph Rodriquez of Atari Corporation in the IEEE Computer Fair. Rodriquez showed off Atari UNIX at the event which was attended by over 20,000 people. LA Computing Magazine, with 1,500,000 subscribers contains a center dual page full color advertisement by Atari Corporation. The ad offers a Desktop Publishing bundle for $2999.00. ICD opens a Roundtable on GEnie which is hosted by Doug Wheeler. The Michelangelo virus struck around the world though it did not appear to be the data disaster that some had predicted. Intersect Software states on CompuServe that all future Atari machines and currently designed models (Mega STE and TT) will have industry standard SCSI ports. ASCI is being phased out as non-professional, according to Atari. The CompuServe Atari Forums celebrate their 10th anniversary. To celebrate the occassion, CompuServe magazine runs an article about the forums and in it Ron Luks states in response to what's ahead for Atari? "No one knows for sure, but since the days when Atari was on the cutting edge as a low-cost, high-powered graphics computer, there was a dearth of new products for several years. Now, significant products are being released. As they are available, Atari's loyal band on CompuServe will be ready." Dave Small reports the status of the MegaTalk board and states, "I'm re-testing some MegaTalk software that I'm a teensy concerned about to make sure it can ship. The boards are ready; the PAL's have been swapped. I need to polish up some documentation. We planned on having it OUT long ago ... except the PAL thing and the CMOS SCSI chip thing and this thing and that thing made its time frame interfere with the SST, and the SST had to get priority." John Townsend states on GEnie, "Atari started to offer a 1 year warranty on it's computer products in November 1, 1991. The GE Service Agreement is currently in the implementation stages. Once the program is completely up and running, we will provide our dealers and end-users with all of the information on how to use this program." D.A. Brumleve announces a major upgrade to Kidpublisher Professional, and announces Multiplay, a new math exploration, discovery and practice program. The Supreme Court declined to let the government institute a ban on material it considers "indecent" from television and radio broadcasts. Atari's warehouse personnel locate a number of Stacy Laptop computers and Atari makes them available to dealers for a limited time while supplies last. Apple announces a new Apple Macintosh LC II which integrates the color text and graphics, sound input, and optional Apple II software available on the original LC. With virtual memory and the 16MHz Motorola 68030. **--APRIL 1992--** Goodman's Music held a two-day MIDI show and sale at Hollywood's Beverly Garland Hotel. Atari's Mike Groh attended the event that included significant support for Atari computers. Gribnif Software announces that their imported graphics card "Crazy Dots" will have a reduced retail price. The new Crazy Dots 15 will do 32,768 colors or gray scales and the same resolutions. The popular and powerful point-of-sale and inventory control system for the Atari ST, Sales-Pro was updated by Hi-Tech Advisors to Version 6.10. Chris Latham, author of the Universal Item Selector and the Universal Network (marketed by A & D Software) forms a new company and announces that he will offer no further support of the earlier products. Latham's new company PowerPoint Software, releases PowerNet. Atari still remains closed mouthed about its new Falcon. Rumour has it that Atari has approached third party developers for the MS-DOS emulation add-ons. A new network for those BBS's that choose to support the Atari platform of home computers is announced. The name of this new network is AtariNet and can be accessed by any BBS that uses any Fido compatible mailer/msg tosser. Over 100 people attended GLENCON 2, a "technical conference" featuring Charles Johnson and John Eidsvoog, better known as the CodeHeads of CodeHead Technologies. The event is opened by an hour talk and question session by Atari's Bob Brodie. Four out of five questions for Bob were asking for details that Bob couldn't give--yet. WARP-9 was the other hot topic. CodeHead took over QuickST as of January 1, 1992, and has a completely re-done package that is so different, it has a new name. The balance of the conference featured an overview of line of CodeHead products, including HotWire, MaxiFile, MultiDesk Deluxe, CodeKeys, Lookit/Popit, Cherry Fonts, and the new graphics powerhouses MegaPaint, Genus, and Avant Vector. Collosal Cave gets packed onto a ROMCard for the Portfolio! Atari begins releasing several new ROMcards for the Portfolio. The first one is Portfolio Chess, The Instant Speller, and a Limited Edition "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" Card, in conjunction with release of the movie on videotape. The 1992 Atari Canadian Exposition, or ACE '92, is held and a success. Sales were brisk, and 3000-3500 people attended the convention. Also held was a talent show, dealer