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Microreview for May 1998
by Charles Good

TI-SCSI CATALOGER by Dave Connery

There are several programs that will catalog SCSI drives.  For 99/4A users this is the most useful SCSI
cataloger I have seen to date.  It appears to be written entirely in extended basic, which is surprising when
you consider that SCSI users have until recently complained about the lack of a good 99/4A cataloging
program.  This software is not limited to cataloging SCSI drives.  It apparently can catalog any device
including floppy drives, ramdisks, and maybe HFDC drives.

When you load TI-SCSI CATALOGER you are asked for a device name.  You can use DSD1 or SCSI or
WDS1 or a longer path.  If you donÆt put a period after the device name this will be done for you by the
software.  Press  <enter> and your device is cataloged on screen and optionally to a printer.  At the top of
the screen you see the kind of device you are accessing.  When I catalog a disk the display says ô90k diskö
for SSSD, ô180k diskö for DSSD, and ô360k diskö for DSDD.  My SCSI hard drive displays as ô40.2 meg
H.D.ö.  Also displayed is the volume name of the device and the number of sectors used and free.  Below
that are the file names in groups of 12.  This is a very comprehensive very informative display.

If there are more than 12 files to be cataloged the software displays the first 12, waits several seconds,
displays the next 12, waits several seconds, and displays the next 12, etc until all files have been
displayed.  The deliberate delay between pages of file names gives you plenty of time to take some action
if you want.  Possible actions are (N)ext page (immediately, rather than waiting for the delay to end),
(P)revious page,  move the cursor (U)p and (D)own the current group of 12 files, (R)emove a file,
(C)hange drive to be cataloged, e(X)it to xb, and (V)iew a directory.

The (V)iew feature is lacking in the somewhat faster Harrison SCSI cataloger.  You move the cursor to a
subdirectory name.  Such names are identified as subdirectories  in the screen display.  When the cursor
is next to a subdirectory you press V and you can then catalog that directory.  You cannot easily move up a
directory tree structure toward the root directory,  but you can move down into the tree structure
cataloging subdirectories within subdirectories.

TI-SCSI CATALOGER  is not a complete disk manager.  The software does mot make or delete
directories, format disks or hard drives, execute software, or view files.  It is most useful to 99/4A
owners who want an easy way to catalog a hard drive.  It works fine on  a Geneve in TI mode, but Geneve
users already have Clint PulleyÆs Directory Manager which is far more complete than TI-SCSI
CATALOGER.

This is fairware and comes on a SSSD disk.  The author requests a donation of a few bucks and/or a phone
call expressing appreciation for his efforts.  Send me $1 and I will mail it to you on a TI disk, or send me
an email and I will email it to you for free in either PC99 or TIFILES format.
....................
SUPER  STORM by Atari

This is a 16k Atari game cartridge for the 99/4A.  You need nothing except the console, a monitor, and
joysticks to play it.  IÆll bet you never heard of this title!  It is, in fact, a never released game specifically
written for the 99/4A by Atari back in 1983.  The title does not show up in any list of the Atari games lists
I have checked.  This means that at least the name  is different from the name of any any  Atari 2600 or
other game system cartridge.

The story of how this ônewö game cartridge is only now available to TIers is interesting.    Kyle Crichton
of Competition Computer almost literally rescued cartridges from an Atari dumpster after the company
was taken over by its present owner.  Kyle purchased, with the rights to resell, a whole bunch of
dumpstered cartridges, including many cartridges for familiar 99/4A Atari games.  A few samples of
Super Storm and another never released game called Robotron were in this batch of cartridges.   Kyle
negotiated a deal with AtariÆs owners that allows him to burn eproms for these two games and sell them
as long as one of the cartridges he purchased is consumed in the process.  Super Storm is available for
sale now and Robotron soon will  be.

