FUTURA EDITORIAL - ISSUE 2¢¢¢ Hello and welcome to the second issue of Futura; the bi-monthly newsletter of the North Of Scotland Atari User Group (NOSAUG). Once again there is a mixture of articles and programs. There are not quite as many text articles this time due to my involvement in end of term exams (AGHHHH!). Issue 3 will contain many more!¢¢ Articles within this issue include the second part of the Diamond series, Inside Atari Basic (the first of a series of articles aimed at those who are new to BASIC), Futura News (all the latest news from the Atari 8-bit community), a show report on the Atari Canadian Exposition 92 and the Futura InfoFile (with some new additions to the list!). I hope you enjoy reading them all.¢¢ There is only one program on side A but it's a real cracker! It's called Triple Crown and is without doubt the best horse racing game/simulation on the market. A classic piece of PD software. Just select TRIPLE.BAS from the menu.¢¢ Boot side B ≈Θ⌠Φ∩⌡⌠ BASIC for the menu. Here you will find Think & Work, the Atari Drum Machine, the Laser demo, Quadromania XL, Sound Monitor Professional and Jump.¢¢ Think & Work is an excellent PD puzzle game. Select 'demo' from the main menu to see what your supposed to do. There is also an editor for creating your own screens. Why not build some screens and send them to me for Futura 3 or 4. There is a file included on side 2 for saving your high scores - remember to check that your write-protect tab is off if you wish to save your scores for each level.¢¢ The Atari Drum Machine is a truly amazing piece of software from Poland. Once you have pressed a key to exit the demo you are confronted by the main menu screen. Clear the pattern and then proceed to place your own bass drums, snares, claps, etc. into the two voices at the top of the screen. Select Play Pattern to hear your creation. You can then build whole songs. NOTE: If you wish to save your drum patterns remember to use another disk!¢¢ The Laser demo is a top-quality piece of PD software from Avalon (Poland). They are also responsible for many commercial releases including Fred, Misja (Mission Shark), Robbo, Robbo II, Saper, etc. All truly classic pieces of 8-bit software! To select different tunes within this demo press the 1, 2, 3 and 4 keys. Number 2 is amazing!¢¢ Next up is Quadromania XL. This is a very addictive puzzle game in which you must change all the tiles to one colour. Select demo from the main menu for a demonstation. You can also select three colours.¢¢ The Sound Monitor Professional is another excellent piece of PD software from Germany. The Germans are releasing dozens of top quality PD programs just now. The best way of getting used to this program is to experiment. For a demo of what is possible select DISK with the < > keys and Lade (LOAD) with the left and right arrow keys. Then select SPIELEN and ALLE to play all of the loaded file. NOTE: The .SNG files are on side A! Amazing!!!¢¢ The final program on side B is a game called Jump. If you have mastered Let's Hop from Futura 1 then you will be ready for Jump.¢¢ Well, there you have it for Futura 2. Please drop me a line to let me know what you think of it or if you want to send me an article for Futura 3 or 4. The limited reaction I received for Futura 1 was very positive. I would, however, be most grateful if more people would let me know their opinions and suggestions. My address is in the InfoFile.¢¢SEE YA!¢¢Yours Atari 8-bitly,¢¢Stuart Murray,¢Futura Editor,¢North Of Scotland Atari User Group,¢July 1992.¢