and developer meetings, a gala banquet and many seminars, but the "meat" of the show was the exhibitors; many dealers and developers were there. Atari's new 68030 machines were demonstrated only to developers, not to the general public. Bill Rehbock demonstrates MultiTOS. There was a setup of Lynxes, 1040STes, Mega STes, TTs and STBooks on display. There was also an "Atari museum" featuring old Atari hardware from the 2600 to the 800 to the XE Game System. Atari delays the release of their 1991 fourth quarter financial reports for several days past the March 31 deadline imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, then announced a poor quarter performance with a $4.4 million loss. Atari President Sam Tramiel said, "The company has restructured its overhead and is focusing on the improvement of its balance sheet and the development of new products." Lone Wolf introduces a line of professional stage lighting and audio control system including MicroTap (which gives communications network capability of MediaLink), MidiTap and FiberLink (for show control equipment that do not integrate MediaLink), and the Virtual Stage (software/hardware to put all serial and MIDI control in a graphic window on Atari, MAC, or PC computers. Accolade announces that a preliminary injunction which was requested by Sega went into effect. The injunction bars Accolade from further development, manufacture or sale of any Sega compatible products. Police crack a nationwide electronic network of young computer criminals who have made fraudulent credit card purchases and broken into confidential credit rating files. Gribnif Software announces the availability of Application Systems Heidelberg's Pure C in the North American Atari market. Atari and Rovac announce the merger of Z*Net Online Magazine and Atari Explorer to form Atari Explorer Online Magazine. The new online takes the place of the popular Z*Net magazine and goes to a bi-weekly format. The publisher is John Jainschigg and Ron Kovacs is the editor. **--MAY 1992--** The premier edition of Atari Explorer Online Magazine debuts. Attornies representing Atari and Nintendo present closing arguments in the landmark Atari vs. Nintendo case, which revolves around allegations that Nintendo attempted, through unfair means, to monopolize the US video games market. Sources at Atari expect a quick decision on the trial, now in its 3rd month. Tengen, subsidiary of Atari Games Corp., announce that it will be the exclusive U.S. distributor of Domark entertainment software titles for play on the Sega Genesis and Sega Game Gear video game systems. The US government lifts restrictions on high-technology exports to former Warsaw Pact countries. Atari confirms that final release to production had been granted for the Atari version of the Lynx videogame card Batman Returns. A large library of color animations of the important processes of cell and molecular biology is released for distribution by Bio-Animate Productions, of London, Ontario, Canada. Fair Dinkum announces the release of The Cryptographer, the latest addition to their line of word-puzzle and educational software. I-Köen Design announces the release of a 20-page quick reference guide for PageStream 2. Dr. T's Music Software announces a new Audio/Video production kit for the ST. The combined package includes the Omega sequencer, Hitman cue- sheet production tools, and the Phantom SMPTE synchonizer. Atari releases a new software application for the Portfolio, Hyperlist. Hyperlist provides the opportunity to create extensive lists, then attach "child" lists to each item in the "parent" list. On paper, the data flow resembles an organizational or flow chart. After the release of a single AEO issue, John Jainschigg resigns as the publisher. Bob Brodie comments in Issue #2, "This edition marks a significant change from our initial plans. Atari has long planned to bring Atari Explorer back to Sunnyvale from the east coast. We've always believed that having the staff in house would be more cost effective, as well as make access to the latest technology easier for our journalists. The time for this move has come. With the transition to the West Coast comes other changes as well. Publisher John Jainschigg has decided to stay in New York, and will put out one more issue of the print version of Atari Explorer. We had hoped to be able to convince John that California is a great place to be, but he loves New York." CodeHead Technologies announces exclusive representation in the US and Canada of Calligrapher, developed in Great Britain by Working Title. European press reports that Sack, the German developers of AT-Speed were working with Atari to develop DOS emulations as original equipment. FSMGDOS is still delayed, John Townsend reports via GEnie, "There are a number of issues that have to be settled before we can release a version of FSMGDOS to the retail channel. Atari is not "bored" with the product, we aren't waiting for applications to appear that use it, nor is FSMGDOS broken under MultiTOS. I am not at liberty