Super Storm comes with no documentation.  The folks at Atari couldnÆt find any.  Despite the lack of
documentation my 17 year old son Colin and I have more or less figured out how the action goes. You
have a ship that moves around in a green sea at the bottom of the screen.  Giant drops of slime rain down
on the ship and if one hits the ship you are sunk.  The joystick moves a green wedge shaped shield which
can be permanently positioned with the fire button.  You get up to 20 of these wedges to position.  You
are supposed to position multiple wedges so that the slime drips are deflected to the left or right so that
they do not fall into the sea.  As drops fall into the sea the sea level rises and when it gets too high
everything is flooded and the game ends.   Colin, who has played a lot of computer games including most
of the TI games, says, ôSuper Storm is an average TI/Atari game compared to others like TI Invaders and
Centipede.  The game gets harder and harder as you go on.  The water raises putting you higher up on the
screen and giving you less time to aim your cannon and the bombs fall more rapidly.ö

Although I have never heard of Super Storm it turns out that Bill Gaskill has.  Bill probably knows more
about TI cartridges than anybody else.  He has researched all the old computer magazines.  Although Bill
has never seen the game he was able to send me the following very interesting information:
ôBelow you will
see an entry from the cartridge NOTES page on my Web-Site, #29, which
talks about the SLIME cartridge. I believe SLIME and SUPER STORM to be
one-in-the-same.

ô29. The only references that I have been able to locate for the Slime
cartridge appear in the June 1983 issue of the President's Letter from
the International 99/4 Users-Group on page 2 and in the August 1983
issue of Compute! magazine on page 36. The IUG article focuses on the
Summer Consumer Electronics Show and in one paragraph states; At the
Atari booth, demos were being run on soon-to-be-released titles such as
Pac-Man, Defender, Donkey Kong, Centipede, and Dig Dug. Atari Publishing
also announced that it will be bringing to market four additional titles
under a licensing agreement with Synapse. These will include Shamus,
Protector, Picnic Paranoia and Slime. The Compute! article also talks
about the Summer CES, but focuses heavily on the reorganization at
Atari, including the forming of Atari Publishing (Atarisoft) with the
announcement of that division's intention to make software titles for
competing computers, including the TI-99/4A.

ôThe original Slime program was written by Mike Hales for the Atari 800
in 1982 (source: The Giant List of Classic Game Programmers by James
Hague) and was manufactured by Synapse Software 820 Coventry Rd.
Kensington, CA 94707 [phone] (source: Antic magazine June 1982,
p.38 under "New Products"). The game's theme tells you that Plexarian
Invincibles threaten all life on Earth. These invaders hover in the sky
and drop layer after layer of SLIME into the Sargasso Sea. Their
intention is to raise the level of the oceans until all human life is
drowned. lf that happens, the SLIME-breathing Invincibles will colonize
the Earth. You must stop them with meager defenses, or mankind perishes.

ôIn the Slime game large drops of slime fall from the sky onto your
ships. If one drop hits your ship, it will sink. Use the triangular
diverters to aim the slime into buckets on the sides of the screen. If
slime falls into the ocean the level of the ocean rises. When the ocean
level reaches the top of the screen the game is over.

ôIf one reads the excellent article "Pole Position, Jungle Hunt coming",
authored by Laura Burns in the March 1984 issue of MICROpendium, on page
12 she describes the theme of a game cartridge named Super Storm that is
identical to that of Slime. This leads one to the logical assumption
that Slime was to be released as Super Storm in its TI-99/4A version. An
Atarisoft ad in the January 1984 issue of BYTE magazine on page 409
shows the Super Storm cartridge as being available for the TI-99/4A. It
does not list Slime as being a TI-99/4A product.

ôMaybe you can use some of this worthless trivia in your review? If so,
please feel free to do so.ö

Bill also sent me the text of a review of Slime published in the April 1983 issue of ANTIC Magazine.
Thanks Bill!  BillÆs internet web site is a treasure trove of interesting information about the 99/4A, one of
the two best 99/4A sites.  If you have internet access you should check it out at
http://www.gj.net/~lucky7/.

After seeing and playing with Super Storm there is no doubt in my mind that Super Storm and Slime are
the same game.    You can view a screen shot of the Atari Slime at
http://www.tiac.net/users/jgoodman/atari/s_slime.html and see that it looks very similar to  Super Storm.
Super Storm is available for $29.95 as a cartridge from Competition Computer.
...........................
ACCESS:
Charles Good (source  for TI-SCSI Cataloger)
P.O. Box 647
Venedocia OH 45894
Phone [phone]
email [e-mail]

Competition Computer (source for Super Storm)
350 Marcella Way
Millbrae CA 94030
800-471-1600 6am-3pm local time M-F