to discuss the issues at hand. But, please allow me to say that we are working on solving those issues and our first concern is with regard to our customers. We want to make sure that everything is complete and in order before shipping the product." Atari Product Manager in the UK, Bob Katz, states, "The decision to produce STE-only games came from the top. Sam Tramiel, boss of Atari US, wanted to produce STE-only games in a move to increase programmers awareness of the hardware potential of the machine. Atari has acquired the rights to several major coin-op games for conversion for use on the STE only, taking full advantage of the machines custom hardware." ST Format Magazine reported that a cut-down version of FSM GDOS will be available for release in the UK in June and MultiTOS is still under development and is not likely to be available until late in 1992. Atari still insists that the Falcon030 is due for release in late autumn 1992 and MultiTOS is unlikely to be included on ROM as part of the operating system. Director of Atari Service Ted Maciejewski and Don Mandell, Vice President of US Sales and Marketing are dismissed. Art Morgan replaces Maciejewski. James Grunke, Director of International Music Markets takes over Mandell's duties. FontGDOS gets released via Atari Explorer Online Magazine. Along with FontGDOS, CPX files for use with XCONTROL, and accessories for those that prefer to use the standard .ACC files. The entire package goes out exclusively on GEnie for downloading and appear later on the other pay services. Atari dealers start receiving Ajax upgrades after a period of unavailability. Problems with the TOS 3.06 with 1.44 meg floppy disk drives and the Ajax controller have been resolved by a dealer-performed modification of the power supply and wire shielding on TT machines. Lexicor becomes a Silicon Graphics Iris independent vendor under the Iris partners program. This means that Lexicor is licensed to port it's Phase-4 software products to the Silicon graphics platform. Hybrid Arts is acquired by Audio FX, a growing high-tech conglomerate in San Jose, CA. The Hybrid Arts line of Atari hardware and software continue uninterrupted. SDS Software releases software drivers that will enable Atari ST and TT owners to use the Logitech digitizing video camera with their computers. Atari announces that Lynx systems and software sales are in line with projections to double the 1991 volume and by the end of 1992 there will be over 80 total games available. Atari announces that it will ship 24 Lynx titles during the summer season, followed by an additional crop of 15 titles for fall and winter release. Lexicor announces that MonaLisa will be their 24-bit graphics application. Prism Paint is not being upgraded into a 24-bit application because the author walked out on them and refused to finish version 1.5 of Prism Paint. 40 Falcons reach Germany and are distributed among developers. **--JUNE 1992--** GEnie's "Hot Summer Days" sale is announced. From June 15 to September 7, GEnie's prime time hourly connect charge is reduced from $18.00 per hour to $12.50 per hour. Floppyshop announces the release of "Family Roots". The program is designed around a fully functional integrated workbench which is ideal for both the serious and beginner user. FBI agents raid a Boston computer BBS suspected of illegally distributing copyright software to subscribers in 36 states and 11 foreign countries - including Iraq. No arrests were made in the raid on the Davy Jones Locker BBS in Millbury, Mass., but computers and telecomunications equipment were seized, along with financial and business records. MCI Chairman William G. McGowan dies at age 64 after suffering a heart attack. The Second Milwaukee Atari Show is held by the Milwaukee Atari ST User Group (MAST). The Blue Ridge Atari Computer Enthusiasts (BRACE) holds the Third Annual Blue Ridge Atarifest. Mike Groh of Atari is in attendance. ISD announces the winning entries in the 2nd Annual Calamus Family Creativity and Design Contest. Intersect Software is still in business and supporting the Atari. They are rewriting Interlink to take advantage of all ST/STE/TT (and Falcon?) resolutions. MIDImouse Music developes a set of four individual programs that combine tutorials and drill aides for beginning and intermediate music students. Note Wizard, Scale Master, Chord Magic, and Rhythm Time. Atari searches on for a replacement editor for Atari Explorer Magazine. Atari announces that the tentative North American debut of the Falcon030 will be at the Boston Computer Society on September 23, 1992. Darek Mihocka announces that debut of GEMulator I will debut at the Glendale Atarifest. On the subject of the Atari ST Book, John Townsend states on GEnie, "The STBook is still in the works. We should have some to sell in the near future. I think the problem has been a number of production mess-ups. I think these problems have been cleared up and we should be seeing the STBook in the very near future." FSMGDOS delays continue. John Townsend states, "Packaging isn't the hold up. The hold up has been legal problems. We are attempting to get this straightened out as soon as we can. Believe it or not, we don't develop products and just sit on them to spite anyone. We really want to sell the stuff. Unfortunately, producing products is a a process that involves a LOT of people and steps. If a delay is encountered in a step, it throws off the rest of the steps after that step. Those are just the facts." Invision Elite is announced. This program allows you to create sophisticated black and white raster images. A demo version is released with an announced release date of August 1, 1992. Atari holds a developer conference in London with over 120 developers in attendance. Attendance at the confernce was by invitation only which included staff from Atari Sunnyvale including Sam Tramiel, Bill Rehbock and John Skruch. **--JULY 1992--** This month marks the 20th anniversary of Atari and the 8th anniversary of the Tramiel ownership. Atari Advantage Magazine announces an exclusive article and interview to be published with Bill Rehbock about the new Atari Falcon computer. ST-Report Online Magazine publishes defamitory information about AtariUser Editor in Chief John Nagy and Atari Corp.. Nagy called the editor of the publication to complain and request removal of the issue from all the distribution services, later a new issue was released minus the offending comments. Nintendo and Atari announce that Atari has withdrawn its appeal of a jury verdict and judgment in favor of Nintendo in Atari's antitrust case against Nintendo. Nintendo decides it will not proceed with its request to recover certain court costs from Atari. Gribnif Software moves to new offices. The new address and telephone numbers are: P.O. Box 779, Northampton, MA 01061. Main line (including technical support): (413) 247-5620. Fax line (24 hours): (413) 247-5622 Citizen Watch announces it has developed the world's thinnest 3.5 inch floppy disk drive for use in portable computers. The disk drive will be able to handle floppy disks of 1 megabyte, 1.6 megabytes, and 2 megabytes. Lewis Galoob Toys announces that it has been awarded a $15 million judgment against Nintendo. The Mid-Indiana ST's MIST Atarifest IV is held in Indianapolis. Chicago area residents had the opportunity to play and win one of at least 45 Atari Lynx Color Portable Video Game Systems during the 1992 Taste of Chicago. Taylor Ridge Books announces the release of The GFA-BASIC Toolkit, Volume 1, which contains a wealth of programming routines for GFA-BASIC programmers, written by John Hutchinson of Fair Dinkum Technologies. SDS announces that it will be distributing an ST version of Fotoman with software. "It's All Relative" gets license for distribution and use of Photo CD software. They plan on offering a conversion service for Photo CD to ST readable format starting on or about August 1. The new Photo CD system requires a mode 2, XA, multi-session drive for full use. Bob Brodie, Atari's Director of Communications updates the status of the ST Book on GEnie. "The initial ST Books that Atari manufactured were with one meg of ram, and a forty meg hard disk. While that is a very usable unit to a lot of people, we felt that the US market would prefer a 4 meg of ram, 40 meg hard disk. So, Atari US didn't order any of those units. At present, we re-evaluating the decision NOT to include a backlit screen." Darlah Potechin begins a new feature on GEnie. "Darlah's Treat - The Free File Of The Month!" Each month the roundtable will offer a file for free download. ISD Marketing changes it's name to DMC Publishing. Atari Advantage ceases publishing operations after only three issues, as the publisher and editor have been hired to take over production of Atari's in-house magazine, Atari Explorer. Mike Lindsay and Darren Meers relocate to Sunnyvale to pilot the glossy bi-monthly Explorer after their short but well-received stint producing their own Atari magazine. Lombard Illinois offices of Atari Entertainment relocate to Sunnyvale. Home of the Lynx development team, Lombard will remain open as a programming center, but sales, marketing, and support for the Lynx and soon the Jaguar will be part of the California operation under the guidance of Bernie Stolar. Leaving Atari are Larry Seigal and Dana Plotkin, who did not wish to relocate. An August 3, 1992 issue of Forbes Magazine recounts the Atari story in a two-page article called "Cheap Didn't Sell" by Dyan Machan. The famed business/industry reporting magazine blames Atari's troubles on the Tramiel family's penny pinching. The article does mention the new line of Falcon computers and the Jaguar game console, but speculates that Atari has less than half of the cash needed to perform an appropriate roll-out of the new products. Superbase database systems were acquired by Oxxi Inc. who will offer upgrades for the popular line of software. ICD announces The Link, a new host adaptor that will enable standard ST computers to use industry standard SCSI devices, including hard drives, CD ROM drives, and flopticals designed for IBM, MAC, and Amiga. AtariUser Magazine announces a promotional price cut in their home subscription rates. New and renewal subscribers can take a $5 discount and pay just $15 for one year, 12 issues of the magazine with standard 3rd class delivery. Supra releases 2 new 9600 modems - the 9600 Supra FaxModem v.32 and the 14400 Supra FaxModem v.32bis at a retail price of $299.95 and $399.95 respectively. John Jainschigg completes the last issue of Atari Explorer under his direction. Atari completes porting UNIX to the Atari platform, but for the full power of UNIX, with a complete windowing environment, Atari prefers to wait for a 68040 based machine. Until those products are ready, they table all plans for UNIX. "Right Sizing" at Atari continues. Atari Canada evolves into a sales office, still headed up by Geoff Earle. All support services are handled out of Sunnyvale. Atari Project manager Art Pruzynski moves into a US Sales position and National Sales Manager Mike Groh leaves. Atari announces that the first public unveiling of the Falcon030 will be at the Atari Messe in Duesseldorf, Germany in late August. The GEnie ST RT receives it's 25,000th uploaded file. Atari Advantage Magazine is sold to Castle Publishing in Texas. The First Annual "Digital Quill" awards for excellence in electronic publishing are announced. Regular Computer/Technical Publication - a weekly, monthly or bi-monthly publication that has been in publication for 6 months or more relating to computers or technology. #1 Winner: "Files and Stuff" newsletter; Henry Barfoot and Lupe Tingle, Editors. #2 First Runner-up: "EFFector" (Electronic Frontier Foundation Online) newsletter, Rita M. Rouvalis, Editor. #3 Second Runner-up: "Z*Net PC" newsletter, Ron Kovacs, Editor. **--AUGUST 1992--** Atari's Director of Communications reports that he has recently had a number of complaints about a certain mail order firm based in Florida. It seems that this particular firm, which does not have authorization to purchase TT030's directly from Atari, has been taking orders AND PAYMENT of TT030s and TT030 monitors. Maxwell C.P.U., the developers of Silhouette, Fractal Fantasy, Expose and Megstenders, move east to Maryland. Maxwell CPU, 1533 Meyer's Station Rd., Odenton, MD 21113, Phone: (301)261-0637. A federal judge decides that he will not reconsider most of Apple's copyright infringement suit against Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard that he had previously thrown out. The US House gives final congressional approval to a measure that attempts to further curb "indecent" television and radio programming. Innerprise US decides to drop ST support. Microprose UK was deluged with letters from ST gamers who wanted to play Civilization on their machines, so they gave in. Civilization will be completed for the Atari. The Midwest Atari Regional Council, a coalition of Midwestern users groups, presented MARC Fest '92 in Collinsville, IL. The Connecticut AtariFest '92 is held. Atari launches it's new Falcon030 at the Dusseldorf Atari Messe with claims that the long awaited machine is not so much an evolution as a revolution-and with both journalists and dealers agreeing that for once, the enthusiasm is richly deserved. Sam Tramiel is the guest host of an online conference on GEnie and details Falcon news released at the Dusseldorf Atari Messe Show. **--SEPTEMBER 1992--** Atari's Bill Rehbock hosts two online conferences and details further information about the Falcon. Atari announces quarterly financial reports showing a net loss of 39.7 million dollars. According to Atari employees, there is at least $60 million available in cash at this time to launch the new line of computers. Migraph introduces a new full-page scanner, as well as an upgraded Touch-Up software package. Hayes and Zenith announce an amicable out-of-court settlement of the patent infringement litigation between the two-companies involving the Hayes '302 Escape Sequence Patent. InfoWorld publishes an article on Microsoft's use of "undocumented" APIs (Applications Programming Interfaces) in its applications for the Microsoft Windows operating system, raising the issue of whether or not this constituted an unfair advantage over its competitors. DragonWare Software announces that it will release SCSI EtherNet and Direct Ethernet in January 1993. Atari announces that it is now taking commercial-level developer orders for the production-level Atari Falcon030. These developer machines are shipped with 14MB of RAM and a 65MB harddisk. Gribnif Software announces the release of CardFile 4. A Personal Information Manager software for the Atari ST/TT. Synergy Resources announces the release of an updated version of GEMvelope! the envelope printer. Oregon Research announces the addition of two new programs to their line of ST software: Diamond Edge and The Ultimate Virus Killer. Double Click Software announces The Storm by Alan Page. Page was the author of Flash, a telecommunications program for the ST. Storm is said to be the next step for telecommunications software. DragonWare Software Releases PowerDOS as Freeware. San Diego ACE participates in a multi-platform Computer Fair in which nearly 10,000 attend the show. The Fall Seybold Show is held. This was one of the top industry trade shows specializing in high-end publishing. Stan Lowell, long time Z*Magazine editor and contributor to other Z*Net projects dies at age 46 of heart attack. Sam Tramiel and Bill Rehbock attend a special taping for the program PCTV in New Hampshire. John King Tarpinian, Glendale show spokesperson and organizer, announces the 1993 Glendale Show for September 18 - 19, 1993. CompuServe and Visa announce a new five-year, $72 million agreement for CompuServe to provide network services for VisaNet, the bank card association's point-of-sale (POS) authorization and settlement network used by retailers. Sony introduces the first portable, self-contained Multimedia CD-ROM Player. A 16-year-old computer hacker faces fraud charges for allegedly using his computer to break into a long-distance telephone service system and charge more than $10,000 worth of calls. The FCC issues new rules governing the telemarketing field, with the aim of cutting back on intrusive telephone solicitations. Nearly 2,500 people meet at the Southern California Atari Computer Faire, Version 6.0, (The Glendale Show). It was another major success for organizer John King Tarpinian and his HACKS user group. This show series featured the first ever Atari Corporate participation in a user group show when it began seven years ago, and with a single interruption, what has become known as "The Glendale Show" has been a top draw in every year since. Another first for Glendale is an online conference after the event with show organizers and representatives from Atari Corporation. Bob Brodie states during the conference, "We were very impressed with the upbeat mood of the crowd, and the sales that our dealers reported. Even though the attendance was a little bit down this year, the dealers reported higher sales. So we were very pleased. In addition, we had a chance to spend quite a bit of time with Jerry Pournelle. And he was impressed. All in all, a very upbeat, postitive weekend." Atari announces its new multitasking operating system, called MultiTOS in Boston. Available with the new Atari Falcon030 personal integrated media machine, the system is said to be available in November at Atari distributors around the country. Bill Rehbock states "quite soon" on the release of FSMGDOS. The July/August issue of Atari Explorer Magazine begins to appear in readers hands. The Atari Portfolio begins to appear in a number of films and television series like, "Made In America" with Whoppi Goldberg and Ted Danson, and in the TV show "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" on the FOX network. The Atari Falcon030 made its official US premier at a press conference at a Boston Computer Society meeting on September 23 1992. This was the "rollout" for the new computer that had already made sneak preview appearances at the California Glendale Show as well as at Atari Messe in Germany. As part of the diversification of Quill Publishing, the successful AtariUser Magazine has establishes its own separate office and staff. 249 North Brand Boulevard, Suite 332, Glendale, CA 91203 818-246-6277 Festival Atari de Montreal et Environs is held and was the first Atari Fest held in the Montreal area in four years. The show is attended by a little over 200 people. Although the show was relatively small, the enthusiasm and interest of the participants more than made up for the low turnout. **--OCTOBER 1992--** Atari Explorer Online Magazine goes on hiatus as editor Ron Kovacs announces the return of Z*Net Online Magazine. New editors are to take over the regular duties. Kovacs states, "There has been a lot of speculation as to why the return of Z*Net, and more recently, rumors spreading about a falling out or even something more disasterous. There is nothing further from the truth about the seperation, it was amicable, friendly and our relationship remains very strong. Our hopes are that the two online magazines enhance each other." Atari Corp continues to re-shape itself in preparation for 1993's marketing of their new products. Trimming more people and places from the expense column this fall is the announced closing of Atari's Dallas, Texas research and development labs. Forty employees and programmers working there have been offered relocated jobs at the Sunnyvale, California headquarters of Atari. It's said that a few employees who are now job shopping have a resume entry that states that their latest completed project was the Atari 68040 design. Eric Smith, the original MiNT multitasking programmer whose project is the basis for the upcoming MultiTOS, starts full-time work at Atari and Ken Badertscher accepts a position with Taligent, the IBM/Apple project consortium. Bernie Stolar resigns. Bernie's accomplishments during his 9-month stay include many game development contracts for Atari computers, management of the consolidation of the Entertainment division, and hiring of the new Atari Explorer magazine staff. Alwin Stumpf resigns as long-time head of Atari Germany. The Sheraton Reston in Virginia had another full house at this year's WAACE Atari festival attended by 1,200 to 1,400 people, down from last year's 2,000, 40 vendors still made their traditional record breaking sales. Atari sends Bill Rehbock and several Falcons to the event. Jon Clarke of Z*Net's Global News Gateway hosts worldwide real-time conference from the head office of the HongKongBank in Hong Kong. This is the first link to Hong Kong and a view of Atari dealers there. C-Lab, developers and manufacturers of Atari MIDI sequencing programs, Creator and Notator, are taken over by a new company formed by Ensoniq, the US distributors of C-Lab as well as a line of electronic hardware for the music industry. EMAGIC will maintain support and development of the Atari platform, and includes some of the same people who were C-Lab. Zubair Interfaces develops the Z-RAM/Falcon, a 4 or 16 Megabyte upgrade board for the as yet unavailable Atari Falcon030. America Online announces that more than 200,000 households are now subscribing to the company's popular consumer online services. The third annual Houston "Atari Safari" is held and is said to be a success. Nearly 200 attend along with Bob Brodie and Atari developers. **--NOVEMBER 1992--** Gribnif Software announces the release of XBoot III, a "faster, more compatible and more flexible than ever" version of their boot manager. Joppa Software announces the release of STraight FAX! Version 1.06, a maintenance upgrade from Version 1.05 which was released at the WAACE AtariFest '92 in October. Oregon Research announces that they have begun supporting the HiSoft family of products for the North American market. Dave Small announces that he is starting to go through the back log of messages, faxes and email during his absense. Small states, "Gadgets is definitely doing fine, we're not leaving Atari, and we have new things under development. The SST accelerator has been shipping since February and MegaTalk has been shipping since September, Spectre GCR 3.0 has an extensive facelift ongoing." Atari is the sponsor of MTV's Halloween Dance Party where the Atari LYNX is used in a contest that takes place about 15 minutes or so, where the winner would receive a Lynx. The first 030 machines arrive in Germany but it is only about 200. As for England they are said to have about 2000 machines before Christmas, and Germany some more, but there will be no mass sale until early '93. Dragonware Software announces that it has been unable to renew its license to manufacture PowerNet. Both PowerDOS and PowerNet have been sold by the programmer to ViewTouch Corporation. The Independent Association of Atari Developers announces the election of a new, expanded Board of Directors. Newly-elected Board members include: Nathan Potechin of ISD/DMC, Nevin Shalit of Step Ahead Software, Jim Allen of FAST Technology, Chet Walters of Wizworks!, and Dorothy Brumleve of D.A. Brumleve. Brumleve will serve as President. Commodore unveils the Amiga 1200 which incorporates Commodore's 32-bit Advanced Graphics Architecture (AGA) and comes with a 3.5-inch floppy drive, 2MB of RAM and an internal IDE interface. Atari appears at COMDEX. John Nagy comments in his review of the event, "It was Atari's most confusingly upbeat but self-distracted COMDEX showings to date. Showing dozens of Falcon030 computers in a new and spacious booth, Atari Corp again used the USA's largest trade show to try to show what third-party developers have for the platform. They did it to a fault, almost to the point of downplaying the remarkable power of the new Atari hardware itself. And like the story of the blind men around an elephant, impressions made on the fleeting passersby were likely to be unfairly singular and disjoint. Overheard while someone passed on the side of the booth where games were showing: "Huh. Atari. Just games. Oh well." Wrong. But he'll never know differently. Large quantities of empty floor space within the booth didn't help Atari make points, either." Sam Tramiel attends a conference on GEnie live from COMDEX. Sam opened the conference by stating "The important thing is to market the machine properly and we are now planning the advertising for Q1 of 1993. The (Jaguar) just finished the first two developer conferences, one in Sunnyvale, the other in London. It's going to be an awesome entertainment machine and delivery will be 2nd half of 93." IBM's OS/2 2.0 receives top honors from three PC industry publications, including two awards presented at Comdex. WordPerfect announces its first-ever television advertising campaign, premiering three 60-second commercials in support of the company's "Beyond Words" marketing campaign introduced at Comdex. Penthouse magazine launches Penthouse OnLine while Gennifer Flowers makes electronic appearances during the event. Lexicor Software announces that Phoenix, will be released in December. Phoenix will enable ST computer users to create stunning 512-color animations as well as still images. Atari announces the availability of The 1992 International Software Catalog (Item# C303288-001). On the topic of Word-Up, John Townsend states on GEnie, "I am sorry that your $140 investment was wasted on WordUp. I wish something different was going to come of it, but alas I am afraid that WordUp is probably dead at this point. But, remember, Atari didn't get one red cent of your money. All we did was purchase the source code from a company that was about to go under and attempt to save a product from going down with it. Unfortunately, the source code was in about the same state as the company. The good news is that Atari will have a program called ST Works which will have a good word processor, spreadsheet, and database in one program!" Sam Tramiel announces during his online conference that ST Sutra (the MSWorks- like multi-program nearing release) is being renamed "Concierge". Atari announces an advertising campaign and offer for the Atari Lynx Portable. For a limited time you can purchase an Atari Lynx for just $79.95. Atari Explorer Online Magazine announces the return of regular release in early December. With this being December real fresh in the minds of everyone, we will save you the re-read. We have covered 12 months from December 1992 through November 1992. See you next in the Year In Review: 1993. **--DELPHI SIGN-UP--** **--GENIE SIGN-UP--** ============================|============================ To sign up for DELPHI call | To sign up for GENIE call (with modem) 800-695-4002. | (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon connection hit return | Upon connection type HHH once or twice. At Password: | and hit return. Wait for type ZNET and hit <return>. | the U#= prompt and type in | the following: XTX99436, | GEnie and hit return. ============================|============================ **--COMPUSERVE SIGN-UP--** ------------------ To sign up for CompuServe service call (with phone) (800) 848-8199. Ask for operator #198. You will then be sent a $15.00 free membership kit. ========================================================= **--ATARINET INFORMATION--** -------------------- If you'd like further information or would like to join AtariNet-please contact one of the following via AtariNet or Fido: Bill Scull Fido 1:363/112 AtariNet 51:1/0, Dean Lodzinski Fido 1:107/633 AtariNet 51:4/0, Terry May Fido 1:209/745 AtariNet 51:2/0, Tony Castorino Fido 1:102/1102 AtariNet 51:3/0, Don Liscombe AtariNet 51:5/0, Daron Brewood Fido 2:255/402 AtariNet 51:6/0. You can also call the Z*Net News Service at (908) 968-8148 for more info. ======================================================================== Reprints from the GEnie ST Roundtable are Copyright (c)1993, Atari Corporation and the GEnie ST RT. Reprints from CompuServe's AtariArts, AtariPro, AtariVen, or Aportfolio Forums are Copyright (c)1993, CIS. ======================================================================== Reprints from AtariUser Magazine are Copyright(c)1993, Quill Publishing. All AU articles MAY NOT BE REPRINTED without the written permission of the publisher. You can subscribe and read ALL of the informative articles each and every month by contacting Quill at (818) 246-6277. For $15.00 you will receive 12 issues. Send your payment to AtariUser Magazine, 249 North Brand Boulevard, Suite 332, Glendale, California, USA, 91203. Foreign delivery is $30.00 in US funds. ======================================================================== Atari is a registered trademark of Atari Corporation. Atari Falcon030, TOS, MultiTOS, NewDesk and BLiTTER, are trademarks of Atari Corporation. All other trademarks mentioned in this publication belong to their respective owners. ======================================================================== **--** Z*NET OFFICIAL INFORMATION **--** ========================================================= Z*Net Atari Online Magazine is a weekly online publication covering the Atari and related computer community. Material published in this issue may be reprinted under the following terms only: articles must remain unedited and include the issue number and author at the top of each article reprinted. Reprint permission is granted, unless otherwise noted at the beginning of the article, to registered Atari user groups and not for profit publications. Opinions present herein are those of the individual authors and do not reflect those of the staff. This publication is not affiliated with the Atari Corporation. Z*Net, Z*Net News Service, Z*Net International, Rovac, Z*Net Atari Online and Z*Net Publishing are copyright (c)1993, Syndicate Publishing, PO Box 0059, Middlesex, NJ 08846-0059, Voice: (908) 968-2024, BBS: (908) 968-8148, (510) 373-6792. ===~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~== Z*Net Atari Online Magazine Copyright (C)1993, Syndicate Publishing - Ron Kovacs ===~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~==